Happy birthday Robert Owen!

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Welsh community housing pioneer Robert Owen. Check out my new blog about Owen for the Wales Co-operative Centre and come along to our special Robert Owen themed community led housing event with author and co-housing pioneer Chris Coates on Robert Owen and Maureen Jones and Simin Wadiwala on two of today’s pioneering community led housing schemes, Chapeltown Cohousing and Student Co-op Homes. Find out what other events are happening through the Robert Owen Museum here.

Local meet up Wednesday 7th April

Come along to our local community led housing meet-up on April 7th. This is for anyone living in Mid-Wales who want to get together with other people who want to create more affordable community led housing for people in their area. The event is free and you can book here.

Empty Homes network event Thursday 18th February 12pm

Come and join us for the Wales Co-operative Centre’s empty homes event on Thursday 18th February. We’ve teamed up with experts to see how groups in Wales can turn empty homes and other buildings into viable community led housing schemes. We’ll have three speakers, Q and A’s and break out rooms as usual. Our speakers this month are Sarah Williams from the Housing Department of Ceredigion County Council, Chris Laughton from the Solar Design Company and Martin Newman from Giroscope, a housing project based in Hull. Sarah will help us understand what an empty home is and how local authorities relate to them. Chris takes us through some of the technical aspects a group can expect to encounter, whilst Martin will show us what an empty homes based community led housing project looks like. Join us on February 18th at 12pm. Remember to book before 10am and check your junk folder for the zoom link if it doesn’t appear in your inbox. Book via Eventbrite here

Communities Creating Christmas

Join us on Thursday 17th December for our final network event of the year (12-1.30pm). We’ll have live music, talks on African permaculture projects and German Christmas traditions, a Cooperative Christmas quiz and digital gifts from across Wales. The network events have been a highlight in what has obviously been a very difficult year. So hope to see you there for one final get together before the year passes. Book here! Nadolig Llawen!

Five reasons why community led housing and woodland go together so well

Really enjoying re-watching our woodland community led housing network event. We had five inspiring speakers and so much good conversation. It really feels in Wales that woodland is an integral part of our culture and the connection between home and woodland is so strong, where ever you live. Was excited to learn about skills building from Ty Pren, community woodlands from Llais Y Goedwig, housing coops and woodland with Undergrowth Housing Coop, the incredible work of Wood Knowledge Wales and the thrill of willow growing from Steve Pickup. So grateful to have this many inspiring speakers at one event. Share the learning!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvG6t_7bq4c

Join us for our first ever woodland and community housing event on Thursday 29th October

Very excited to say that we have six great speakers and forty participants already booked on for our first ever woodland and community housing event. With over fifty people in the same zoom room ready to share their experience of community woodlands and housing we’re sure for some lively listening, talking and thinking. Can’t wait to share the space with you all! As with all our events it’s completely free. You just need to book via Eventbrite here and wait for the zoom link to come through. Speakers from Wood Knowledge Wales, Llais Y Goedwig, Undergrowth Housing Co-op, The Willow Bank and Ty Pren. See you there!

Register on Eventbrite

Join us for some top legal advice from community housing specialists Wrigley’s Solicitors

This week as part of our Learning Together series we’ve brought in Wrigley’s Solicitors, specialists in Community Led Housing to talk through legal structures. They will be looking at the differences between structures and the key things you need to think about when picking one. If you’re not use to legal language and the idea of setting up a legal structure it can all sound a bit daunting but all legal structures are there to make things possible and Wrigley’s are great at plain speaking and helping guide you through things step by step. Looking forward to this one very much! As with all our Communities Creating Homes webinar its free, you just have to register here. Thursday 13th August 2-3PM.

Join us tomorrow for our free Learning Together webinar on community led housing

If you’re interested in community led housing come along to this zoom webinar tomorrow to find out more. We’re specifically looking at different types of projects and the different legal models available to groups. Legal models help groups get things done, so its good to know what exists and how you can use them to create the home you want. I’ll be there with my colleagues tomorrow 2-3. Free event. Book here.

Join us for our monthly community housing meet-up Thursday July 30th

Every month at the Wales Co-operative Centre we bring people together to talk about community led housing. It’s a chance to chat to others about your project, find out what everyone else is doing, offer mutual support and hear interesting speakers. This week we have a guest speaker talking about One Planet Development and another about the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. Both are unique to Wales.

Join me today at the RSA Virtual Coffeehouse

Still time to book here. I recommend this quick three minute video from the Affordable Homes Commission and the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence.