GIY

RTÉ's Today Show have teamed up with Energia and GIY again this year to search for and reward one exceptional community.

We are very excited that the Energia Get Ireland Growing fund will include an additional €5,000 for one very special community again this year. The Today Show audience will hand-pick one community group for this amazing prize through a public vote.

When applying for the Today Show fund of €5,000 on www.giy.ie, and you choose The Today Show option an additional field will appear where you can copy and paste your video link into. The requirement is that you upload a 2-minute-long video. Nothing much longer than the 2 minutes.

To be in with a chance of winning this award we need you to tell us what makes your community and your project so special? Have you had to fight tooth and nail to get a bit of space from your council? Have you got a dedicated group of volunteers who show up in all-weather to dig in? Have you got a fabulous group of service users who are working hard to improve their lot?

Whatever it is that makes your community growing project deserving of €5000 cash boost from Energia Get Ireland Growing, just let us know everything by filling in the application form and submitting a 2-minute video. Please read the steps below carefully:

Upload the video to your community groups Facebook or Twitter account. You can be as creative as you like in your video as long as it describes your project, who you are, what you do and who benefits from it. Tell us what this grant would mean to your community.

You must make sure to tag Energia Get Ireland Growing, @EnergiaGIG on Facebook & Twitter. You must tag RTE's Today show too, @RTEToday on Facebook & Twitter. Use the hashtag #GetIrelandGrowing in the description of your video.

Your project must meet all the criteria for Energia Get Ireland Growing so please read it all before submitting your application.

Something for you all for the month ahead. Please do let us know your own growing tips and tricks. It's always great to hear people stories on growing. Some pictures too would be great.

Hello to all your great GIYer again,

Don't forget that we have our Energia Get Ireland Growing applications still open and anyone with any kind of growing project, no matter what stage it's at, can apply! If your just starting out or if your group has been growing for the past 10 years, you can all apply! Just check out the link below.

Check it out... everything you will need to know for December:

We have our Christmas Cottage Market in GROW HQ in Waterford this Sunday the 9th of Dec. We would love to see you all there. We are looking for growers that might like to sell some of their produce?

Get in touch if you would like to have a stall for the day and the stall is free!

Ring me on 0864102817. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best of luck to all applicants, we will be in touch by the end of February so keep an eye on your emails and @EnergiaGIG on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram #GetIrelandGrowing

Before you apply for funding from Energia Get Ireland Growing, make sure you’ve done all your homework.
Read the application criteria, learn all about the fund, and have a good nosy at last year’s winners. Once you’ve done all that it’s time to apply. Best of luck to all applicants, we will be in touch by the end of February so keep an eye on your emails and @EnergiaGIG on Facebook, twitter and Instagram.

Applications now open!!

Application forms will open this week, the 22nd of November for our 2018/2019 funding!

GIY and Ireland’s greenest energy provider, Energia, have teamed up once again to give 86 Communities a proper boost with a fund of €75,000 for 2018/2019.

The fund will be split across three categories – Sow, Grow and Harvest with awards ranging from €500 to €2,000. But this year one amazing community will receive €5,000 for their initiative from The Today Show!

Together GIY and Energia will award the grants to at least 86 community food growing groups up and down the country. We are so looking forward to boosting community food growing in such a meaningful way.

Last year we had over 700 applications for the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund. Reading the applications we were amazed by the amount of groups, all over the country who are doing great work in so many locations. You can see more about some of the successful groups here, but these are really just the tip of the iceberg.

Applications from Men’s Sheds, hospitals, schools, creches, mental health facilities, rehab centres, GIY groups, community centres, allotments, residents’ associations and so many more poured in to us. Some groups had never so much as sown a seed, others were hoping to add a polytunnel to their productive garden. Some used the funding to set up beehives or build a pond, others just needed shovels and compost. The diversity of the groups, but their common goal, to grow food, is what makes this initiative so special.

Community food growing has always been at the heart of GIY. Over the years GIY has offered practical advice and moral support, but to do great community work requires resources. Mugs of tea can only fuel so much. Clearing space for an inner-city community garden, putting a polytunnel on a school roof or creating a pond at an allotment needs more than moral support. As resourceful as community groups are, nothing beats a cheque in the door. And a cheque that comes with the message “you can do this, we support you” is ten times better.

#GetIrelandGrowing

Calling all Dublin GIYers -

Dublin City Public Participation Network is looking for environmental groups to join them. They have a couple of Community Garden groups already involved, and there is plenty of room for more to join. By being a part of this network, groups can add their voice to lobby for policy change at local level.

A member of the Dublin City PPN contacted us about this countrywide initiative to build a network of community, social inclusion and environmental groups who work within a local authority area. The focus of the PPN is to empower and assist groups to participate in local decision making. Every county has a PPN so if your interested then you can enquire and see what’s happening in your area.

Hello GIYer - here is the update you have all been looking for. Please let your GIY Group leader know that they need to click 'agree' for you to remain as an official GIY Group. Please contact us if you have any questions at all about any of it.

Thank you.

At our GROW HQ Kid's camps, children learn to grow in our veg garden and then cook up the harvest in a seasonal cookery demo. They could make tasty soups, savoury scones, veggie pizza and so much more. Each day they will eat delicious, seasonal food that they've harvested and cooked themselves.

For our special Halloween camp we offer 4 days (Tue to Fri) of spine chilling fun, creativity and connection to food and nature, with spooky arts & crafts, pumpkin carving, harvesting, cooking, growing and yoga. You can be sure they have an unforgettable experience in a safe, healthy environment with plenty of fresh air and great food. Our camps are always fun, educational and tasty with lots of goodies to take home.

Suitable for children aged 6-12. Bring appropriate footwear and clothing, it might get messy! Call us with any questions on 051 584422.

Tue 30th October - Friday 2nd November, 9am to 1pm daily.

Hi everyone!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Get Together at GROW HQ last weekend!
If you couldn't make it or really want to find out more about what we talked about here are the slides

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15Wf9g_mgAAIHBswbBvE5M8GSv88LPesOZZ_zC3JFEpk/edit?usp=sharing

And.. applications for The Cottage Market are now open!
Find all the info here:
http://thecottagemarket.ie/set-up-a-cottage-market/

If you don't know already The Cottage Market is Karen's awesome approach to bringing local food , produce and people back together. People will set up local markets where (local) producers, your gran who makes jam and the guy next door who carves spoons and the lady down the road who grows beautiful fruit and veg can sell their produce! And the whole community can come together to grow and chat over a cup of tea.

Thanks to the Ireland Funds and Ulster Bank we can support the set up/re-launch of 20 Cottage Markets around Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2017!

We would also really appreciate it if those of you who came to The Get Together could fill out our very short feedback form so we know what you enjoyed/found useful and what we can so to improve next time.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cb_V1mr_CQ8LnVkY5bfSYDoTiTpH-cUeLxJC45yc7-E/viewform?edit_requested=true

We have also created a easy form for you to use to tell us the awesome things your group has been up to. We want to celebrate them, and shout about them far and wide to get you the recognition you deserve and hopefully some more members!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/124_1SxpGLUFknj5RyXOee5ZI7nlWUeKChhS9mwYYNGQ/viewform?edit_requested=true

Also if you'd like to join the Facebook Champions Chat we'd be delighted to have you!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/663715233727117/

Thanks GIYers!
All the lovage!
Elaine (GIY Community)