Digital Photography Workshops

Embrace Social Enterprises Ltd is now running a range of practical and personnel development workshops. Including one day photography nature workshops.

Embrace Social Enterprises Ltd photograph workshop website page:


http://embraceworkshops.wordpress.com/photography-workshops/

Embrace Environment Promotional Film

Project activity poll and photography workshop survey

Please click on below link and take our survey so we can find out if and what photography training your interested in

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/6E5C051033B0517C/




Plus please take our poll to find out what future project activties people want

New Embrace Environmental Project

New Embrace Environmental Project : Embrace Woodlands!

This one year Heritage Lottery funded, Embrace Cooperation Ltd project (starting September 2009) is run in partnership with Trust for Urban Ecology (TRUE).

Heritage Lottery Fund Website: http://www.hlf.org.uk/english

Embrace Cooperation Ltd Website: http://www.myembrace.org

Embrace Environment Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/embrace.environment

Embrace Environment Blog:
http://embraceenvironment.wordpress.com/

TRUE Website: http://www.urbanecology.org.uk/index.html

The project will focus on traditional woodland crafts, environmental conservation, increase awareness of, and encourage participants to maintain and preserve the Dulwich Upper Wood (London) nature reserve site for future generations. These traditional woodland crafts have been developed over many years and the local native wildlife has also adapted slowly over time. As the wildlife benefits from these practical crafts they have become part of the site management.

The following woodland crafts and environmental conservation techniques will be covered by the project:

• Wildlife Surveys / Walks
• Small Tree Felling / Coppicing
• Hedge Laying
• Dead Hedge Creation And Maintenance
• Traditional Wooden Fencing
• Glade Maintenance
• Wildlife Pond Maintenance
• Making Bird And Bat Boxes

All these techniques are traditional, sometimes ancient methods of conservation and it aims to encourage wildlife and native plants to thrive.

Project Video

A project video will be created with oral history video interviews being organised. The interviews will be about woodland conservation techniques and the site history. With wildlife experts and local community members being interviewed by project volunteers. Also project practical conservation events will be videoed to show the techniques involved in management of the site and woodland crafts.

Site History

The present day shape and composition of Dulwich Upper Wood can be traced back to the Great North Wood (12th to 15th century) and the rapid land use changes in the Crystal Palace area since the mid 1800s. Within the wood lies two old woodland boundaries – a line of ancient coppiced and pollarded trees and a ditch – marking subdivisions of the Great North Wood.
In 1981 the Dulwich Society, together with the GLC and the London Borough of Southwark arranged for the Trust for Urban Ecology (then the Ecological Parks Trust) to manage the wood as a nature park. Since 1988 a number of improvements have been made to the site to enhance wildlife value, improve educational facilities and disabled access.

Site Wildlife

The site has stag beetles which is a globally threatened species, protected under the Wildlife and CountrysideAct 1981 (as amended), and listed as a priority species in the London Biodiversity Action Plan.The site has a small fragment of ancient oak woodland, surrounded by secondary woodland of oak, sycamore, lime and ash with a good variety of other trees and shrubs. Ground flora in the ancient part includes wood anemone, bluebell and yellow pimpernel. A good selection of breeding birds are present, and some interesting migrants have also been recorded. Fungi are particularly well recorded, with over 250 species noted.

Volunteering

There is lots of opportunities for volunteers on this project including:

• Learning practical environmental conservation
• Wildlife surveying
• Help run wildlife walks
• Graphic design for project flyers / event posters
• Administration
• Project blog design / updates
• Project Myspace / Facebook / other social networks design & updates
• Video film making
• Video film editing
• Photography
• Help developing new projects

Local community groups & schools

We would like to work closely with local community groups and schools, including developing tailor made events / sessions for community group members & school students.

Confirmed public project events

All these free events will be run in Dulwich Upper Wood by Embrace Cooperation Ltd and Trust for Urban Ecology (TRUE) staff. Tools, health & safety equipment & refreshments will be provided and all these events will start at the on site portakabin. More public events will be organised throughout this 1 year project.

