Accumul8 gets featured in The Guardian!

Sometimes really good things happen with Accumul8, and getting featured in The Guardian is a fantastic achievement. The Guardian focused on the story of Accumul8 and how the students at Ravensbourne are learning and developing skills from teaching the YMCA residents about photography skills as well as developing an understanding of the project.

One of the goals when I set up Accumul8 was about creating multiple benefits and beneficiaries through collaboration, this feature by Natalie Gil of The Guardian really sums this up. Thank you, Natalie, for a great article!

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Teaching homeless people gives photography students a new perspective
When university students take on the task of teaching hostel residents to take pictures, both groups are stretched to their limits
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Sam Adesanyan, a resident at the north London YMCA, takes part in a photography workshop. Photograph: Stuart Moore

“I live with my parents in a three-bedroom house in a nice area, so compared to what these guys have been through, I’m a freakin’ princess,” says Robyn Slator, 21, a digital photography student who spent much of last year teaching homeless people to take pictures.

For fellow student Sam Goodridge, 20, one of the current teachers, it’s been eye-opening. “I come from Surrey where it’s mainly middle class white people, so it’s nice to see what the other half get up to, and make friends.”

They’re part of a project where university students have been sharing their creative skills with homeless men living in a YMCA hostel in north London. The hostel residents, who are also benefitting from the involvement of a professional photographer, say they are discovering their own creativity and developing job skills.

“Initially, I liked that it got me involved in something outside the YMCA,” says Stuart Moore (not his real name), 31, a hostel resident and workshop participant.

“But having taken part for a number for weeks now, I’ve enjoyed learning more about photography and the technical aspects of the camera itself. And it’s been good to get to know my fellow residents a little better.”

Liam Gayle, 29, another resident, says it’s encouraged him to socialise with people he otherwise might not have spoken to. “That’s not against their personalities, who they are or where they’re from… but by throwing you out of your comfort zone this helps you make new friends.”

And a third participant, Taurean Jordan, 29, adds: “I’ve learned that anyone can do anything – photography is something I never thought I’d take up.”

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The residents on a visit to Ravensbourne

Their “teachers” are students from Ravensbourne, an arts university in south-east London. For them, the project has been a huge boost to their communication, leadership and management skills.

Sanchez Palmer, 23, had never taught before, but this experience has persuaded him to go into education. Since graduating from Ravensbourne with a digital photography degree, he has got a job as a teaching assistant at a secondary school.

“I learned that it’s not always going to be as perfect as you want it to be,” says Palmer. “One week there’d be 10 people and another week there’d be two, but as long as I put all of me into it, it was fine.”

Palmer learned a lot from the residents: “Their stories affected the pictures they took. It’s weird, but you’d see pain in a picture and when you’d ask them to explain it, your eyes opened to new perspectives.” Sometimes, they’d ask to change photos into black and white to highlight emotion.

Slator, who also wants to become a teacher, says her only previous experience was with her local Brownie group. She says it was daunting at first having authority over an older, mostly male group from vastly different backgrounds.

“But once you get to know everyone, you become more comfortable. I came here on the first week with my posh voice, but that changed over the time.”

The project was organised by a social enterprise called Accumul8, founded by Marice Cumber, subject leader for enterprise and entrepreneurship at Ravensbourne, which specialises in digital media and design.

“This isn’t the easiest group of people to deal with,” says Cumber, “and education isn’t an easy ride, so it teaches you about passing on knowledge at a level that’s appropriate to your audience.”

The project’s goal was to showcase residents’ photographs at the Crouch End Festival. But to do that, they needed money. So they raised it by making and selling jams and chutneys – “preserves with a purpose” – from windfall fruit donated by the community.

The exhibition was a success, with prints selling for £45 – some multiple times – which worked wonders for the residents’ self-esteem.

“People wanted to talk to the photographers – so a group of people who’d previously been at the bottom of the pile in the community became celebrities for an evening,” says Cumber. “There was a positive vibe and more optimistic language being used.”

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North London YMCA residents at their photography exhibition in June 2014
The link with Ravensbourne is crucial in raising residents’ aspirations, says Cumber, and the hostel-dwellers who complete this year’s workshops will get a level two award in photography.

“It’s a big step up from where they are now – and visiting the college shows them that education is a possible goal to work towards,” she says.

