Caroline brings a wide range of experience to the position of Coordinator of MERCi. She has worked as a designer, editor, researcher, policy maker and environmentalist, in various fields such as recycling, agricultural extension, environmental education and sustainable development; both here in the UK and abroad.
Her first qualification is in design and communication, followed, many years later, by an MSc in Environmental Resources from Salford University.
She has spent time campaigning on human and animal rights and in her 'spare' time she helps run a Woodcraft Folk Group and a local environmental action group.
For the past six years Caroline has been the Executive Director of the Mersey Basin Trust, a water charity, also based at Bridge-5 Mill. She joined MERCi in August 2005 and shares/combines her role as Director of the Trust with her new role as Co-ordinator of MERCi.
Jemma joined the MERCi team in July 2004 by helping with the organisation of MERCi’s Ancoats and Miles Platting Summer Festival (AMPLE), “a wonderful day full of creative activities, great music and gorgeous food , the sun even came out !”. That was it Jemma was well and truly inspired , "this place is special , I can do good things here".
Jemma now occupies the role of receptionist and Hospitality Worker, welcoming guests to Bridge-5 Mill, dealing with phone
calls and organising the hiring out of space for workshops and conferences.
Ian Green has been teaching Information Technology (IT) in the community for several years; he was trained in many popular software packages and network administration whilst working for London Underground in the 90’s. He then left the world of paid employment and used his IT skills to run computer centres in various environmental, social and community projects in London on a voluntary basis. In this time he developed skills needed to engage learners from a wide variety of backgrounds in the community and developed a programme of courses to suit the learners needs.
He started working as the computer suite facilitator at Bridge-5 Mill in April 2003. His role is to run the suite and provide one-to-one support for local people in all aspects of IT and develop and deliver a range of courses aimed at all levels of experience.
He is currently researching open source, free software and is exploring ways to use it to try and put an end to corporate control of IT in the community and make the latest software accessible to all. He will run training sessions about this in the future.
Bill Harrop
Transport Network for Manchester Facilitator
Bill's role is to support the voluntary and community groups across Manchester by seeking out any issues or ideas relating to transport and then assist to either resolve the problems or get ideas put into action. Bill works closely with the public bodies like the Council, GMPTE, NHS, Police etc, the service providers like the bus, train and tram operators, as well as the voluntary and community sector.
“I am a Manchester lad born and bred with a passion for people power, up till now my working life has been a series of warehouse, factory or driving jobs with a lot of agency working, never quite finding my niche until I got involved with the community network as a volunteer, this has given me an opportunity to see that there are lots of people working really behind the scenes trying to make life that little bit better for all, the beauty of working in the voluntary sector is that it is full of people doing the job because they want to, not because they have to.”
Currently Simon drives Herbie and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the van, which includes purchasing the produce at the wholesale market early in the morning and then re-pricing the stock and displaying it in the van. He drives to his various stops and sells the fruit and veg to his customers from inside the van. He is also responsible for simple book-keeping
“Eating and gardening are in my top five favourite things. So this is my ideal job as I get to cook and grow food for a living”.
Geraldine studied horticulture at college in the early 1990’s and worked as a maintenance gardener at Chorlton Plant Nursery. In the late 1990’s she and two other local people set up Hulme Community Garden Centre.
Geraldine has delivered a number of food growing and healthy eating over many years.
In 2003 Geraldine worked for Fairfield Composting with children from six Manchester primary schools growing food from seeds to harvest. She is presently studying at Manchester College for a Community Health and Tutor Training qualification.
