As many of you are already aware we have re-launched our Armed Forces Covenant Programme as the Armed Forces Community Programme. The new AFC will maintain its focus on promoting the covenant and helping businesses sign up to it, but will now be expanding its remit into new aspects of armed forces and veteran life and relating this to the wider Portsmouth community.
One of the first projects we are supporting is a perfect example of a scheme that bridges our AFC and the city. It’s called Habitat Harbour and is a collaboration between Artecology, City Arts Portsmouth and HM Naval Base Portsmouth.
Gavin Hodson from the team told us “Artecology and City Arts Portsmouth are collaborating on an exciting new project called Habitat Harbour which is an initiative for ecological transformation in Portsmouth Harbour. They have been approached by HM Navy Base Portsmouth to help develop the harbour into the world’s most ecologically advanced MOD port facility through sustainability and meaningful engagement with our local community. The team make a wide range of objects that catch tidal biodiversity and build new homes for our wildlife in challenging environments but not as single objects as they become part of a much larger infrastructure that supports and sustains life.
“Habitat Harbour is at its early stages and now it needs help to start offering community workshops and opportunities for anybody to get involved to start making handmade components that can be joined together and start the build. If your business is interested in talking part through your CPD programme or you would like to sponsor a pilot community engagement workshop please get in touch and we can give you more details and information about the project. One of our aims is to Transform Portsmouth Harbour into a thriving urban wildlife ecosystem, to the benefit of everyone in the region who lives, works, and plays there and it would be great if you were able to get involved too.”
