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History – we
did not get where we are
today without… |
| Bridges was founded in September
2003 by Shropshire based international development charity
Harvest Help (now Self Help Africa) in response to a need
and demand for education around global issues in Shropshire.
Those of you who remember us from our beginnings will remember
our Fairtrade Shop and resource centre adjacent to the bus
station in Wellington, Telford. Bridges became one of a network
of fifty Development Education Centres across the UK, and
a member of the Development Education Association. In its
early days the centre focused on bringing the global dimension
to the curriculum in schools and promoting an understanding
of Fairtrade in the County of Shropshire. |
| Bridges moved to its current
independent office base in October 2006. It’s
work with schools continued to grow, with a number of funded
projects up and running and a growing range of services for
schools and colleges. One of our first projects, ‘The
G8 Challenge’ was taken on enthusiastically by eight
project schools in the area, and their good work was shared
though a conference and resource. Since that time,
Bridges worked on a number of innovative bodies of work with
primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in the area.
In the last few years, the our approach has emphasised the
role of schools and communities working together to understand
and tackle global issues. |
| In parallel, our work with
communities has began to grow and thrive. In 2006,
our first community focused project, Views from Shropshire,
investigated cultural diversity in Shropshire through the
stories of the Black and Minority residents who live here.
In 2009 we appointed our first full time Community Officer. |
| Thanks to the skills of
our staff and volunteers and the support of our funders we
now offer a range of services and projects to educational
organisations, community groups and interested individuals
covering global issues, diversity and what we can all do
to build a better world. Major funding from the Department
from International Development has meant we can consolidate
our work with schools and surrounding communities, through
looking and the development issues raised by the Millennium
Development Goals. We aim learn from our relatively
short but productive and eventful few years as an organisation
and continue improve our work by joining together with others
to build a better world. |
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