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navvies News

Lots of news from the IWA Restoration Hub - looking forward to the online restoration conference, and looking back at the Restoring Confidence project

IWA / WRG Restoring Confidence Project: a review

WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s Restoration Hub and its activities are funded by IWA memberships, donations and grants.

In 2019 we were awarded nearly £30,000 from National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) Grant for our ‘Restoring Confidence’ Project. If you’ve received support or training from IWA in the past 18 months, funding is likely to have come from this grant, or through our capacity building grant from Historic England.

The Restoring Confidence project, funded by the Resilient Heritage Grant Programme, aimed to enhance the role of IWA’s technical support officer, permitting them the opportunity to undertake further training and provide more expert advice to restoration organisations as well as helping restart any stalled restoration projects. The grant was also secured to help the IWA Restoration Hub provide training on environmental management, heritage construction methods, good governance and legacy fundraising, and set up funding surgeries to advise restoration societies on how best to approach funders or manage their own fundraising efforts.

The Restoring Confidence Project aimed to develop five key strands of our Restoration Hub:

.Technical: Development of key members of staff to provide technical support to waterway restoration project, including support to projects which has stalled due to lack of expertise.

.Environmental: Access training in order to provide effective environmental support and advice to restoration group, with a particular focus on integration of heritage and biodiversity conservation.

.Fundraising: Developing skills of

Fundraising Officer and cover costs of offering fundraising 1-2-1.

.Upskilling: Funding to organise more training events for WRG and restoration groups.

.Resources: Creation of a new, accessible virtual Restoration Hub.

Impact on People and Numbers: The pandemic dramatically impacted our ability to deliver our original programme of events and activities, with our traditional model of overnight stays/volunteers meeting in central locations for training shut down overnight.

Mikk Bradley, our Technical Support Officer, also had to be diverted away to support groups trying to navigate through the challenges of interrupting COVID guidelines and rules. It has also meant we were unable to offer several planned bricklaying training weekends within the funding period. Despite this, and after working closely with the NHLF to rejig our programme, we managed to deliver on most of our key targets improving our ability to support restoration projects, providing workshops and training events (even though many have been through zoom) and working on strategic issues such as governance and biodiversity net gains.

.Launch of Restoration Hub TV:

Brand new youtube playlist on IWA’s main account which has received 2618 views of our 15 webinars and guidance videos.

.Creation of the Virtual Restoration

Hub: A dedicated space on IWA’s new website full of resources for restoration groups – due to launch September 2021. If you would like to be sent details of launch please email jenny.morris@waterways.org.uk

.193 queries received on the Hub

‘Hotline’: Staff Team have dealt with a diverse range of queries from waterway restoration groups – from requests to undertake Preliminary Environmental

Surveys to helping develop volunteer training programmes to technical advice on rebuilding bridges and locks.

.105 volunteers with new skills:

Restoration volunteers have developed a wide range of skills by attending courses funded through the Restoring

Confidence project – we now have more first aiders, mental health first aiders, slingers and chainsaw operators.

.Strategic thinking on Environmental Issues: We have formed the

Biodiversity Net Gains Working Group for Restoration in order to develop a plan to ensure the sector seizes the opportunities as this legislation comes in.

.Annual Restoration Conference: 153 people viewed the first ever Virtual

Annual Restoration Conference 2020, and the subsequent six Thursday lunchtime breakout session were viewed by 262 people. The 2021 conference will also be virtual but we plan to return to face-to-face events in Spring 2022.

.More conversations: In April 2021 we helped organise the first Restoration

Networking Meeting which was attended by 40 people, representing 19 groups. We have also run webinars and workshops with the Young Trustee

Movement, Heritage Lottery, external consultants on PR and several other individuals to talk about key issues affecting the sector. We have more events planned in Autumn 2021 as a legacy of this project focusing on diversity and equality for example.

IWA would like to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund for this grant. We hope to continue to be able to develop our capacity to support restoration groups going forward as well as growing our ‘panels of experts’ that offer advice to restoration groups. Jenny Morris

navvies News

Coming soon: the restoration conference and other hub events. And going soon: the last bottles of WRG Restoration Whisky. Hurry while stocks last!

Virtual Restoration Conference

Due to the success of the 2020 conference and the continued uncertainty around Covid19 we have decided to run the 2021 Annual Waterway Restoration Conference as a virtual event.

