Celebrating communities

GROUNDWORK C O MMU N I T Y AWARDS 2017

Celebrating Communities

www.groundwork.org.uk @groundworkUK facebook.com/groundwork Groundwork UK is the operating name of the Federation of Groundwork Trusts, a company limited by guarantee.

Company Registration Number: 1900511.

Charity Registration Number: 291558

About Groundwork Groundwork is a charity working locally and nationally to transform lives in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities.

We’re passionate about creating a future where every neighbourhood is vibrant and green, every community is strong and able to shape its own destiny and no-one is held back by their background or circumstances.

We help people gain confidence and skills, get into training and work, protect and improve green spaces, lead more active lives and overcome significant challenges such as poverty, isolation, low skills and health problems.

About Mark Lane The Groundwork Community Awards 2017 was hosted by Mark Lane, Groundwork’s Health, Wellbeing and Community Ambassador.

A prolific writer, Mark has been published in BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) Journal, The Garden, Which? Gardening, as well as Landscape & Urban Design magazine and The Guardian newspaper. Mark is also the first ever BBC gardening presenter in a wheelchair and presents for the BBC at the RHS Flower Shows and on BBC TV Gardeners’ World.

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Celebrating communities The Groundwork Community Awards is our way of honouring community groups making a big difference to the quality of life in their local area and rewarding those who often get little recognition and support.

The impact of public spending cuts on our neighbourhoods has been stark: transport, planning, environment, culture and community have suffered disproportionately when compared to social care, health and housing.

We’re facing much greater social division as a result, with spending falling more than four times as much in the most disadvantaged local authority areas as in the more affluent areas.

Their tireless work and commitment is the glue that helps to hold our society together.

This year’s Groundwork Community Awards demonstrated the power of doing good together. This report contains the inspiring stories of our finalists, but there are thousands more stories waiting to be told.

Please help us spread the word about the remarkable achievements of the groups and people highlighted here. If you too want to help us support and celebrate community action – or if you think you can help our winners to achieve more - we’d love to hear from you.

People connect the quality and management of their local area with their sense of social and personal wellbeing. Two-thirds of people feel that they ‘belong to their neighbourhoods’ yet 68% believe that community spirit in Britain had declined over their lifetime.

Groundwork was established at a time of political, social and economic challenge as an experiment to help communities cope with change and work together to make their lives and neighbourhoods better.

That experience and that spirit of enterprise and innovation have never been more needed.

Graham Duxbury Chief Executive, Groundwork @grahamduxbury

What drives us is the recognition that in every community – however disadvantaged – there are deep reserves of pride in the local area and people with the passion and ideas to improve their circumstances and surroundings.

Groundwork exists to harness that pride and unlock that passion through services, projects and programmes that change people’s lives now but also make our communities more resilient for the future.

In villages, towns and cities across the UK people are coming together to do extraordinary things in response to the challenges their communities face, committing their time to change places and change lives, rebuild community spirit and help others in their local area stay safe and well.

Thanks to their efforts our parks and open spaces are better looked after, libraries and heritage centres are being kept open, food banks and furniture projects are helping people meet their basic needs and communities are blazing a trail in recycling and renewable energy.

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Best community partnership with business

The Willesden Green Town Team garden on tube station platforms and in the space around the entrance to a local train station where commuters make nine million journeys a year.

The group has faced a number of challenges to transform the site – clearing the site of rubbish and filling four beds with topsoil and mulch before planting. This took over four tons of soil and mulch, which had to be bagged and carried down three flights of stairs to the platform.

Within 15 months the group has not only cleared and planted the site, but also won 1st prize in Transport for London in Bloom. The group have added a bee and insect hotel, birdhouses, flowers in pots and decorative planters and planted outside the station in wooden planters made by volunteers.

Commuters agree that the flowers and greenery improve their travel experience and that they want more of them. The Town Team have expanded their work to add support to two other tube stations to its portfolio, with all stations being gardened by volunteers of different ages and ethnicity and gardening expertise passed to young volunteers for a church garden.

Winner Willesden Green Town Team, London Judges’ comments: “Great example of a business allowing communities to use places they own for public good.”

Best community partnership with business

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Chelmsford Food Bank, Chelmsford

Silverline Memories, Newcastle

The Chelmsford Food Bank is helping around 3,000 people who are in food poverty with over 23 tons of non-perishable food per year through the Trussell Trust Foodbank scheme where vouchers are issued by around 100 professional bodies in Chelmsford.

Silverline Memories set up the Springwell Community Memory Garden in Gateshead. This is a social and therapeutic horticultural garden for people and carers living with Dementia.

The community donates the food, volunteers sort and pack it and more volunteers meet the clients in food poverty in six food distribution centres strategically sited across Chelmsford.

Because of the goodwill of the local community, churches who donate their premises as food distribution centres and volunteers, the food bank runs on a small budget of just ÂŁ16k per year. The group also benefit from the support of supermarkets like Tesco who allow them to have a trolley in their entrances where the public can donate some food.

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Best community partnership with business

It started off with a discussion at one of their Dementia Cafes about what they miss now they suffer from this health condition. The result was a garden. The Chief Operating Officer, Sandra Hastings and her group of volunteers fought for three years to gain funding and eventually Gateshead Council saw the plans and offered a derelict piece of land in Springwell.

