Steve Sayers – Head of the Windmill Hill City Farm
“Think globally, act locally, develop personally”
What is/was your project about?
-City Farm based in Central Bristol
-Set up in 1976, we have a 4.5 acre site.
-Local residents lobbied the local council and it became designated to become a city farm.
-There is a community centre which provides facilities and services to improve local lives.
-Facilities include:
-Farmyard, farm animals
-Community gardens
-Café
-Play area
Services include
-Childcare centre
-Health and social care courses
-Mental health therapy, recovery from addiction therapy
-Referrals – free to service users
-Contacts with council, NHS.
-Heritage projects
-People Grow – for people to use who don’t have their own gardens etc
-Wide range of other courses
What issues were you addressing?
-Think globally, act locally, develop personally
-Employ 55 staff and 300 volunteers per year – employment
-Education around food , farming and the environment
-Community development
-Services for families and children
-Health and social care support for (mental health, learning difficulties, addiction recovery)
What moved you to take action?
-Response to threat – taking action to improve communities and the environment
-Similar issues still exist to when the farm was founded.
-I feel I can make a positive difference to improve peoples lives.
What are the obstacles that you had to overcome?
-Everyday issues, Day to day running
-Managing volunteers and staff
Understanding the needs of the community
What helped keep you going during hard times?
-I have always enjoyed working here
The sense of making a difference to people’s lives
Providing optimism, hope, joy, all those positive things that make life good
When did you first become interested in environmental issues?
-I have always been interested and aware
On a scale of 1-10 how happy would you say you are?
9-10
