It's time for unified action to tackle our water and food crises. 

We Are Avon a place-based movement for regeneration in the UK. We aim to act upon the interwoven crises of river pollution, climate change and food insecurity. Led by the people, in the place we care about and depend upon. A diverse web of communities, regenerators, farms and organisations who collaborate to regenerate. 

This is a grassroots movement to save our rivers, and regenerate this catchment area (pictured above) from the River Avon outwards. To do this we need a strong grassroots movement of people who care about and protect the rivers and waterways we depend upon. 70% of the land in the UK is farmed, and half the river pollution is from industrial farming methods - so we need to work proactively with land and food systems to both protect our rivers and provide healthy, affordable food resilience for our region. 

Centering food, river and land as powerful anchors for reconnecting people to place, this project aims to re-identify humans as 'regenerators' and 'solutionists' to the climate and nature crisis we collectively face. 

Note: all crowdfunder pledges will be doubled thanks to our match funding! 

The Vision 

Imagine a river valley that is regenerating and becoming more abundant every year, with cleaner waters, flourishing biodiversity, a wildlife corridor the length of Avon, nature friendly farming across the floodplain, thriving communities protecting and enjoying our Avon. Imagine a thriving Food and Land Hub for our region with an active producers co-operative reviving the local economies and providing healthy and accessible food for all with last mile e-cargo bike delivery. 

What we need to implement the vision:

We are seeking a total of £50,000 (with a stretch target higher than this!) to meet the following aims under 3 project branches:

1) Water 

• Creating a pledge map (see Wealdtowaves.co.uk for example) to highlight all the actions small and large to regenerate Avon. 
• Monitoring, protecting and regenerating our River Avon through citizen science and regular measurements of pollution to hold authorities accountable.
• Organise an annual River Avon Pilgrimage from source to mouth, engaging communities, landowners and organisations along the route. Delivering the charter to each town council and holding them accountable each year. 
•  Support projects by Wiltshire & Avon Wildlife Trust and BART to restore habitats and reintroduce species such as Beaver, Salmon and Otter to our waterways 
• Achieve Designated Bathing Rights for multiple sites such as Warleigh Weir along the Avon 
• Creating a River Charter for Avon (see https://bioregion.org.uk/ example) and bring this to the authorities at annual River action days in each town of the region. 

2) Land

• Creating a wildlife corridor of nature, food & fibre abundance 1km wide the length of the Avon, working with landowners and supporting Bristol Avon River Trusts restoration projects at scale.
• Creating an Avon Regeneration 'cluster group' working with farmers to transition to river-friendly agriculture with free support, advice, trees and project budgets. Working with and supporting West of England Nature Recovery Strategy. 
• Riparian Restoration: Planting over 20,000 trees in suitable areas along the river banks working with existing and new landowner relationships. 
• Create a regional Producers Co-operative to uplift sustainable farming in the catchment area whilst allowing people to access quality local food. Develop a community owned Food and Land Hub for the region to distribute food boxes to homes, schools and local businesses, creating real community resilience. 
• In the long term create a Community Land Trust that can secure available land for restoration, sustainable food production and community access. 

3) People

• Host monthly movement drop in sessions for community input, river discussions and river actions days e.g. litter picking, Avon pilgrimages, river therapy, creative actions e.g critical mass nude swim to raise river awareness 
• Organise an annual celebration of our River Avon and a day to come together as a regional force for river regeneration at AvonFest. 
• Hire a part-time coordinator role to implement, organise and drive the above mission with support from partner organisations, advisory board and community input at the core, via monthly drop in sessions. 

The role, alongside the partnership board will also be mandated to secure funds for the next part of the vision - widening this model to UK-wide regeneration of our rivers and landscapes weaving with other successful regional examples.

Note: all crowdfunder pledges will be doubled thanks to our match funding success!

                                                                   
 Budget and action plan:  

Financial resilience
The above budget summary outlines the key action streams that this crowdfunder will enable. The project coordinator role will be critical to securing future funds and progressing our existing grant applications which will cover full emergence costs to achieve our initial aims. The longer term plan is for the producer co-operative (based at the new Food and Land Hub), to generate a sustainable revenue, continuing We Are Avon's work into the long term, combined with other projects for economic resilience such as education, workshops, events and Avon Crafts (trading thehomemade clay mugs, willow baskets, food and fibres of this valley! and making calendars, prints and art to communicate We Are Avons message). The longer term funding model includes a pioneering Community Shares model  for securing land parcels via the new Community Land Trust.