Lots of hard work and dedication has taken place to regenerate the site.

Despite theft and damage, the garden has developed many activities and is opening up a new Dementia Cafe in the garden on Friday afternoons.

Significant support in 2016 came from Marks & Spencer, through their ‘Spark Something Good’ event that helped transform the garden. Staff from M&S, Mears and Intu Metro Centre worked alongside Silverline volunteers. A wildlife garden has been created and a successful funding application saw 104 trees being planted from the Woodlands Trust. The garden use is now for social and therapeutic horticulture with practitioners to deliver activities. Local people have been hard at work creating the garden. It provides a great resource for the local community and all the benefits of horticultural activities including exercise and being out in the fresh air, as well as friendships and a safe place to be. Some of the volunteers are themselves suffering from Dementia.

Best community partnership with business

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Best community group contribution to community cohesion

Our Place is a project based on the New Kingshold estate in Hackney entirely shaped, designed and delivered by local people.

It is a community hub that brings people together, builds people’s skills, confidence and ambitions. More than 80% of participants have mental health issues. Many have told of their very difficult life stories including domestic violence, losing children to gang-crime, and substance misuse.

Over two years, 135 residents have been supported to deliver their own groups and activities, all to make their area a better place to live. Activities include a bingo club, women’s empowerment programme, family holiday fun club, children’s playgroup, gardening and an arts and crafts club.

The group runs a weekly coffee morning at a local flat donated by Southern Housing Group, which has provided a safe space for people to talk. Recently described as “an ideas factory”, it has also been a space to grow trusting relationships. Residents have shared computers, unwanted furniture, and their gardens. They have supported each other to seek help from services. A conversation with a parent about her son not having any male role models or close relatives led to another parent organising family meetups.

This sharing of skills, advice and resources is a constant feature of Our Place. Along with residents’ personal growth, the wider benefits have been more than ever anticipated - relationship building, mutual support and increased pride in New Kingshold.

Winner Our Place, London Judges’ comments: “A lot of hard work on the ground has gone into creating a platform with local people – many of them vulnerable – to help them take control of their own lives. This is a great example of co-production, taking root in all aspects of life on the estate.

“Embedding skills, ambition and confidence in people means impacts are lasting and far-reaching. For someone to have said the project ‘saves lives’ does not sound like a stretch by any means.”

Best community group contribution to community cohesion

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Friends of Sandringham Park, Wetherby

Tomorrow’s Women Wirral, Birkenhead

The Friends of Sandringham Park was born in 2010 because of the high levels of anti-social behaviour in the area, it was a no-go area for families and was in a bad condition. Feeling that the Police, youth service and town council seemed unable to deal with the issues, a group of 40 residents formed The Friends of Sandringham Park to speak with the young people causing the issues and with residents to improve relationships through intergenerational working.

Tomorrow’s Women Wirral (TWW) is a place for thousands of women in Merseyside to feel safe and supported and provides opportunities to make positive life changes.

The group cleaned up the park and removed 10 skips of rubbish. Wanting to be inclusive, the group also purchased log seating and goal posts for the young people and work with the local youth club every Friday night and on events, putting on a Christmas party each year and getting funding for their pool table.

Currently, there are 4000 registered members and TWW receive over 600 visitors per week. Women are given opportunities to address any issues they have creating barriers in their life; abuse, addiction, poverty, poor education, criminal convictions, mental health, poor physical health, employment. To address these issues over 150 agencies, along with TWW staff, formulate a comprehensive monthly timetable of specific, relevant support for women. TWW has proven to change the direction of women’s lives; for many resulting in a reduction of offending and successful completion of Court Orders and Licences (from 47.3% - 2011 to 97% - 2017).

As the behaviour vastly improved the group decided to host additional events in the park to further cement relationships and include everyone.

This was achieved by holding a Big Lunch event every year, and going into partnership with three local businesses who provide all the food.

The group have won six Green Flag awards and two Yorkshire in Bloom awards. This year they began a partnership with the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts who make bat boxes. The group have also started a partnership with the Wetherby Young Offenders Institution (YOI) and the RHS, which allows them to work both inside and outside the YOI to learn skills, knowledge and confidence when they are released.

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Best community group contribution to community cohesion

Since its launch in 2011, TWW has developed into a well-respected safe, female-only charity, where women integrate to address issues, share their experiences, skills, gain knowledge and qualifications. The charity is led by women, many of whom have had their lives positively affected through engaging with TWW.

TWW has a huge social and intergenerational impact within the local community that has been acknowledged through the Charity receiving many awards. This year TWW received the highly acclaimed ‘Commendation’ from HRH Princess Anne through the Butler Trust, for providing a ‘Gold Standard Unpaid Work Project’ based within the safe confines of a female only environment that encourages personal development and life-changing opportunities’.

Best community group contribution to community cohesion

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Best community garden or green space

The People’s Community Garden was set up almost 10 years ago on a neglected corner of an allotment site at the heart of the most disadvantaged area of Ipswich. The vision was to provide a community resource to get people of all ages out into the fresh air, doing something active, growing and harvesting their own food, participating in volunteering and learning new skills, as well as bringing people together to build a more vibrant, resilient community.

