Jonathan of lowwintersun is on the board of Operation Farm and currently working on a lottery-funded feasibility study for the project. The Operation Farm visioning sessions took place on 21st and 23rd January 2012 at the Park Cafe, Hyde and were attended by over 60 people.
Facilitated by Kindling Trust the sessions saw participants from the community, voluntary and public sector as well as volunteers and potential users, working together to pool ideas and articulate a vision for Operation Farm in Tameside and Glossopdale.
This work will be written up and form a key part of the Operation Farm business plan lowwintersun are co-authoring for the project.
Operation Farm feasibility work
lowwintersunis involved in the development of Operation Farm and the project is in the process of developing a plan for a community farm in the Tameside and Glossopdale area.
We are currently carrying out a feasibility study, finding out if there are people or organisations locally who might be interested in getting involved or would like to influence its development in some way.If you would like to participate in some way, please complete our short survey by following this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H56XP95
This survey will help us to find out who would like to get more involved and who might want to use the farm. It should take no more than 5-10 minutes. Our deadline for responses is Tuesday 25th October 2011. Please forward on to anyone you think might be interested. Many thanks, All at Operation Farm email: operationfarm@gmail.com
This Feasibility study is supported by the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food Scheme
Social Enterprise North West’s ‘In Business For Good’ trade fair
10am-4pm, Bolton’s Reebok Stadium on October 18th 2011
The North West’s biggest social enterprise showcase comes to Greater Manchester. Be inspired, meet new contacts, trade with other social enterprises and raising your profile
A cost effective way to come to the attention of funders and clients. Featuring keynote speakers: Peter Holbrook, Social Enterprise UK, Sarah Flood, Social Investment Business, Nick Donohoe, Big Society Bank and Claire Young from The Apprentice.
Workshops on finance, leadership, promotion and European franchising. Places cost just £49 (+VAT), exhibitors from £200 (+VAT)
social enterprise - co-operatives - social finance - inter-trading - social impact bonds - marketing - leadership - community interest companies - employment - social firms - environment - health and social care
In partnership with TogetherWorks, the social enterprise network for Greater Manchester
Information Architecture presentation for the New Internationalist
I made the trip down to Oxford last week to attend the New Internationalist’s annual meeting and make a presentation to the co-op on Information Architecture and the NI’s website.
There’s many definitions for Information Architecture, I described it to the NI as simply making their website cogent, ie ensuring it makes sense for the user, that they are able to find and extract the information they require, and that for the organisation it achieves their aims and objectives for the site (and importantly generates income).
I wont share the contents of my presentation but there was certainly a good response from the co-op members present. For me it was a really interesting topic to research and hopefully my recommendations to the New Internationalist will be of use.
We’ve got desks available at OpenSpace Co-op, if you’re running a social enterprise or involved in the creative sector come down and take a look.
Carbon Co-op founder members, taken at our inaugural meeting at Zion Arts Centre, on Saturday 11th June, 2011.
I’ve been working with fellow Single Cell Collective members Caulbearers on their new EP - More Lie Deep. In a skill exchange that will see Damien Mahoney from the band produce my new Invertor EP, I helped them create a marketing plan, a balanced project budget (not always easy in the music industry!) and helped source design skills for the record.
Graphic design and packaging came courtesy of Loz of Because Studio (Single Cell’s regular collaborator) whilst we also had the pleasure of working with the very talented illustrator Ben Tallon.
The EP will be officially launched with a gig at Islington Mill, 8-10pm, Friday 10th June 2010. Get yourself down there to pick up this hand-crafted EP, a bargain at just £5!
Carbon Co-op visits River Cottage
Carbon Co-op have been fortunate enough to have been invited to the EnergyShare day at River Cottage. on 18th May 2011. The day will be packed full of workshops and seminars from other community renewables projects, it’ll also be a great opportunity to see Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s local food project up close.
The day will give us an extra boost in our ambition to win part of the EnergyShare prize and deliver more community renewables and retro-fit work in Greater Manchester - thanks for all those who have supported us, it’s not too late to give us your vote!
Carbon Coop’s EnergyShare application
Please support the Carbon Coop’s application to EnergyShare - it just takes a few minutes!