The conference, jointly organised by WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association and the Canal & River Trust, will take place on Saturday 16th October 2021 from 9.45am to 1pm.

This year the conference will look at how we, as a sector, can work in a greener way. We also have a keynote speaker from one of our main stakeholders, the Environment Agency.

Session 1: Working together: Environment Agency priorities going forward - Environment Agency, speaker to be confirmed

Session 2: Heritage & Biodiversity Conservation - Kate Jeffreys, Director at Geckoella & Historic England Researcher

Session 3: How green is our sector? John Pomfret, IWA’s Environmental Advisor

Big Green Conversation: Discussion and Q&A with our panel of experts: John Pomfret, Inland Waterways Association; Anna Tarbet, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust; David Barnes, Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Society; Kate Jeffreys, Geckoella, Darren Leftley, Canal & River Trust, Head of Water Development, Investment & Commercial; Jonathan Mosse, IWA’s Sustainable Boating Group - HVO Expert

Keeping the event online means we do not have to limit bookings so please share information about this series of virtual events to all your fellow waterway restoration volunteers and staff.

To book, see waterways.org.uk and select ‘events’ from the ‘support’ tab.

We look forward to seeing you there! Jenny Morris Restoration Hub Events

Youth engagement: IWA’s & Canal & River Trust’s Restoration Teams have been running the first ever Waterway Restoration Youth Engagement Month this August.

Young people are already making positive impacts across communities throughout the UK. “4 in 10 young people aged between 10-20 are already taking part in youth social action” so there is a huge opportunity for the waterways restoration sector to engage with young people and build stronger, more sustainable organisations. There is still a perception that young people may not have the skills, maturity or experience to get involved in all aspects of waterway restoration, however, young people have so much to offer and can bring energy, new perspectives and different experiences to your organisation. Engagement with young people does not need to be limited to practical skills on site, involving young people in decision making could bring a diversity of perspective that really benefits your organisation.

Going forward we hope this month becomes an annual fixture in everyone’s calendar but year 1 was all about providing support and advice to groups who want to reach out to younger audiences. We have therefore created a digital Youth Engagement Toolkit and series of resources for restoration groups to use. The toolkit aims to give groups the confidence and ideas to start out on their journeys of engaging young volunteers, with a particular focus on partnership working. By the time you are reading this we will have also held three youth engagement events to celebrate youth volunteering on the Lancaster Canal, Wendover Arm and Buckingham Canal as well as a halfday workshop with the Young Trustee Movement on diversifying your Board. If you’d like to download the Toolkit go to waterways.org.uk/contact-us/youthengagement-toolkit Also if you would like to get involved in running an event for the 2022 Youth En-

gagement Month please contact jenny.morris@waterways.org.uk

Diversity: Let’s make our sector more diverse – join us for a one day workshop run by the Equality Trust.

This one day workshop on Thursday 16 September (9:30am-5pm) is focused on making our sector more diverse – so if you are interested in starting the conversation then please sign up to this free workshop. The more people we have involved the better!

This session will provide an opportunity to think together about how we can work more inclusively. Participants will gain a better understanding of equality, equity, diversity and inclusion issues and discuss language, engagement, and formulate an action plan.

It will be a safe space for everyone to contribute, share their knowledge and explore any queries.

For details and to book, contact jenny.morris@waterways.org.uk.

WRG Whisky

The commemorative Restoration Islay single malt whisky produced to commemorate WRG’s 50th anniversary in 2020 is still available - but in decreasing quantities, with just 49 bottles left as we went to press.

It would make an ideal Christmas present for the discerning whisky-loving WRGie, don’t you think? And that time of year is approaching! See waterways.org.uk/support/shop/restoration-whisky-10-year-private-cask to order one while you still can.

Thank you

...to Chris Griffiths for his continued assistance with printing Navvies.

Also to Jen, Alex and Mikk at Head Office for their valuable contributions which have helped to keep this issue on track at short notice after the original plans went awry. And indeed to Alex for his contributions over the last five years (I actually more-or-less understand Biodiversity Net Gain!) - all the best for the future from the Editor and all involved in Navvies. When it’s gone, it’s gone - the remaining WRG whisky

It wouldn’t be a canal camps programme - even a short one - without cake. This one’s by Ian Johnson page 39