In 2011, the group opened a second project - Chantry Walled Garden - in a disused area of a public park on the fringes of a large housing estate as a training facility for young people with complex needs and chaotic lifestyles.

A beekeeping project was also established as a skills share initiative between older and younger people. Three years later the group renovated a disused pavilion as a community hub, where simple, healthy meals could be cooked using the produce they have grown and could also be sold at monthly produce markets. In 2014 a ‘Men in Sheds’ group was formed to work on construction and DIY projects, addressing loneliness in older men.

ActivGardens has encouraged Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) participation and promoted inclusion and multi-culturalism by supporting a number of individuals from a BAME background to obtain their own plot either with them or on the wider site, encouraging them to attend stalls at events, and working with Suffolk Refugee Support Forum to organise group visits, multi-cultural feasts and encourage people to take part in volunteering.

Winner

Last year, 88 people volunteered at ActivGardens, amounting to more than 10,000 hours of health-related activity. The group’s garden projects got more than 400 primary school children active in the open air, growing, harvesting and cooking healthy meals. The group have also completed an ambitious project to build a garden for older people with neurological conditions, such as Dementia, improving access and installing gardening bays for wheelchair users. More than 1,000 people attended open days, events, activities and training courses.

ActivLives, Ipswich Judges’ comments: “This project has made a significant difference to often marginalized groups by supporting them to bringing them together to engage with their local environment, learn new skills, build lasting friendships and lead healthier lifestyles.”

Best community garden or green space

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Blackhill’s Growing, Glasgow

Saunders Park Edible Garden - Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, Brighton

Blackhill’s Growing has transformed an overgrown, unused piece of land behind St Paul’s Church in the east end of Glasgow into a vibrant urban growing space with three polytunnels burgeoning with diverse produce, an orchard, hens and bees.

The transformation has been undertaken mostly by volunteers, who may in the past have been the ones causing the damage to local community projects but are now involved in the decision making processes, resulting in the growing space surviving without damage.

The Food Partnership took over the community garden space in Saunders Park in late 2016 when it was completely neglected and overgrown with weeds, with syringes in the flower beds. The beds themselves were falling apart and the space was mostly used for anti-social behaviour. Parts of the garden had fallen into a sinkhole. This public space was unloved and local residents reported feeling unsafe to walk through alone.

A shipping container sits alongside the site, which is used for storage and hosting events with the local youth-led radio station and is graffitied along its side with the image of an elderly person transferring a plant to a young child’s hand, reminding us of the necessity to mix generations. The open side of the container faces an outdoor seating area for community events, with a pizza oven to finish the picture.

Twice a week, community meals are held in the space. On a Tuesday, local teenagers learn how to cook tasty, healthy foods, and then share them as a community from young children to older residents of the community.

On Thursdays, the pizza oven is fired up, and the community is invited to attend, choose their toppings (some sourced from the poly tunnel), and have their pizza cooked for them.

By being involved with organisations like Nourish, and the Scottish Government’s Fair Food Fund, the project has held many site visits from other community organisations as far afield as Belfast and Aberdeen. These projects are looking to emulate the values and principles that the project works by, for example, being community-led and understanding that every local community has answers to their own problems, and that young people are seen as assets to their community, not as a burden. Local young people see that others want to learn from their community, something which was previously unheard of.

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Best community garden or green space

With funding from Tesco and The Big Lottery Fund and 350+ hours of work by volunteers, they have improved the community garden and changed the feel of the park. The group have built new beds, improved the seating, reinvigorated the orchard, planted new trees, added community compost bins, found a water source, improved the pond, created a design for the garden and run twice monthly gardening groups for vulnerable adults and local residents, reaching over 100 people directly with hundreds more benefiting from improvements to the space. The perennial planting schemes and wildlife habitats benefit people and biodiversity – minimising time on maintenance, demonstrating a sustainable and attractive way to run a community garden in a public space.

Volunteers have formed supportive friendships, the group includes local residents and people in recovery from serious mental health issues and addictions - who report it supports their recovery and is the highlight of their week. Local residents now feel safe walking through the park and go out of their way to walk through and see how the garden is doing. Park users report the seating area is now being used for families picnicking and individuals relaxing and the park feels safer and friendlier.

The Food Partnership advise 600+ people each year about volunteering in gardens across Brighton & Hove, with high numbers of enquiries in central areas which couldn’t be matched to a project, particularly from vulnerable adults who need higher levels of support and for whom travelling can be a barrier. Saunders Park now offers opportunities for these people to benefit.

Best community garden or green space

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Best community group contribution to education or employment

Ramsey Neighbourhoods Trust (RNT) specialises in community development with the aim of improving the lives of people living in the parish of Ramsey, Cambs. Ramsey is extremely isolated and with limited transport links, many are unable to access training, support services and employment opportunities.

RNT deliver ‘Phoenix Courses’ and Job Search projects. Working in tandem these projects allow those who are looking for work to access training and those on training courses to access support into employment. Job Search runs twice a week from Ramsey Library. Local volunteers support fellow residents back into work or training.

Inside and outside opening hours an RNT Project Manager is available to help individuals with CV & application writing. The group advertise jobs at local businesses free of charge, keep a register of local people looking for work and also run employability/training courses including basic computing and C.V. writing.

