Truro College and heavy drizzle

This time to Truro College to meet the Chaplain, Ellie Shepard, her colleague Victoria  who does youth work at the Methodist Chapel in Truro. Lots of exciting possibilities re rolling out I PACKED THIS MYSELF.

It’s s very drizzly morning. Wet work picking daffodils today.

Meeting with CASH head

CASH is a great acronym  - Cornwall Association of Secondary School heads. And it was very good to meet David Barton, who heads it up, in Fraddon today.
A very to-the-point conversation about the project and the profile of schools in west Cornwall, where we'll start work with I PACKED THIS MYSELF.
The fourth morning in a row that I've driven up and down the A30 to meetings....

A day of meetings ....

A day of meetings, planning the next steps in I PACKED THIS MYSELF.
The third morning in a row that I've driven to Truro, Cornwall, first thing. Terrible traffic! Doing the commute every day must be a nightmare....
This time to a meeting with Helen Giblett, head of Archbishop Benson Primary School, to discuss possible workshops and a whole year of focus on migration at the school.  They're already thinking hard about welcoming newcomers - outsiders - people from overseas....

Then back to Camborne to meet Beata, a counsellor, in Costa. Beata is originally from Zielona Gora, which amazingly I happened to visit last summer when in the middle of World War One research.
A fascinating conversation.... all part of building a picture of what's needed and a team to roll it out.

Suitcase exhibition at Truro Cathedral

Good to mark Holocaust Memorial Day today at Truro Cathedral, Cornwall. We put parts of our suitcase exhibition on display for the first time for some years. It's still as relevant as the day we first started work....  The Guardian featured it a decade ago now.... click here

Daffodils at Paddington

Two boxes of daffodils at Paddington Station last night - a pound a bunch. One box empty - so people have been buying them.
A long way from the workers’ mini buses, the mud and caravans of west Cornwall....
Literally .... an accident at Newbury, a bus transfer from Tiverton Oarkway and a missedconnection at Plymouth mean it’s a six and a half hour journey to Camborne.
Yesterday from Sardinia to London was quicker. Great Western does its best but it’s a tricky line to run.

A model town for migrant workers

Far from the glamour of the Costa Esmeralda.... This is Fertilia on the north west coast of Sardinia, a model town built for migrant workers by Italy's Fascist government in the 1930s. The salt marshes that covered the area were drained and the town built to house immigrants from north east Italy (Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia).
It's a bleak place now, with many buildings boarded up and apparently abandoned.
But the layout of the centre remains, almost exactly as it was built. The church, the long straight streets fanning out from it and the arcade with cafes beneath leading to the sea front.
There's a monument there to migrants from Istria and Dalmatia who came to the town after World War Two.

New postcards arrive....

Always an exciting moment when picking up new materials from the printer.... and thank you to B J Press of Threemilestone for doing such a great job with our new language postcards.
We've now produced cards in
- Polish
- Lithuanian
- Portuguese
- Arabic
- Romanian
- Bulgarian.
We'll be using these across Cornwall in our workshops on migration issues....

Turning the world up-side-down

In travel no man's land (on the runway on a crowded Easyjet plane) flicking through my phone find this amazing photo essay by Chris Buck in Oprah magazine nearly three years ago now. Buck aimed to turn racial stereotypes on their head.

Daffodils in Hammersmith

Wonder if these daffodils at Hammersmith tube station this morning are from Cornwall....?
It's the height of the season. Devon and Cornwall migrant worker Police Community Support Officer Bev Faull says there around 3,000 people from overseas picking daffodils at the moment in the county.

Useful resources

Thought both these resources looked very interesting....

Atlas of migration

https://bluehub.jrc.ec.europa.eu/migration/app/atlas.html
(Source: MEMO [Minority Ethnic Matters Overview], 640, 23 Dec 2019)

"The Atlas of Migration is an online guide through complexities of data about migration and demography that will help citizens to understand the facts behind migration as well as provide the policymakers with the best evidence.
Open to the public, the interactive platform allows users to create and download profiles for the countries or territories they are interested in.
Because the data is updated every 24 hours, users can be confident that they are accessing the most up-to-date information available.
The information is made available by bringing together harmonised, validated data from 12 international sources.
The Atlas provides information on 60 different indicators related to migration, asylum, integration, demography, and development."



Schools Project on Poland
https://projectpolish.com/

"Schools Project on Poland is an educational project led by Project Polish Ltd […] a nonprofit making company, dedicated to support students and teachers across the country. The project aims to promote the heritage of past generations and the positive contribution made by Poles to the cultural, economic and social life in the United Kingdom and has the support of both the Polish Embassy in Warsaw and the British Embassy in London. 2018 marks the centenary of the state of Poland regaining its independence. Following the First World War and after spending 123 years divided amongst the three neighboring powers: Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland regained its sovereignty on 11 November 1918. We see this as an opportunity to celebrate the connections between Poland and the UK and the varied contribution of Polish people to British life." [Taken from: https://projectpolish.com/about-us/]

See also: "Mateusz Klich supports Polish School Project", https://www.leedsunited.com/news/community/26013/mateusz-klich-supports-polish-school-project.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Gathering together background material.... see that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is still doing a lot of research into issues around migratrion.
They have been specialists in this area for a long time: see that we have a blog entry ten years ago about this...

Meetings in Penzance this morning

In Penzance this morning to meet Keno, the Chilean administrator at St Mary's Church. Keno has loads of ideas about issues around migration. His own experience is intriguing. We're thinking of organising a focus group in February to bring together people like him to have thoughts to share. It would be a really valuable thing to do. It will feed into plans for the schools workshops we'll be running over the next few months.

An added to bonus to see a Christian Aid exhibition at the church on displacement.
And to bump into the tireless Andrew Yates, vicar at St Paul, who has helped us so much with I PACKED THIS MYSELF over the past decade now.

Andrew and members of the congregation were off to HSBC bank to present a petition to the manager. Christian Aid is calling on HSBC to reconsider their investment in new coal power in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. The charity says that coal-fired electricity is unlikely to reach poor and isolated communities in these countries, who would be better served by renewable energy.

Next steps - moving things forward in 2020

A New Year and new resolutions.
We'll be rolling out our project I PACKED THIS MYSELF across Cornwall this year in partnership with Inclusion Cornwall and the Diocese of Truro.
The aim: to increase understanding and break down prejudice against workers from overseas.
If you missed all the things we did at the start of this project ten years ago, here are just a few highlights:
Workshops at Camborne School
An exhibition at Penair School with a film made by migrant workers
A workshop at Helston School
Ten workshops in a day at Torpoint School
A touring suitcase exhibition
And, for an overview, please visit the Bridging Arts website.
For more information, please email info@bridging-arts.com.