Camphill Pages, the newsletter of the Association of Camphill Communities, The Camphill Foundation and Camphill Families & Friends is celebrating its 10th anniversary. This article, from the latest issue, looks back at some of the new developments in Camphill Communities in the UK and Ireland featured during the past 10 years.
New developments come thick and fast in our Camphill communities, which isn't surprising when you consider there are over 50 communities in the UK and Ireland. And by new developments we don't just mean of the bricks-and-mortar kind - there are other initiatives which bring something new to our communities and all who live in them.
We've covered so many over the past 10 years that making a selection is difficult. If yours isn't here it's not because we've forgotten you, it's because we only have the space to mention a few.
The launch of the BA degree in curative education in 1998 was a milestone for Camphill in receiving recognition for its training courses. Originally begun by Camphill Rudolf Steiner Schools in collaboration with Northern College and validated by the Open University, the course has been developed into one now run with Aberdeen University. Many communities, particularly in Scotland, are now benefiting from this course.
Still on the subject of education, in 2001 we reported on Glencraig's new training college for young people with special needs and the new pre-school initiative at Camphill Rudolf Steiner Schools, both of which have continued to develop. That same year, a small article on the back page heralded the introduction of the new advocacy service by Camphill Families & Friends. It's something that has changed and grown over the years, bringing with it several issues of our Voices supplement which began in 2004 and, most recently, the introduction of the Camphill England & Wales social work advisory project announced in our last issue.
Back in 1999 we reported on the Landsdown Pottery, a workshop which William Morris House had moved to in Stroud town centre to encourage the development of students' social and life skills and integration with the local community. Other developments aimed at integrating those with special needs have included The Cockle Shell craft centre which Camphill Houses opened in Stourbridge in April 2005 and The George gallery, cafe, bookshop and weaving studio opened later the same year by the Oaklands Park community in their nearby village of Newnham-on-Severn.
And developments never stop. We've reported on the Journeyman Project's plans in Ireland in the current issue; new houses are being built at Newton Dee in Scotland and the Sheiling Trust in the south of England has been preparing its long-term development plan. Those are just two of the stories we'll bring you in the future and there will be many, many more.