RNT offers a ‘one-stop-shop’ for unemployed residents as, during Job Search sessions, there is access to ‘Rainbow Savers Credit Union’ and debt counselling from ‘Life Amid Debt.’ In the last eighteen months over 50 local people have gained employment through this service. The difference to participants has been transformational. The holistic approach gives the individual a sense of worth and purpose. By working with individuals, and providing tailor-made support alongside the training, RNT has seen individuals completely turn their lives around.

Winner Ramsey Neighbourhoods Trust, Cambs Judges’ comments: “This project is a one-stop shop for unemployed people living in an isolated community. Significant impacts in the context of the local community, with 50 people supported into work – great project.”

Best community group contribution to education or employment

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Ackworth Community Library, Pontefract

FEAT Trading, Glenrothes

Ackworth Community Library has become an invaluable resource and social/educational hub for the local community over the four years since it opened, with staff being supported by a team of volunteers.

FEAT Trading is a community organisation that arose out of local charity, Fife Employment Access Trust, who provide opportunities for people with mental health conditions to better self-manage their conditions and prepare for, enter and sustain paid employment – or other meaningful activities such as further education or volunteering.

The library has over 1700 active members with 40% under the age of 16 and 19% over the age of 60 and has also developed a service to local schools providing reading and project books to six schools within and surrounding the village, servicing over 800 children.

The library also provides books and jigsaws to the local sheltered housing complex, has established a monthly readers’ group for adults and delivers books to housebound members of the community.

Monthly coffee mornings and activities have proved popular for members and library users of all ages and a service providing advice and support for job seekers through a ‘job club’ is providing those who need it with a helping hand back into employment.

The organisation has developed a business plan to have commercial activity take place to self-fund the park for the future, with allotments, camping and glamping beginning in Easter 2018. In the last 12 months, a total of 61 volunteers took part in work relating to improving the gardens and woodlands and also assisting with the planning and running of events, undertaking historical research about the Park which was a major employer in the local flax industry in the mid to late 1800s.

In October 2016, FEAT Trading joined forces with Fife Council Employability Services to create the “Silverburn Squad”, a programme aimed at unemployed people from the local area, which has one of the highest levels of deprivation in Fife. Participants are selected from postcodes in this area, mitigating travel time and expenses.

The team is based in Levenmouth at Silverburn Park. The park provides a range of opportunities for project related work around woodland management, horticulture and watercourse work although the scope of the work carried out extends to all parts of Levenmouth.

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Best community group contribution to education or employment

Best community group contribution to education or employment

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Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability

Community Furniture Aid (CFA)* is a unique small charity that provides relief and assistance for people in need in Bridgend and surrounding areas who are poor or in housing need, in particular by supplying them with furniture and household items at a nominal cost. This helps restore the dignity of people who have had to start again from scratch, through no fault of their own.

CFA’s objectives are to ensure that the right people are getting the help that they deserve and that is enhanced by liaising with the agencies that cater to the homeless and the poorest in our society. To date, CFA works with over thirty agencies including Women’s Aid, the Wallich, Age Concern and the local council among many others. Working alongside FareShare, food parcels are also offered to help ease the financial burden when clients move into a totally empty property.

Run and manned by a dedicated team of unpaid volunteers this small team has fully furnished 285 homes in the Bridgend County Borough over the last three years. Over 800 collections of public donations equating to 140 tons of household items have been saved from going to waste. Since its inception, no family or individual has returned to use the service again and all have moved on with their lives.

The team not only deal with the impoverished but also offer sympathetic house clearances to people who have suffered bereavement by guaranteeing that the items will be passed on to clients who will be grateful for a chance to give them a new home. *CFA was also a finalist in the ‘Community Group of the Year’ category.

Winner Community Furniture Aid, Bridgend Judges’ comments: “This project has a very clear social purpose and a very genuine need for their services, innovation in the form of fresh food pack deliveries is inspiring. The project benefits from local donations which reduce the challenge and resource needs to a degree but meeting their high services standards by providing a full furniture pack per household raises the bar somewhat.”

Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Tuppenny Barn, Southbourne

Little Village, London

When Maggie Haynes, the project’s founder, began interrogating the quality of the food she was feeding her children she uncovered a world of unsustainable farming practices, an understanding of the need for ecological awareness and a desire to share that with as many people as possible.

Little Village is like a food bank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of five.

The charity collects great quality donations from local families and gets these out to other local families in need via friendly weekly drop-in sessions. It has two sites in Wandsworth and Camden and a third is due to open in Southwark in 2018.

Tuppenny Barn has recently been awarded charitable status and promotes sustainable living, organic growing, healthy cooking and eating, and sustainable horticultural practices. The project is local to schools, colleges, two universities and a community of young families and retirees and specifically engages with the young and disadvantaged believing that knowledge and empowerment in sustainability should be democratised.

The project makes local organic food available to the local community, leading by example in the conscious use, reuse and recycling of packaging and serves 160 customers per week, teaching organic growing and eating to volunteers, school groups and at workshops.

People are empowered to take inspiration from Tuppeny Barn’s land and embed principles of sustainability in their own growing spaces and provide the skills to prepare produce in a healthy, delicious way. The project’s natural, sustainably sourced, straw bale education centre is a physical manifestation of Tuppeny Barn’s philosophies. Funded by donations, it is a testament to the community-centric foundations of the project. The building’s curves evoke the harmony of our relationship with both our environment and community.

