By pupils of George Dixon International School

Funded by the Big Lottery, Spring to Life coordinated community artists to help people from the heart of Birmingham in Ladywood B1 and South West Edgbaston, to construct and paint art inspired by nature and wildlife from the locality and from a nearby allotment.  The work was exhibited at the local community centre, attracting local people to see the local talent.  Local Primary Schools were also encouraged to contribute by creating autumn displays called ‘Nature on a plate’.

Nature Exchange Tables can be found at Karis Medical Centre forecourt for people to ‘bring and share’ natural objects, excess produce, etc.

Sculpture at Ladywood Health & Community Centre

Ten 4ft x 4ft paintings by local residents and two local schools, inspired by nature, were installed beside the Tower Ballroom at Edgbaston Reservoir on Friday 28th May .  Look out for them next time you walk around the reservoir.

Spring to Life aims to ‘grow well-being’.  We believe that getting out into natural surroundings really helps us feel better. Noticing the natural beauty on our own doorsteps is so important not only for well-being but also in raising pride in our neighbourhoods.  This project aimed to help build community as well as local people’s interest in nature and the growing environment.  We think it succeeded!

Purple Flowers

Philippa ran the project and can be contacted at philippa@springtolife.org

A Playful Movement Programme for children and their parent.

Animal Gym is designed and run by Liz, an Educational Kinesiology Consultant, with lots of scope for young children & their parents to play together during the sessions. Parents are encouraged to join in the fun! Each week for 6 weeks, we focus on a different animal with related activities and games**.

The activities are adaptable, so children of any ability can join in as much or as little as they wish. It is suitable for children of 2-4 years old, but slightly younger children enjoy it too.

Animal Gym has run recently at Osborne Children’s Centre, City Road Primary School and Ladywood Children’s Centre. Please call Liz (07752 435 714) for more details.

**Frequent moving about helps children develop their brain & brain-body connections – strengthening the senses, easing relationships, calming the emotions and making learning easier. (It helps adults too!) The games & activities for the Animal Gym sessions have been carefully selected from yoga, sensory integration games, baby reflex integration activities and Educational Kinesiology movements, particularly Brain Gym®. It can be helpful for children born prematurely or with developmental delay.

We encourage community gardening projects, school vegetable gardens, allotment gardening, and even walks in the nearby countryside.

If you have a ‘green idea’ that inspires you and you need help to develop it please give us a call we’d love to see if we can help.

If you know of a demand for this course such as at your GP’s practice, library, health centre, or other organisation, and a room is available to run this course please contact us.

Following three (Big Lottery Funded) summer projects involving visits to local wildlife and allotment sites and the creation of paintings and sculptures, we are holding an exhibition of our work.  We have decided to share the opportunity to display artwork with people living in Ladywood, Central Birmingham and South West Edgbaston.

We are asking people to submit a painting, photograph, small sculpture, collage, embroidery, or arrangement inspired by nature from in and around Ladywood.

People can register by phoning 07967 119 839 and bring pieces along between 10 and 11am on Monday 26^th October (that’s the first Monday of the Half Term Week).

We have a particular challenge for Children – to produce ‘Nature On a Plate’ – a design of collected natural things from the local area displayed on a 9inch plate!

We hope to give out prizes for each category.

The event is being run by Spring To Life CIC  which aims to ‘grow well-being’ for people living in the city. Spring to Life practices a variety of therapeutic approaches.  One of our projects is Project Greenheart which helps people to get out into natural surroundings to help them feel better about their lives and themselves.  We believe noticing the natural beauty on our own doorsteps is so important not only for well-being but also for raising pride in our neighbourhoods too.

Philippa says, “It is lovely to meet with people who want to make positive changes in their lives. The Stress-Less Course teaches how stress affects us and how we can manage it to gain better well-being. Life can never be stress-free but where we learn to understand it and handle it successfully it can work for us and not against us”.