Global Generation

Founded in 2004, Global Generation is an educational charity, which works together with local children and young people, businesses, residents and families in Camden, Islington and Southwark to create healthy, integrated and environmentally responsible communities. Our work connects people of all ages to nature in the middle of the city. We focus on the development of the whole person, providing practical experiences and support for children and young people to become catalysts for change in their communities. We integrate values-based reflective learning into practical sessions through a wide range of educational programmes, enabling people to grow themselves, grow relationships and grow a new vision for the future. The moveable Skip Garden was created in 2009 and has been Global Generation’s ‘mothership’. It is the largest of the 26 community and commercial gardens that we have co-created with local businesses, restaurants, schools and young people in and around the King’s Cross Development site. Growing fruit and vegetables alongside our thriving educational cafe where we served nutritious and seasonal food has been a way for us to engage people across ages, backgrounds and abilities and to nurture a close-knit and collaborative community, which cares about its environment - and about the planet as a whole. To date we have worked with over 4,500 local children, young people and their families in Camden and Islington, providing over 30,000 hands-on and reflective opportunities, designed to empower them to transform their own lives, their communities and their environment with an interconnected, nature-oriented worldview. We are also working in collaboration with children, young people, families, schools, community groups and businesses in Canada Water, where we are helping to involve the local community in co-creating the public realm of this new development. Our Approach We use land-based activities and the metaphors of ecological and cosmic processes to support building community between each other and the natural world. We primarily work with local young people, businesses and families in King's Cross as well as going on camping residentials. We combine activities such as urban food growing, supporting bees, carpentry, cooking, and eating together with dialogue, story, creative writing, silence and stillness. These practices help us to create the conditions for people to come together in a fuller and more connected sense of who they are and what they are a part of and from that space, to support them to practically contribute to ecological and social change. We have developed a methodology based around the three territories of 'I, We and the Planet' which is present in all the work that we do. This approach provides space for people to increase awareness of self, to connect to each other and to connect to the natural world. Whilst our activities are practical and hands on, bringing raw nature, elemental forces and a sense of adventure to the city, the work is grounded in values and widening of perspective to help establish a fertile foundation for growing a less consumerist and a more creative future. Our Gardens Our gardens provoke curiosity. They are sustainable and creative, giving individuals the opportunity to step beyond the familiar ‘business as usual’ world, encouraging them to join together with others to grow a new story in which the seemingly impossible is continuously in a process of becoming possible. Our King’s Cross base since summer 2019 is the Story Garden, a new moveable urban food growing garden built for and by the local community. The garden is a green oasis at British Library in Somers Town, bringing the local community together over food growing, communal meals, shared stories and creative activities. The Story Garden is a partnership with the British Library and Stanhope. It is also home to Make @ Story Garden, a collaboration between Central Saint Martins and Somers Town Community Association. Contact generate@globalgeneration.org.uk for more information on how to get involved.