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Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability

The charity has helped over 450 families since taking its first referral in April 2016. Feedback is consistently very positive and it is a well-loved part of the community in the areas it operates, having won an award for its outstanding contribution to the communities of Tooting and Balham.

It has some important goals around social cohesion and connected communities, but alongside these ambitions, Little Village has a mission to promote sustainable living, through reducing consumption and promoting a circular economy by sharing resources between local families.

There is a simple beauty to Little Village’s model. Rich and poor families live cheek by jowl in London. Little Village redistributes existing resources more effectively between local families, increasing re-use and recycling. As well as an environmental impact, it’s also possible to trace a social impact: the charity is engaging a network of volunteers and donors in active community leadership around sustainability, and increasing the well-being of struggling families.

Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability

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Best community group contribution to health & wellbeing

Helping Hands is a group in Portsmouth that is run entirely by volunteers. The founder initially set up a Facebook group to try and help the homeless after seeing an increasing number of people sleeping rough on the streets.

A group of volunteers work across Portsmouth taking essential items to people sleeping rough. Items include sleeping bags, blankets, food parcels, hot drinks and sanitary products and field visits are undertaken both at breakfast time and in the evening.

The support provided by Helping Hands contributes to the health and wellbeing of those who have no fixed abode and spend the majority of their time outside in extreme weathers. The emergency items for people that are currently homeless are acquired from the continued generosity of the Portsmouth community through donations and fundraising activities such as pop up restaurant style social events, community dog walks and cake sales that the community get involved with.

The support given by Helping Hands has led to good outcomes for individuals as the group’s ethos is not only to crisis manage and firefight but to address the underlying issues that are causing adversity. The help that people on the street receive from this group would not happen without the dedication, determination and passion of the Helping Hands volunteers that give up their free time whilst dealing with their own lives.

Winner Helping Hands, Portsmouth Judges’ comments: “Amazing project to help boost the health and wellbeing of rough sleepers on the streets of Portsmouth by providing them with essential items and begin to address the underlying issues that are causing them adversity.”

Best community group contribution to health & wellbeing

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Mudlarks Community Garden, Hertford

Core Landscapes, London

Mudlarks is a Hertford-based charity for adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues, offering horticultural therapy, training and work experience on an allotment site and with community gardening teams.

Core Landscapes is an innovative meanwhile community plant nursery and garden project in east London that uses horticulture to promote mental and physical health. Designed to be mobile to showcase imaginative ways of container growing, the project includes an orchard, pond, food and flower beds and polytunnel.

The project makes productive use of otherwise inaccessible derelict land and has been moved three times since 2009.

A vibrant, friendly allotment site, the team at Mudlarks have created a community of gardeners with learning disabilities, volunteers and trained site support workers, who work together to learn new skills and create a sustainable and productive environment. From here they also run two community gardening teams and maintain the town council’s gardens.

Mudlarks opened in 2008, in response to recognition from a number of organisations that there was a lack of activities for adults with learning disabilities in East Hertfordshire. They now support over 100 gardeners every week, each of whom has their own plot of land on which to grow vegetables.

The project offers users opportunities to develop in a number of areas, including improved communication skills, maintaining numeracy and literacy skills, horticultural and carpentry skills as well as offering formal qualifications for gardeners able to take horticultural qualifications at Capel Manor, East Herts and Oaklands College.

Mudlarks also offers meaningful work experience in the community, as gardeners gain experience and confidence they can join ‘Larking About’, an off-site gardening service which operates in the community. Larking About has contracts to maintain Hertford Town Council’s gardens, and gardeners use the skills they have learned at the allotments in a real work setting.

Gardeners also have the opportunity to join ‘Special Branch’, a community gardening team which assists elderly residents who are no longer able to care for their own gardens, by undertaking regular maintenance jobs such as pruning, mowing and weeding.

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Best community group contribution to health & wellbeing

Bi-weekly open volunteering horticultural sessions take place on the site where volunteers share knowledge and confidence aiding new volunteers and providing advice to the public and create a haven for the local community that helps improve mental wellbeing and encourages people to lead an active healthy lifestyle.

The site is visited by over 1000 people each year, with over 50 regular volunteers providing the equivalent of 2000 volunteer hours. Volunteers vary in age, background, culture and experience and many suffer from social isolation, depression or substance misuse. They often stay with the project after it has been relocated because they benefit so greatly from it, people value feeling part of something worthwhile that improves the environment for others to enjoy.

Despite limited funding, Core Landscapes supports other community green projects with subsidised plant stock, workshops, an online “toolkit” for container growing projects and by signposting to resources so its impact is greater than the physical space it occupies. It has directly supported 30 other projects in a two-year period including two other meanwhile projects.

Best community group contribution to health & wellbeing

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Best community project on a social housing estate

Possibilities for Each and Every Kid (PEEK) has been delivering outdoor play in Glasgow’s streets, parks, school playgrounds and improving derelict land since 2009. Responding to the needs of local parents concerned about the lack of safety and opportunity for children to play outdoors in their community, PEEK developed a ‘Play Ranger’ play programme. PEEK’s Play Ranger programme supports children to reclaim community spaces for play whilst developing friendships with others.