Ravensbourne pays the student teachers and lends the necessary equipment. James Ward, subject leader for further education, says: “Ravensbourne has a broad outreach department where we look to work with hard-to-reach communities to get them to consider higher education.

“I’d hope that, in the long term, a couple of the homeless students will make it on to one of our access to HE diplomas, which act as a bridge into higher education.”

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The group sold jams and chutneys to make the money needed to exhibit residents’ photographs at the Crouch End Festival

Sean Ashley, 35, a support housing officer at the YMCA and former resident, took part in last year’s workshops, and says they set him up well for future employment. He found the jam business particularly interesting.

“It’s shown me how businesses and organisations are structured, the ins and outs of blogging, setting up businesses, licensing, which we had to deal with when selling the chutneys, and marketing. I’d never done these things before,” says Ashley.

More students should get involved with projects like this, says Slator: “At uni you gain knowledge to prepare you for the future, but it’s good to share it. And from a selfish point of view, it looks amazing on my CV that I taught people photography skills at a YMCA.”

The high point for everyone was the show they put on. “The residents had only been doing it a few months and had a whole exhibition to themselves, whereas I’ve been doing it for four years now and I’ve still had nothing,” she laughs. “They’ve overtaken me now, but I’m proud of them.”

The music studio at the hostel

The North London YMCA hostel have converted a space into a “creative hub”.  This is a self-contained flat which the residents have named The Penthouse as it’s on the top floor. In this space, creative activities take place such as drawing, cooking, baking and the Glamz beauty and make-up project.

They have also converted one room into a music studio. This became the setting for the Accumul8 workshop on music photography. This workshop had a really energetic and positively charged atmosphere, it was, as the saying goes, buzzing! Numerous residents came to play, sing, rap and perform their own work and the Accumul8 photographers recorded it all.

It is incredibly motivating to see the group’s confidence and communication levels rise, through instructing the musicians on how to pose, sharing and discussing their photos and talking about the experience. Even more so, as a journalist from a national paper was there to interview them, but more about that when it gets published…..

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Photography week three.

A quick update on the progress of the Accumul8 photography workshops. The approach we are taking is learning through doing, everything is practice based with experimentation as the central core of the Accumul8 participants’ personal development process. In this way, they learn in a supported environment, about risk, confidence, self-belief, managing their own expectations, failure and success. All soft skills that may seem natural to some of us, but for some they need to understand these and adopt these life skills at a later stage in life.

After three weeks, the participants now know all about shutter speed, depth of field and apertures, and they have created their own blogs as a place to upload their photos. They have taken portraits and still life photographs and have produced some really brilliant and creatively rich images.

Yesterday TJ, one if the hostel residents and an Accumul8 participant, said to me, “the only thing that is keeping me going at the moment is my birthday celebration next week and these photography classes”

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The Prime Minister and Accumul8

A couple of weeks ago my mobile phone rang with the caller as “No Caller ID”, you sort of guess that it is going to be a sales call, but I made a decision to answer anyway. The caller said it was The Cabinet Office, yeah, right.

But it was, and they were calling me to tell me that my work for Accumul8 had been recognised as a “Point of Light” (the Prime Minister’s award for people that are doing good things in their community, for charity or social good). I had to keep the award quiet until 5th February when the official announcement would be made via Twitter – everything is so modern these days. And so I did, but let me tell you, the whole thing was mightily embarrassing for me, but great for Accumul8 to be acknowledged in such a way. Indeed February 5th 2015 was a very good day for Accumul8.

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photo (12) The letter from the Prime Minister congratulating me for setting up Accumul8 and the work it has done for the young, homeless people living at the North London YMCA Hostel.

 

The start of a new season

We have now started the Accumul8 season of photography workshops at the North London YMCA hostel, which will end with an exhibition of the hostel residents’ photographs at the Crouch End Festival in June.

Digital photography is a really effective creative medium to engage and inspire the residents. It allows them to explore and use their creativity, in a very non-judgmental way, but more importantly, puts them in charge and by doing so, increases their confidence, communication skills and sense of well-being. Also digital photography is instant and an activity that everyone can participate in, experiment with and enjoy.

