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WHAT ARE WE ASKING FOR? 

Having been self funded up until this point, Bí URBAN is now looking for support at a time when grant aid will be increasingly slim on the ground. Depending on the resources of your organisation, you could provide this support ‘in kind’ through collaboration.

Media Features of our Nature Based Social Enterprise, our ethical structure, products, projects, programmes as a new business model.

Sales of Bí URBAN products with 100% of profit going to us (The eco office supply company Klee paper and other like minded organisations are now doing this)

Green Procurement - Commissioning the Bí URBAN Team to develop a product or corporate gift for your company (FACEBOOK commissioned us to design and produce 4,000 bespoke seed packets for the launch of their pollinator friendly gardens in London in 2020. We created biodiversity themed gifts for Viasat’s Green Team).

Collaborative development of products, projects, programmes We can add value to an existing project or work with you on the development of something new. (We hosted writing workshops and Pollinator friendly bulbs and seeds for Dublin City Council’s ‘Greening Stoneybatter’ Project).

Hosting a Bí URBAN citizen science project within your organisation This can take many forms depending on your area of interest. (Dublin City Council Parks have allowed us to install Refugee Housing for wild bees on your roof or property for the public to monitor as part of our Bee Stewardship Workshops Series, LAWPRO have funded the materials for our STONEYBATTER RAIN GARDEN Pilot Project).

Exchange of services/skills/tools This can work both ways. We can provide consultancy and workshops to fulfill CSR requirements in your organisation (We have provided green workshops for DCC, TII, Linkedin, TUD ESHI, Viasat and others). We would welcome your expertise to help us achieve project goals. (We currently need help developing systems for mapping and analysing citizen science data).

Volunteers Many organisations pay employees for a set amount of community service days per year. (Autodesk helped us plant Christmas Bulbs for Pollinators in new Dublin City Council flower beds. Local volunteers routinely assist with packaging seeds and other group tasks).

WHY ARE WE ASKING?

2021 presents an exciting opportunity for us. Public and institutional awareness of the need to regenerate our relationship with nature and take climate action is escalating daily, but as a self funded entity we are seriously under resourced. We believe creative partnerships are the way forward. We are writing to you today to introduce the idea of combining resources to add value to mutually beneficial projects during COVID recovery.

NatureRx 2021 - Building the LIFELINE

Due to the rapid expansion of the Grangegorman Campus and necessary development of the Luas, substantial areas of biodiversity are being lost to North Central Dublin. Through our NatureRx programme Bí URBAN invites the public to explore the hidden pockets of biodiversity that remain on our doorstep, redefine our relationship with nature, and contribute to the design and planning of healthy urban communities.

The Coronavirus epidemic could be defined as a “teachable moment,” in other words, a time when we are out of our comfort zone and unusually receptive to learning or "an event or circumstance which can lead individuals to positive behaviour change." 

The guiding principle behind our LIFELINE mission is the premise that time spent in nature can dramatically improve individual health and wellbeing. As the seriousness of Covid escalated during spring 2020 the Irish population discovered this for themselves. Local parks and nature reserves became a refuge during the good weather that predominated the first lockdown, leading to new thinking around how the urban landscape should be programmed and governed.

When we first proposed the LIFELINE as a Living Laboratory in 2010, action research of this scale was new to Ireland. There are now 400 officially recognised Living Labs across the world, with examples in Galway, Cork and Cambridge UK. Coronavirus has been the catalyst for recent media coverage of the Open Air Classrooms that were set up a century ago in response to the Tuberculosis epidemic. This model is now being touted as a viable option for school reopening strategies. 

One year into the pandemic we have become extraordinarily adaptive. COVID demonstrated that behavioural change to support public health is both achievable and a global priority. We believe this is the perfect moment to expand Bí URBAN’S NatureRx citizen science programme. Through reimagining the city as an outdoor classroom we can experiment with new ways to reconfigure the city. This process will provide physical benefits (exercise, exposure to fresh air & natural light), psychological benefits (opportunities for extracurricular and intergenerational learning as a diversion from digital overload) and stimulate Climate Action, as described by physicist Dr Liz McDonald.

NatureRx Phase 2021 builds on over ten years of community based research conducted in collaboration with TU Dublin Students Learning with Communities Programme (SLWC). Using project based learning our 2021 programme will conduct biodiversity mapping of North Central Dublin and collect baseline data necessary to monitor a range of urban elements. The activity dovetails with our previous and current projects (Please see Bí URBAN timeline).

The LIFELINE Living Laboratory and our NatureRx Citizen Science Programme are now well established. Bi URBAN, our main street space in Stoneybatter, provides a local hub to support public engagement in the process of repartnering with nature in the city.