The Play Ranger programme first began in 2009 in the Gallowgate and Calton community in Glasgow’s east end. Using derelict land, PEEK and the local kids cleaned up spaces to allow play sessions to take place. Over 50 children were benefiting on a weekly basis from having positive role models in their community playing alongside them.

Eight years on, PEEK is now working with over 1000 kids on a weekly basis and operate their Play Ranger programme in 30 disadvantaged communities across the east and north of Glasgow. PEEK play sessions are completely free of charge and are aimed at children up to the age of 16.

PEEK’s Play Ranger programme has seen over 80 young people between the ages of 14-25 become play volunteers in their local community regularly leading play sessions alongside PEEK Play Rangers. PEEK has also trained up local parents to become Play Champions and to run their own play sessions in their community. There are currently 12 Play Rangers in the PEEK Play team, all of whom have been involved in PEEK as a participant or volunteer.

Winner Possibilities for Each and Every Kid, Glasgow Judges’ comments: “This project has really given the children of Glasgow safe, well-managed opportunities to express themselves through play and it’s striking to note that the project has such an impact that many former volunteers continue with the project as ‘Play Rangers’ – enabling new volunteers to benefit from their experience.”

Best community project on a social housing estate

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Ark Community Gardens, Newcastle

OASIS Community Centre & Gardens, Worksop

Ark Gardens works with people from a range of ages, backgrounds and abilities with an interest in gardening and crafts.

Ark Community has supported local people to grow food for the table, eat seasonally, share resources and goals and come together to work towards achieving well-being through horticulture and nature.

The OASIS Community Centre & Garden opened six years ago with the aim of becoming the hub of community life in an area which had lost its identity as a result of a lack of facilities on the estate and surrounding area.

The gardens were originally derelict and had to be cleared. Gifted materials to build facilities on site, the project continues to enjoy support from the wider community, District Council, councillors, local charities, church groups and the local press.

The project’s achievements are a result of hard work by its volunteers and a belief in achieving health through eating organically homegrown produce and by encouraging the community to work together to create well-being.

Ark uses volunteer skills and experience to support the community and has a goal of creating a sustainable community that is financially viable.

Four local housing estates now work closely with Ark to enhance their environment and a local hotel now regularly buys produce grown at the site, which thanks to its community outreach has helped to decrease local anti-social behaviour.

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Best community project on a social housing estate

The centre is now a thriving community hub with projects for all ages, all needs, all interests and with several community enterprises and major projects attracting attention and praise in lots of ways.

The OASIS Community Centre now has over 30 different projects for people of all ages, interests and needs from babies through to elderly, over 10 major events for the community each year, established three Community Enterprises, an adult Educational courses and an OASIS ‘Night of Honour’ event celebrating local unsung heroes.

The centre continues to add many new additional projects, events, enterprises to the project, which is providing the estate with so many new things and increasing community stability, opportunities for all and community pride. It has also enabled many other organisations to work in the heart of the community by using the centre for their work.

Best community project on a social housing estate

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Community leader of the year

Since 2007, Yetunde has supported integration of black communities in Gravesham; volunteered and partnered with relevant institute and statutory bodies (such as Kent Police, Ebbsfleet United FC, Sure Start, Local Schools, NHS, etc) to reach out to the African community and to engage and empower less privileged individuals by providing a range of free services.

Very passionate about family support and career development, Yetunde formed the African Caribbean Forum (ACF) in 2009; initiating programs and projects that address Black And Minority Ethnic (BAME) concerns and bridged the gap between individuals from a BAME background and local opportunities. Yetunde also manages Enterprise Club; a business start-up forum that serves referrals from Dartford, Gravesham and Medway Job Centres and has worked with hundreds of individuals who have successfully started their business or career development in the UK. In 2011, Yetunde co-founded a youth group called ‘Youth Ngage’, a project that works with North Kent Police and other community organisations to bring young people from North Kent together to promote and encourage career development activities, talent promotion and sporting activities.

Yetunde also became the Chair of African Caribbean Forum in 2014 and oversees the management committee responsible for its effective functioning; coordinating when required and ensuring appropriate policies and procedure are in place in accordance with the constitution.

In the same year, Yetunde founded another organisation that enhances and supports Women and Faith groups in leadership development roles in order to affect their lives and community positively (WFF). The organisation helps to develop women mentors who contribute their talent and time to build and support other women suffering in silence; it provides young females with mentors who support them to develop their career or vision in order to achieve purpose in life.

Winner Yetunde Adeola, Gravesham Judges’ comments: “Yetunde repeatedly demonstrates leadership skills around an area that she is passionate and knowledgeable about. She has also seeded other organisations that help to prepare the ground for new leaders and innovators in different subjects and geographical areas.”

Community leader of the year

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Angela Parton, Feltham

Babs Protheroe, Rhydyfelin

Angela has almost single-handedly changed the centre of Feltham in the past year from being unkempt and forgotten into a place where things are improving and where people take pride in their local parks.

Babs is a truly inspirational 66-year-old from Rhydyfelin who doesn’t let her blindness or hearing difficulties get her down or hold her back. Babs has been completely blind for 14 years, however, she has not let this stop her achieving her goals of helping others and working with children and young people.

