We were delighted to attend an exhibition of work made in partnership with Share Community and Disability Advice Service Lambeth (dasl) at We Are 336 in Brixton. 'In The Mix' is a project aimed specifically at disabled artists, facilitated by different artists and educators, curated by Naomi Fitzsimmons for Block 336 and funded by Awards For All.  

Three Share students showcased their work alongside a selection of artwork by artists from dasl. Share artists Rehan, Cally and Carla have taken part in an ongoing mentoring scheme with Equalities Work. Mentored by Tom Groves and Michelle Baharier, the artists have developed work that expresses their individual aesthetic concerns and preferred ways of working. They’ve used colour, form and line over a period of six months, culminating with the production of a series of confident and compelling works.

We enjoyed a special Share day at the gallery for students and staff to appreciate the beautiful and compelling works. We were joined by former Share CEO Annie McDowall, who presented an award in her name to the art group last year at the Share Awards, and who came to see the project come to fruition.

View the gallery below:

We’re so proud of our art students who won two awards in the Wandsworth Art Competition alongside other winners from Action Space and Generate.

The competition recognises the talent and creativity of people with a learning disability. The themes were ‘Go Green’ and ‘Hopes and Dreams for your Borough’. Our Tuesday art class won their award for a collaborative piece called ‘Coming Together’, a vibrant and expressive collection of colourful vertical fabric panels depicting being at one with nature. 

Student Rehan created ‘My Dream Community’, a colourful and detailed piece showing an ideal community where harmony, activity and nature coexist seamlessly. The artwork is an inspiring reminder of the potential for creating harmonious and diverse living spaces, nurturing both the environment and our community.

Both these pieces will be displayed in shared working spaces at Wandsworth Town Hall.

We enjoyed a gorgeous lunch with cake in the Marble Hall followed by the formal awards ceremony in the Council Chambers where students were presented with certificates, vouchers and glass trophies by Cllr Simon Hogg. All our students were rightly proud of their achievements, Kelly said, ‘It was such a great day!’  

As part of their journey towards employment, Share students take part in practical activities that allow them to practise their employability skills. Recently, our Steps into Employment class hosted a pop-up market at We are 336 in Brixton and raised an impressive £375 for our charity.

Share's garden team provided some fantastic new products and beautiful plants for sale, our art students' products were (once again!) admired by everyone who stopped by, and the cookies that were baked by our home cooking group were quickly snapped up by the many shoppers who stopped by. 

The Steps students running the market really grew in confidence over the course of the event and did a fantastic job of selling, using the card reader, packing up goods, and making our customers feel very welcome. 

Speaking about the event, Steps tutor Emily said, 'It was great to see the students interacting with customers and events like this are so much more beneficial than being in the classroom all day!'

A big thank you to everyone who supported the market. 

More about our Steps into Employment programme. 

It's time to grow! We’re excited to announce that we are one of 100 community nature projects across the UK to receive funding from The Nature Hubs Fund to create new green spaces.

Connecting with nature benefits mood, boosts confidence and improves our general wellbeing, but disabled people can have limited opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. We hope to tackle this inequality by creating a new green area at the Black Prince Community Hub in Vauxhall. This is a collaboration between our horticulture programme and our new Share Community Café catering project. Gardening students will travel from the Share Garden in Tooting to the Black Prince Community Hub to share their gardening knowledge and experience with students at the café.

They'll work together to renovate neglected planters and grow vegetables like potatoes, courgettes, and beans, and an array of herbs including mint, sage, basil and rosemary.  We also hope to grow some small trees and flowers to attract pollinators, improve biodiversity and contribute to cleaner air in the area. 

We want to reduce our carbon footprint by recycling our food and garden waste using hot composting bins. The compost we generate will be used to help grow our plants, reducing emissions from wasted food, and helping to build healthy soil.

Our project aims to increase access to green space for our students and the local community in Lambeth whilst bringing people together to enjoy the benefits of connecting with nature.