We are very excited to announce the Carbon Coop’s submission to the innovative Energyshare programme and I am writing to ask for your support, by voting for our bid, to help us start putting co-operatively owned solar panels on our City’s roofs. The Carbon Co-op is hoping to secure support and funding (up to £100,000) through the programme. The selection process involves people registering support for their favourite projects and we are urging everyone we know to support this application.
It takes just a few minutes and you will be enabling one of Manchester’s most exciting energy initiatives to get started. Supporting our application involves a few simple steps:
2) Click on the red button: Support this Group in the top right hand corner of the Carbon Co-op graphic.
3) A white box appears, click on the blue Sign Up button and register – it takes 30 seconds to generate a password and add your email address, postcode etc.
4) You are then sent an email with a link back to the Energyshare website. Click this & it will confirm that ‘your energyshare profile has been activated, and you’re now a supporter of Manchester Carbon Co-op’.
5) You are then also free to access the great information, resources and online tools available to help you cut your own energy use.
Manchester’s Carbon Co-op has been developed with partners including URBED Co-op, Kindling Trust and lowwintersun. It is a way for people to collaborate together in a bulk purchasing co-operative in order to purchase low carbon technologies. If you like what we do and what we are planning for the year ahead, please show you support. Thank you! The Carbon Co-op team
Neither Shoreditch nor Manhattan: Black Country creative advantage book published
The publication critically examines regeneration led by ‘creative industries’ in the West Bromwich area and features contributions from artists, researchers and activists.
You can download the publication as a pdf-file here.
Publication Details: Neither Shoreditch nor Manhattan. Black Country creative advantage 120 pages, soft cover, 267×184mm, b&w Edited by Monika Vykoukal
Featuring contributions by Cody Lee Barbour, David Berridge, Thomas Bratzke, Céline Siani Djiakoua, John Dummett, Anna Francis, Neil Gray, Michelle Letowska, Manu Luksch, Heather Ring, Leo Singer, and Urban Research Collective, with an introduction by Monika Vykoukal.
Published by Multistory, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9563457-3-8
The films are also online to watch here and the audio-play can be found here.
‘BandStand - a celebration of local food and music’ took place on Sunday 10th April 2011, with around 2,000 people enjoying some great music and some lovely local food in the unexpected and most welcome warm spring sunshine.
Local sustainable food network, Operation Farm, arranged a huge range of food stalls showcasing food was sourced from the surrounding area with an emphasis on local favourites. Stalls included Halal Indian, vegan, local salads, locally sourced meat and the usual excellent offerings from the Hyde’s very own Park Cafe. A Haggle and Barter saw an amazing spring free giveaway of fresh vegetables and flowers.
Added Value event - social enterprise and public services
Project managed by lowwintersun for Wigan Recycles and SENW, Added Value took place on Tuesday 29th March 2011 at Levenshulme Inspire, Manchester.
The event, added by over 60 commissioners, managers and public service staff, explored the social enterprise model and its potential for public service delivery.
As well as panel discussions and Q&A sessions, the event included practical introductory social enterprise workshops including business planning from consultant Rachel Summerscales, asset transfer with Jeff Scales of Locality (formerly DTA and BASAC), basic accounts with Paul Cowham of Slade and Cooper and social finance with Paul Halfpenny of Wigan Recycles.
lowwintersun websitejonathan@lowwintersun.info
0782 861 7933
0161 20 999 41
lowwintersun is the consultancy of Jonathan Atkinson. Established in 2007, we specialise in developing innovative, creative, co-operative and environmental projects, delivering Third Sector marketing services and carrying out community-based research work.
Collaborative projects include Carbon Co-op, Urban Research Collective, Single Cell Collective, OpenSpace and Assemble.
Jonathan is a board member of Together Works, the social enterprise network for Greater Manchester.
Clients include New Economics Foundation, Department for Energy and Climate Change, NESTA, Co-operatives North West, URBED Co-op, and OXFAM.
Jonathan also performs music under the name Invertor and as part of Single Cell music collective.
Carbon Co-op have been fortunate enough to have been invited to the 
