Hello, my love! And welcome to episode 8 of Prompted by Nature - episode 8, can you believe it!

So, this week, I’m sharing with you the conversation I had with Ian Solomon-Kawal, co-founder of the May Project Garden in 2007 alongside Randy Mayers, back in May. Ian spent his youth as a carer for his mum who suffered from mental illness. When she died he wanted to do something positive in her memory and to set an example to others facing similar social and economic hardships.

MPG work with urban communities, to address poverty, disempowerment and access to resources and influence. They provide practical, affordable and collective solutions for people to live sustainably and disengage with power structures that don't serve their interests. In their own words, MPG thrive for an alternative system and lifestyle based on nature, community, biodiversity and creativity. Despite recent formalisation, they've remained independent, informal and egalitarian in their values as well as in how they work with people and interact as a team.

Some of the topics we discussed were:

It really was an honour to speak to Ian, who serves a community in an area with which I worked as a teacher for a long time and many of his frustrations at the education system in particular echoed my own both during my time teaching in South London and now as I watch my own children move through the system (albeit the very early years). The work that Ian and the whole team at MPG does is of vital importance to our young people and I really enjoyed hearing about his commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and how he has created a safe space, something I speak of a lot, for the young people he works with to express themselves creatively and to enjoy and learn about nature, permaculture and biodiversity in an urban setting.

If you would like to find out more about MPG and their work, or to donate to them as I did - it’s really simple and you get a nice than you note from the team after, you can find them at www.mayproject.org where there are also links to their shop to purchase tracks and t-shirts, and what you can do to help them grow. To find out more about Ian and his creative work, garden workshops and opportunities to hire him as a speaker, you can go to www.3kmt.co.uk

If you’d like to get in touch with me, as always, my website is www.promptedbynature.co.uk or you can find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature And if you’d like to leave a 5-star review wherever you’re listen to this, or share it with your friends in real life, that would be an amazing way to support all of the people behind the voices on this podcast.

Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after!