Samantha Lewis
Community grower, facilitator, Horticulturist
Camden, London, England |
Pronouns: she/her
-
Samantha’s passion for the environment and social justice as well as a professional qualification as a community organiser, has led to various environmental roles including teaching horticultural community groups. This has mostly been socially excluded groups e.g. homeless projects with the complexities of drug and alcohol dependency, children in deprived areas reclaiming land for local food growing, temporary accommodation residents, mental health charities and older people living alone.
Samantha has facilitated a weekly community group call Growing gardeners: an after school club for 8-11 year olds which includes outdoor fun and learning about food growing and ecology. She also runs an inclusive gardening session where anyone can just turn up and feel welcome, help with seasonal tasks or just be in a non-judgmental, safe environment. This includes an elderly garden group that is mostly women who have outlived their partners and enjoy coming together to chat and reminisce, where they do table tasks that accommodates there disabilities. Samantha has created a community model for Earthwatch on the Tiny Forest programme which entailed travelling around the country linking community groups, as well as doing data collection events to produce a sustainable community project. This also included community engagement and developmnent pop-ups on various sites including the Baltic Centre in Newcastle, country parks, shopping centres, libraries, community centres and leisure centres.
-
Facilitator, community organiser, creative artist, network weaver
-