Widening Participation in the Natural Environment
The work of Sheffield Environmental Movement has been featured on the Living Streets website.
Living Streets, a UK wide environmental campaigning charity, have been working in partnership with us to ‘bridge the gap between people in the community with local decision makers’.
An interview with our CEO and founder Maxwell A. Ayamba BEM has been published in the most recent issue of Ramblers UK magazine.
In an article entitled ‘The realities of rural racism’, Maxwell outlines his expriences as a walker of colour while rambling through British rural spaces.
He states that;
“In the British rural landscape, minoritised individuals are often made to feel out of place, either overtly or subtly. I was the first Black person appointed to the Ramblers’ board in 2005 – a landmark in the organisation’s history.
As a trustee, I attended several Ramblers area council meetings. I met good Ramblers who I am still friends with. I also came across some whose behaviour I’d describe as ‘racial gaslighting’, making me feel out of place. This experience isn’t limited to the Ramblers, but applies to environmental organisations more broadly, and on walks. Sometimes we’re the butt of a ‘joke’: ‘Oh, there are too many of you out here today!’ or ‘We can’t escape from them – they’re invading our space.’
Other comments implicitly suggest we don’t belong in the countryside: ‘Are you walking for a charity event?’ or ‘Where do you come from?’ When we say ‘Sheffield’, they respond: ‘Yes, but I mean which country are you from?’ ”
You can read the rest on Maxwell’s feature interview in the Summer 2024 edition of Walk magazine which has been published on the Ramblers UK website.
Ramblers UK is charity dedicated to removing barriers so everyone can enjoy walking in green spaces, and to improving Britain’s most popular and least-known walking places.
On Friday 10th May, the African & District Caribbean Community Association (SADACCA) women’s group got an opportunity to look back in time hundreds of years to when Sheffield had a Castle!
The historic Sheffield Castle now being excavated by archeololgists, had been buried for decades by the recently demolished Castle Market buildings.
The Site has had many uses over the centuries and archeologists from Wessex Archeology were on hand to explain the dig to the SADACCA women’s group.
The SADACCA Women’s group have had a bit of history with Wessex Archeology. In 2022 SEM was awarded a Government Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF) grant. As part of this funding initiative, Wessex Archeology was invited by SEM to give a presentation of their work to the SADACCA Women’s group.
This event ignited the imaginations of the group and two years later the SADACCA women (17 of them in total) became the first community group to be taken on tour of the site led by Natasha and Ashley from Wessex Archeology.
Below are some of the comments from the women:
“When we were on top of the market we never knew what was underneath what it looked like until today so it’s a really great experience to see something like this.”
“It’s a bit emotional when you think we are actually walking where the castle used to be and all the interesting finds and history underneath us, it’s really fascinating I just hope and pray that we will still be around to see the new park”
“look what down there while we were doing our shopping we didn’t know all these things were down there, interesting, very very interesting”
“I would like to come back again to see how far they have gone”
“As teenagers we used to meet on the gallery (overlooking the market) and just spend all afternoon there.
Ashley from Wessex Archeology said;
“we really needed to engage people that have shopped here … so it’s fantastic to have you along”
The site is being excavated by Wessex Archeology and Univeristy of Sheffield. The Castle site is the centrepiece of a city centre regeneration project led by Sheffield City Council.
You can now read a report on enhancing access opportunities to rural spaces.
Working with the Kent Downs AONB unit, our CEO and founder Maxwell A. Ayamba BEM contributed to the reearch base of this report.
Commisioned by Defra the Enhancing Access Opportunities ELM Test and Trial Literature and Evidence Review and Recommendations report, addressed the concern that; ‘Barriers exist both before communities and individuals wishing to access and engage more with the environment … This Test and Trial sought to understand these barriers and provide evidence to recommend effective and practical ways to overcome them.’
You can download and read a copy of the report here.