October 2009

10:30am to 3:30pm Thursday 29^th Practical conservation event – Pond Maintenance

November 2009

12:30pm to 3:30pm Monday 2^nd Nature walk / Survey – Fungi Foray run by Jim Murphy

10:30am to 3:30pm Wednesday 11^th Practical conservation event – glade creation

10:30am to 3:30pm Thursday 19^th Practical conservation event – Shrub clearance / dead hedge creation

10:30am to 3:30pm Wednesday 25^th Practical conservation event – Hedge laying

For more information about this project and to find out how to become involved in this project

Phone: 0208 72749450

or email: john.c@myembrace.org

Natural History of Streatham Common project booklet "Embrace Your Environment"

Embrace Cooperation Ltd booklet about the nature & history of Streatham Common from their highly successful Natural History of Streatham Common project is now online to download & view. The booklet is in two pdf files with the main content pages on one pdf file and cover page, project description page & acknowledgements page is in other booklet pdf file


Download Project Booklet:
http://embraceenvironment.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/embrace-your-environment.pdf

Project oral history video 'Green Spaces'

Project oral history film Green Spaces Part 1






Project history film Green Spaces Part 2

Project Final multimedia Exhibition

Project Final multimedia Exhibition

Embrace Cooperation Ltd are holding a free multimedia exhibition to show work done and successes of their Heritage Lottery funded youth project (Natural history exploration of Streatham common). This free exhibition will be on 4pm to 7:30pm Friday 5th June at 3 St Cloud Rd, West Norwood.

The Exhibition will show the achievements of this project, which aimed to raise awareness of the environmental importance of the Streatham Common. Through organising nature activities, researching the common’s history and working with local community groups. The exhibition will showcase videos, photographs, celebrate the natural heritage site and the hard work of our volunteers. Refreshments will be provided and everyone is invited to come along and find out more about this exciting project and it’s achievements.

A booklet and website (which include facts on flora and fauna, and the recreational history of the site) is also being produced. Schools, tourists, & visitors will be able to use this resource for educational visits to the site


To get involved in future projects or find out more information about this project: Phone 02072749450 / 07984662996, check the project’s myspace web page www.myspace.com/streathamcommon or Email john.embrace@gmail.com.

Wildflower Walk a great success

18 people attended the ID plant ID walk on Streatham Common run by Dominic Price from Plantlife International for Embrace Cooperation Ltd. It was a lovely sunny day and there was great feedback form people who attended.

If you wish to be place on a list to be informed of future Embrace nature & environmental conservation events phone 02086701221 or email john.embrace@gmail.com

Poster for wildflower ID walk

Project at local festivals and University volunteer fairs

The project ran information stalls at local festivals including one on Streatham Common during the Streatham festival.

The project also ran information stalls at University volunteer fairs to attract their students to part.

Pratical environmental conservation event on common

The project organised a successful free practical environmental conservation event in October 2008. The event was run by BTCV Clif Osbourne and tools were provided by Lambeth Council Rangers, who also took part and helped organised the event. The day was well attended by almost 20 participants, who all received certificates for taking part.

Participants were shown how to identify trees, prune trees / shrubs, fell small trees, create wildlife habitat piles and how to use/carry tools correctly. The young adults taking part also videoed and took digital photographs during the event with tips from Embrace's professional media staff. Also a team building exercise was also undertaken by some of the young people where they had to make a piece of rope into a square shape while blind folded.

Picnics on Streatham Common

The project has organised picnics on the common for young adults from other Embrace Cooperation Ltd projects.

Events organised for local schools

The project has run various events for local schools including wildflower surveys, insect surveys and wildlife pond design sessions both on the common and at schools.

The project has had over 100 secondary school pupils take part in the project sessions. New environmental projects are being developed with local schools and their pupils are taking a active part in the development of the projects.

Embrace Cooperation Ltd would welcome to hear from other schools who would be interested in developing new projects with us.

Wildlife Id and photography walks

The project has run 5 nature walks on Streatham Common with over 100 people taking part in the walks.

We have run 2 walks on how to identify birds with local bird expert Peter Newmark running the walks for us.

2 walks on how to identify trees with Lambeth Council Parks Projects Officer (Communities & Education) Dr Iain Boulton running the walks.

Plus a walk on how to take digital photos of wild flowers, trees and the common.

We are also going to run a wild flower ID walk on Streatham common 11:30am Thursday 21st May 2009. Starting at the rookery cafe on Streatham common, which will be run by Dominic Price Species Recovery Officer for Charity Plantlife International. The walk will be a introduction to the plants of the common, with a chance to use ID guides to familiarise oneself with some of the more interesting species. We will have a gentle walk around the common looking at the native plants and learning how to identify them. Everyone is welcome to come along and take part.