Autumn Newsletter 2022
Written by Tir Coed / Wednesday 21 September 2022
The arrival of autumn heralds a number of significant changes at Tir Coed.
October will see the end of our five-year LEAF project. The project has proved a resounding success, enabling hundreds of trainees to gain nationally-recognised accreditation and qualifications that have put them on a path to pursuing careers in woodland industries and also given thousands of participants the opportunity to discover the benefits and joys of spending time in the beautiful woodlands of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys. Further details on LEAF will follow in the end of project report and Tir Coed’s annual impact report later this year.
Over the summer months, our management team highlighted the successes of the project with presentations to the Ceredigion Cynnal y Cardi and Powys Arwain networks, both of which have provided funds during the course of the project to ensure we were able to deliver on our aims.
We were delighted to bring together the entire Tir Coed family to celebrate the hard work and many success of the project at a team day at the Long Wood Community Woodland facility in Ceredigion recently.
The get-together also gave us the opportunity to say a massive thank you to Ffion Farnell, our long-standing CEO, who is leaving Tir Coed after 12 years at the helm. Under Ffion’s passionate leadership and guidance, Tir Coed has gone from strength to strength, expanding to work across the four counties and growing our staff team to 30. She has played a massive part in transforming the lives of thousands of trainees, participants and volunteers, and her impact on the organisation cannot be overestimated.
It was also an opportunity to say a massive thank you to Helen and Teresa, who steered the Tir Coed ship so expertly during the past 12 months.
Preparation for Ffion’s departure saw Tir Coed seek to reimagine the way the organisation is run, and – in light of these discussions - we have taken the radical step to completely rethink our management structure. We have now adopted a ground-breaking new approach to the shape of our leadership, splitting the CEO position into three distinct roles.
We are delighted to announce that Helen will now become Finance Director and Cath has been named our new Operations Director. The search is now underway to find our new Development & Communications Director to complete the leadership team. To find out more about the post and details of how to apply, click here.
Also this summer, we have seen our network of partnerships continue to spread with courses and sessions carried out by the Carmarthenshire team in Brechfa Forest, and the Ceredigion team at the Yr Ardd project in Llandysul, Ceredigion.
In Pembrokeshire, the 12-week summer carpentry course trainees worked alongside Tir Coed activity staff to create a fabulous new all-weather shelter at the Scolton Woods site. Our work with schools in the county provided life-changing experiences for pupils at Ysgol Harri Tudor in Pembroke and Neyland Primary School.
Meanwhile in Powys, we have worked closely with the Elan Valley Trust to develop six 20-week part-time paid placements for young woodland carpenters.
With the LEAF project now drawing to close, we are excited to be embarking on the next stage of Tir Coed’s development with the AnTir Project. The project, which has been running as a trial program in Ceredigion for the past 12 months, sees Tir Coed spreading its wings to include a wider variety of outdoor training and activities while maintaining our core passion for our woodlands. AnTir courses include offering trainees a range of growing courses to help them learn the skills needed to produce their own food while also improve the natural habitats found in their own garden and green spaces.
These growing courses have already been met with huge success and an even greater appetite in Ceredigion thanks to numerous pilot courses, shorter sessions and the major role we have played in the Go and Grow! Aberystwyth festival. The growing skills courses we are now implementing in Pembrokeshire have been met with a similar degree of enthusiasm.
The project, following consultation with more than 100 land owners, farmers, land managers and community groups, also sees Tir Coed exploring the training opportunities we can offer in order to address the loss of many traditional rural skills which are likely to impact our communities in the years to come.
The summer months - and the slow return of normality post-Covid 19 meant we were able to begin spreading the Tir Coed message to a wider audience once again and we were delighted to feature at both Eisteddfod 2022 in Tregaron and the Pembrokeshire County Show in Haverfordwest.
We have also spent recent weeks carrying out a wide-ranging update of our website – we hope you’ll now find the site more user-friendly and much easier to navigate.