Readily admitting that ‘she doesn’t really know what she is doing’, Angela volunteered to be the Treasurer and Vice-Chair of the newly-formed Friends of Bridge House Pond (FoBHP), and successfully completed their annual accounts. She has also organised the Feltham Pond clear-up volunteers group. Both groups have held multiple clear ups in the past year and have engaged upwards of 100 people in clear-ups, organising litter-picks, cutting back overgrown bushes and planting spring bulbs.

She has talked to just about everyone in all organisations in the town about the FoBHP - from schools, local businesses and charities, and got them on board. She arranged for a local business to do an amazing pro bono logo for the FoBHP and has met with schools, helping them connect with nature and local heritage.

Angela has attended countless meetings with the Council to try and resolve issues of littering and overfeeding of birds at Feltham pond and inspects the pond every day and reports any issues, as well as clearing any litter she can. Because of her work, Feltham Pond achieved a Green Flag this year, when a year ago it was an eyesore.

After raising three children, Babs started to volunteer for several national organisations including the Royal Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and Girl Guides. Babs heads RNIB’s UK telephone helpline from her home - Talk and Support is a free and fortnightly national telephone support group for blind parents. A trained counsellor, Babs offers her knowledge and expertise to parents in need of reassurance and has been described by the RNIB as an “invaluable volunteer and spokesperson”. In addition to this, she has volunteered for the Girl Guides for over 30 years. Without Babs’s organisation and willingness to help young girls and volunteers on a weekly basis, Guides would cease to exist in Rhydyfelin.

Through her own life experience, she recognised that there was a gap in the services available for people with sensory loss, so she set up a coffee morning for the visually impaired so that everyone could swap tips, for example, putting an elastic band around a shampoo bottle to distinguish it from the conditioner. This developed into the Sensory Impairment Drop-In Scheme (SIDS) which has now been running for 10 years, with more than 20 members still accessing this vital service on the first and third Friday of every month.

Babs organises various activities for SIDS members and their families to access such as trips, singing, art activities, gardening and informative talks to name but a few. She is determined to ensure that SIDS members are included in community activities in order to reduce their social isolation.

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Community leader of the year

Community leader of the year

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Community group of the year

Love Old Trafford (LOT) is a community-led group that works closely with a range of partners to provide a series of on-going projects to engage local residents with, including an alleyway art club for families, a community allotment, a biannual open garden event, regular park and street ‘clean-ups’ and street/alley greening.

To encourage residents to join in activities throughout the year, the group holds a community event on the first Sunday of every month.

In 2016 LOT were pivotal in a large scale volunteering event involving 600 corporate volunteers and 300 households to reclaim the unloved alleys behind traditional terraced houses and transform them into a thriving community space. The project was a massive partnership initiative involving LOT, the local community, the local authority, Groundwork and the private sector to achieve a large-scale physical environmental improvement. Gates were painted, planters and bird/bug houses installed, seating areas created and artwork included in each of the 10 alleys.

LOT encourages the local community to contribute any new ideas for projects and offers support to realise these projects so that they can grow through the sponsorship of residents and partners. We carry out surveys to target priority areas identified by the local community. The last was held in 2015 which led to many engagement activities over the last two years, including hot-spot cleanups of rubbish and fly-tipping and planting events in street tree pits where green infrastructure is lacking.

Keen to remove any barriers to the local community participating in neighbourhood activities, the group offer practical tool hire for free so that anyone can have a go at gardening in the allotment by borrowing spades, trowels and wheelbarrows, or have a tidy-up in their local park by using litter pickers.

Winner Love Old Trafford, Greater Manchester Judges’ comments: “Great practical, hands-on project that encourages pride in the local community and encourages on-going community contributions.”

Community group of the year

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Highly commended

Highly commended

Shadforth Community Association, County Durham

Community Furniture Aid, Bridgend

The Shadforth Community Association was formed in County Durham in 1952 by a group of residents who were the driving force behind the building of the local village hall in 1954.

Today, the association continues to organise the running and maintenance of the hall for the benefit of the Shadforth community and provide a range of events to promote local community spirit.

Community Furniture Aid (CFA)* is a unique small charity that provides relief and assistance for people in need in Bridgend and surrounding areas who are poor or in housing need, in particular by supplying them with furniture and household items at a nominal cost. This helps restore the dignity of people who have had to start again from scratch, through no fault of their own.

The association meets monthly to plan a range of events, ensuring that they cater to all interests, ages and community needs, including: Burns Nights, St George’s Day celebrations, strawberries and cream afternoon teas, gin and wine tasting nights, murder mysteries, Halloween and Christmas parties and fairs, the village pantomime, talent shows, village shows, first aid training, history, art and crafts events, ceilidhs, litter picks and community gardening events, the village tennis tournament and musical events to suit a wide range of tastes.

In 2015 a voluntary team formed to completely repaint the interior of the hall, a task which took several weeks of hard work.

In 2009 another subgroup formed and undertook the huge task of working with young people of the village to fundraise, refurbish and redesign the village park. This included an innovative scrape and swale scheme to solve drainage issues, the planting of over 500 trees, wildflower plantings and a fabulous new set of play equipment including a new football pitch.

This refurbishment won an Environmental Award commendation.