This year, we are again working with Ravensbourne, the college that I work at, who have partnered with Accumul8 – thank you James and Lucy. The students on the access course will be assisting the photographer, Othello deSouza Hartley, who is leading the tuition for the sessions. What is special this year is that the residents will receive a university certificate in digital media (level 2) at the end of the project. This is going to be something very significant, as the residents have often not only suffered from destructive pasts that has triggered their homelessness, but also from poor and fragmented education which has hampered their abilities to progress into employment or other training. Hopefully, the Accumul8 project can inspire them to reconnect with education, relish their achievements and help them on their journey to a better future.

The photo shows Sylwia, an access student at Ravensbourne, helping TJ, a resident at the YMCA hostel, to understand about composition and framing an image.

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Also, this week we are super proud to launch the Accumul8 Community Jam page on our website. This is a page where the community can participate and donate to the Accumul8 project by donating a preserves recipe. (Accumul8 and the residents make and sell preserves with surplus fruit to help pay for the Accumul8 creative workshops at the hostel). The aim of the Accumul8 Community Jam page is to help build awareness of Accumul8 and the work it does and hopefully, inspires a new audience to learn about sustainability, creativity, homelessness and the community.

We are even more proud that so many celebrity chefs and food writers have donated their preserves recipes to Accumul8. Talented, creative figures such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Mark Hix, Dan Doherty, Matthew Fort, Marjorie Paulson, Thane Prince, Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, Pam Corbin, Sarah Randell, Valentine Warner, Olia Hercules, Ghillie James, Vivien Lloyd. Many thanks to all of them. Please donate your preserve recipe too and be part of Accumul8’s work to help the homeless get a better future.

Selling at a Christmas Craft Market

This Saturday, 6th December, we will be selling the full collection of the Accumul8 Preserves With A Purpose at The Crouch End Festival Christmas Craft Fair. It is the big craft fair for us, as it links directly to The Crouch End Festival, where I am a co-director, the local area and community and the bounty of creatives that live in this area – which are the foundations of Accumul8 and how it came about. It also is the craft fair that Accumul8 has been working towards as it is the major fundraising event for the Accumul8 exhibition in June (at The Crouch End Festival) and the Accumul8 creative workshops leading up to this.

So, hopefully, it will be extremely busy, with lots of people purchasing our preserves and a bounty of festive spirit bubbling enthusiastically from every crevice in the Hornsey Town Hall Square. Hope to see you there!

Merry christmas and happy new year. A poster on the christmas theme for your… Enjoy

People, plans and preserves.

Starting on the Accumul8 journey was a bit like most things I have done, just jump in and somehow you will learn to swim. Sometimes, impulse actions pay off, sometimes I pay for a long time afterwards.

Planning Accumul8 was a bit like the first “life” option and it has actually got to the stage it has through alot of support, help and generosity from people that believed in what I was trying to do and wanted to help – friends, colleagues, the Crouch End and wider community and family. This help stretched from my kids to the director of the college where I work. It wouldn’t and couldn’t of happened without them.

What is lovely is when people who I don’t know also want to give to Accumul8. And so now, this brings me to the lovely new Accumul8 labels which have been designed by the amazing Design Bridge folk who gave Accumul8 all of their time, brilliant creativity and expertise for free. These people have really changed the Accumul8 Preserves with a Purpose into a truly professional product that is as much at home at the local craft fair as it is on a Waitrose shelf.

So, here, – big drum roll, are the wonderful new Accumul8 jars of Preserves with a Purpose, and I can honestly say that I am bursting with pride. Thankyou Design Bridge for being so generous, wise and giving, – you have really made a huge difference to a little project in North London tasked with changing vulnerable people’s lives, and we truly love you for it xx

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Our newly designed labels on the world famous Accumul8 Apple, Rose Water and Cardamom jam

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Solomon, a resident at the North London YMCA hostel, being proud

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The amazing Design Bridge Team (plus their new creative director Shaun (aka Accumul8 / YMCA link person)

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Our new best friends, Design Bridge

The word of the week is …. BIG!

We like big at Accumul8. We always have big plans on how to make things better for the residents at the North London YMCA Hostel and how to improve their lives through creative activities. What we like even more is when other people think big and help us to reach our goals!