Meet the team & project partners 

Hamish Evans is the current project lead and co-founder of We Are Avon. Hamish has lived in this valley his whole life, for the last 11 years on a boat navigating the waters of this place whilst starting a river-friendly ecological farm from scratch - Middle Ground Growers CIC (MGG). The farm and its collaborators now play a critical role in regional food systems change through their food production at scale, training / education, and opportunities on the land for connecting people to place. The following organisations have come together to help support and drive this We Are Avon vision, backed by a wider web of dozens of local and regional bodies. 

Middle Ground Growers (MGG)

Middlegroundgrowers.com

Community Interest Company (CIC)

Hamish Evans, Director

Project lead and delivery partner 

We are an established CIC operating on a 15.5 acre farm in Somerset, supplying a 180 member community veg box scheme and 12 local businesses with fresh, organic ‘produce of place’.  We run regular trainings, volunteering opportunities and open days to reconnect people to place,  to the sources of our food and health! 

Bath City Farm

https://www.bathcityfarm.org.uk/

Charitable Company

Brendan Tate Wistreich, Director

Advisory role and project delivery partner

Bath City Farm is a charity and social enterprise occupying a unique 37-acre site, in the Twerton and Whiteway area of Bath. The vision has always been to create healthy communities rooted in nature, food, farming and each other. To achieve this, the Farm provides a rich programme of targeted therapeutic, educational, and vocational social impact projects that transform lives. Food is grown using wildlife friendly practices supplying a bustling on-site cafe and shop. In a typical year we welcome 60,000 visitors, and 800 people participate in our targeted social impact projects.

Bristol Avon River Trust 

https://bristolavonriverstrust.org/our-vision/

River Trust Charity

Rozie Davis and team

Advisory role and project delivery partner  

Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) is a charity which delivers education, land and river management advice and practical river restoration work throughout the Bristol Avon catchment.

We aim to re-connect communities to their local rivers and help them to better appreciate and improve them for the benefit of people and wildlife.

BART aims to conserve and enhance the status of our waterbodies for current and future generations.

Urban Agriculture Consortium 

https://www.urbanagriculture.org.uk/

Maddy Longhurst

Advisory role and project delivery partner 

Green Futures CIC

Maddy Longhurst is co-lead of the Urban Agriculture Consortium, a UK-wide, dynamic network of practitioners cross-fertilising diverse skills to create the conditions for urban-related food systems to thrive. UAC’s work aims to amplify and accelerate best practice and innovation in the sector and lean into the emerging future. Current work includes policy influencing, mapping, planning, Farmstarts, regional solidarity, bioregioning and community land trusts.

 Coventry University - Centre for Agroecology and Water Resilience (CAWR)

Represented by leading academics and practitioners: Chiara Tornagi , Adrian Evans, Jana Fried.

CAWR delivers world-renowned and pioneering research in agroecology and resilience, with a focus on ecological food and water systems. This addition of professional academics to the partnership bolsters and informs our work with the latest research insights and theories of change. The collaboration allows helps us to share the lessons and lived research from We Are Avon to wider audiences for a UK bioregional movement to spark, in a project report and potential future publications.

Together, the partners, the grassroots communities and a wide pool of support from other organisations in the catchment area, makes up a strong and rooted force for transformation in our bioregion. The partners will support and advise our project roles, which in turn will be supporting a community-led movement for regeneration in our catchment area. We Are Avon is the body to weave this work together towards shared goals, acting as a bridge to bring communities of place along with us on this journey of bioregional regeneration. 

This project is also supported by fellow collaborators and actors in the regional regeneration:

• Spaceship Earth Podcast 
• BecomingCrew 
• Weald to Waves
• Transition Towns 
• Transition Liege 
• Ecotogether 
• B&NES Council 
• West of England Combined Authority 
• Local Nature Recovery Strategy 
• Grow Wilder 
• Avon Needs Trees 
• More Trees B&NES 
• Avon Wildlife Trust 
• Bath Area Growers 
• Radford Mill 
• Landrace Bakery and Landrace Milling 
• Oak Restaurant 
• Harvest Wholefoods and Essential ltd. 
• Bath and West Community Energy 
• Roundhill Tump ltd. (Kelston Roundhill) 
• Pollinate Avon 
• Avon farm cluster group 
• Cotswold National Landscape 
• Save our Avon / Rave on for the Avon 
• Rights of Nature movement  
• Bath University 
• Basic Income for Farmers
• Landworkers Alliance 
• Organic Growers Alliance 
• Eat Festivals 
• Bath Riverline Project 
• Regenerative Partners 
• Elm Farm 
• Avonleigh Orchards 
• Grown Green
• Of the Wild 
• & Many more ... 

WeAreAvon.com

a webinar on bioregionalism and an overview of the project is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzQHyAvXMkE