Tim (he/him)
ACRE Coordinator & ResidentWhat is it like to live at Braziers Park?
Fantastic! It’s a great place to hone your listening and learning skills to become braver in the way you communicate and understand others. The structures we have in place of active listening and care for each other around meetings, meals and shared activities is developing a dynamic environment in which we all learn from and appreciate each other. To me, this helps me become more vulnerable in my own feelings and communication as I feel that I’m supported and ‘held’ in the care we share in the community.
How would you describe the community at Braziers?
A real mix of introverts and extroverts who both have to adapt to ever changing environments and get to escape having to plan e.g., social events, cooking and cleaning as an individual. As we have so many people living in the same space, you never know what to expect when you walk into a room – this somehow complements the structures we put in place to facilitate communal living, for example eating together at the same time, having morning meetings, and Sensory discussions on Tuesday nights.
Could you tell us about your work outside of Braziers?
I work on rural development and food system research-policy programmes within an EU-AU Partnerships and at national/sub-national programmes in South Africa. Currently, my main focus is on working with rural innovation hubs to institutionalise multi-actor learning environments that help co-identify common food system challenges and co-develop solutions by bringing together complementary access to skills, resources and networks.