So, on the theme of big… we have recently received a big order from Social Enterprise UK for their awards evening. Yes, 255 lovely jars of Accumul8  jams and chutneys have been requested. It’s our biggest order to date and will be keeping us busy for the next few weeks, that’s for certain. Thankyou lovely SEUK!

If you want a big, tasty sandwich for your lunch and want to support Accumu8, then, The Haberdashery are now doing an Accumul8 ham, cheese and chutney sandwich. They are using our lovely Morrocan Apple and Date Chutney and are also selling jars of the stuff at their cafe on Middle Lane, N8. We are really grateful for their support, as this sort of collaboration between retailers and Accumul8 helps us to spread our message, work with the community and give people a taste of the loveliness of the Accumul8 preserves.

And finally, we have some very big news, with a very big company re-designing the Accumul8 labels and logo, in industry terms it’s called a re-brand. It’s still a bit hush hush, but don’t worry, once we get the official go-ahead we will make sure everyone knows of our next bit of BIG NEWS!!

See you at two upcoming events, Apple Day at Hornsey Vale Community Centre, Mayfield Road, N8 on 18th December from 2 – 5pm and then at the VERY BIG Crouch End Festival Craft Fair on 6th December outside Hornsey Town Hall, Crouch End Broadway.

And to end on here is a video of the fab Accumul8 photography exhibition. Accumul8 is all about giving people chances and new experiences in life. This video was made by a first year student at Ravensbourne – it was a new experience for him too!

 

 

The season begins

So, after a summer break, it’s back to the Accumul8 jam and chutney production line. What’s even better this time round is we were successful in our crowdfunding activities via We Are Yimby and Harris and Hoole. We secured a whopping £800 in donations to help us on our way. Thank you to everyone who donated, it was very humbling to see how many people wanted to support Accumul8. The money raised meant that we could buy a lovely new kitchen equipment and new jam jars for this year’s batch of produce.

Here are Sofia and Sam proudly modelling one of the newly purchased aprons while peeling and chopping the apples donated by the community. And very fetching they look too!

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The lovely people at We are Yimby even wrote Accumul8 a postcard as they also had reached one of their goals (slightly more than ours, but never mind….)

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Accumul8’s selling season will soon be in full swing with the lead up to the festive season and our aim is to double production and sales from last year. We have already started and may even have some good news to share in the not too distant future…..Meanwhile if you have apple trees and can spare any fruit then please do let us know as we need every piece going! And if you like drinking wine, then please support us via Bottle Apostle in Crouch End.

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The Accumul8 wines on sale at Bottle Apostle. Every time one is bought, money goes to Accumul8.

And here is a lovely smiling face to end this blog piece on.

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Time to reflect and time to plan

The Accumul8 exhibition opened this year’s Crouch End Festival. The exhibition had visits from schools, project funders, the mayor, local MP’s and councillors and also, most importantly, from people  that have supported the project over the past nine months, from set-up to delivery. The Accumul8 exhibition has been such a success that the dates are being extended and the exhibition will now continue until 6th July.

The exhibition looks professional, with 60 images taken by the residents over the duration of the photography workshops. All the images are framed and numbered and all convey a story of how a group of particular people see their world. What’s even more brilliant is that we have sold quite a few of the photographs. All the money will go to continuing the project and developing it further so that it constantly adds value to the residents’ lives.

And value is a key word. The Accumul8 exhibition is an endorsement of the value of young people, what they can achieve if they are valued and what and who we value in our society and community. Through the Accumul8 opportunity, these young, homeless people were given a voice – a voice that people wanted to listen to and learn from. They were given an opportunity to express themselves and work towards a shared goal, and they had become valued participants of a project that had a direction for them and valued them.

The outcome of this process was an exhibition of their photographs, with people wanting to talk to and engage with them. A disenfranchised group of vulnerable adults had now become the positive, celebrated centre of attention. They were now photographers with work in an exhibition, work that was being admired and that people wanted to purchase and wanted to talk to them about and find out more about them. A very different sensation to feeling “outside”, worthless, rejected and excluded from society and what it had to offer.

This, for me, was the biggest achievement of Accumul8 so far. Seeing and witnessing that transformation in people, their new experiences of pride and joy in themselves and their work and their newly found sense of self – value through being valued by others. It doesn’t take much to make that difference, but that difference makes such a difference and has made such an impact to their lives.