CFA’s objectives are to ensure that the right people are getting the help that they deserve and that is enhanced by liaising with the agencies that cater to the homeless and the poorest in our society. To date, CFA works with over thirty agencies including Women’s Aid, the Wallich, Age Concern and the local council among many others. Working alongside FareShare, food parcels are also offered to help ease the financial burden when clients move into a totally empty property.

Run and manned by a dedicated team of unpaid volunteers this small team has fully furnished 285 homes in the Bridgend County Borough over the last three years. Over 800 collections of public donations equating to 140 tons of household items have been saved from going to waste. Since its inception, no family or individual has returned to use the service again and all have moved on with their lives.

The team not only deal with the impoverished but also offer sympathetic house clearances to people who have suffered bereavement by guaranteeing that the items will be passed on to clients who will be grateful for a chance to give them a new home. *CFA was also a winner in the ‘Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability’ category.

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Community group of the year

Community group of the year

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Young community leader of the year

Akeim grew up in Whalley Range, a notorious area of Manchester and saw many of his friends become involved in crime. Akeim, however, says he was inspired by his parents to find positive things to do that make a difference and transforms where he lives into a better place for everyone.

Akeim felt a strong urge to get out there and do something; working with young people and his community to make their neighbourhood safer, where those younger than him have the same opportunities he enjoyed – or better.

On Fridays and Saturdays, Akeim helps run a youth club that’s open to local young people of all ages and provides a safe, fun environment away from the street corners. He says that it’s important to him to be someone participants can talk to and works to ensure that he’s supporting the young people to have a vision of where they want to be in life.

Akeim has been appointed as an ambassador for Manchester City Council – a role that involves him acting as a spokesperson for the local community, where he helps people to find and apply for jobs through a jobs group he set up on Facebook, which now has 17,000 members, helped 200 people to gain a full-time job and is supported by over 100 businesses.

Akeim applied for various sources of funding and was often unsuccessful.

He didn’t let that deter him and was eventually able to secure the funding he needed to purchase a number of materials and promote his youth club.

Akeim has been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to his community.

Winner Akeim Mundell, Manchester Judges’ comments: “Amazing achievements! This is an exceptional project that has made a huge impact to the communities in Manchester, whilst also giving other young people the opportunity to develop their skills. Akeim is an inspiration to young people and the project demonstrates his fantastic leadership skills.”

Young community leader of the year

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Highly commended

Winners and finalists

Marc Smith, Glasgow

Best community group contribution to health and wellbeing

Best community partnership with business

WINNER: Helping Hands (Portsmouth) Finalist: Core Landscapes (London) Finalist: Mudlarks Community Garden (Hertford)

WINNER: Willesden Green Town Team (London) Finalist: Chelmsford Foodbank (Chelmsford) Finalist: Silverline Memories (Newcastle)

Marc left school with few qualifications and became a carpet fitter.

He has grown up in the area and attended the youth project for five years, eventually becoming a trustee at the age of 16 and helps to shape the direction of the organisation while also playing an influential role in helping young people stay out of trouble.

Marc, having attended an event ran by Architecture and Design Scotland and Stalled Spaces that showed different projects across the world, looked at an area of unused land around the back of the youth project and thought that the space could be used for a number of different community growing and sharing projects. His main ideas included keeping hens for eggs to create a social enterprise and creating a community eating space with a wood-fired oven to make pizzas weekly.

He has assisted in taking the project from an overgrown piece of land to an active growing space that has a number of growing opportunities.

There is a huge demand for egg sales and young people who look after the hens get 50% of the eggs produced with the other 50% going for sale for the project.

Marc has been instrumental in getting a wood-fired pizza oven and encouraging young people to become more positively involved. Now there is a weekly free pizza session where the whole community can gather and share food together, using produce from the growing project. This has helped the project gain funding from the Scottish government, to use this as part of a dignified solution to food poverty, by getting people to grow and share food together, rather than receive handouts.

As a result of Marc’s ideas and ability to inspire young people, he gained an apprenticeship in youth work through the Rank Foundation and graduated from their GAP programme in January at an event in London. He is now a full-time employee, supporting young people to continue with the growing project, which has now gone on to have an orchard, three polytunnels, community raised beds, bees, alongside 16 hens.

Marc has given up every Saturday night to give young people a different option to antisocial behaviour by being involved in a project that helps them get more out of life. As a result of the young people taking part in the growing project, the local community has seen a 93% drop in youth crime over the last 10 years and young people are living much healthier and richer lives.

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Young community leader of the year

Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability WINNER: Community Furniture Aid (Bridgend) Finalist: Little Village (London) Finalist: Tuppeny Barn Education (Southbourne)

Best community garden or green space WINNER: ActivLives (Ipswich) Finalist: Blackhill’s Growing (Glasgow) Finalist: Saunders Park Edible Garden (Brighton)

Best community group contribution to community cohesion

Community group of the year – all round achievement award

WINNER: Our Place (London) Finalist: Friends of Sandringham Park (Wetherby) Finalist: Tomorrow’s Women Wirral (Birkenhead)

WINNER: Love Old Trafford (Manchester) Finalist: Community Furniture Aid (Bridgend) Finalist: Shadforth Community Association (Durham)

Best community group contribution to education or employment WINNER: Ramsey Neighbourhood Trust (Ramsey) Finalist: Ackworth Community Library (Pontefract) Finalist: FEAT Trading CIC (Glenrothes)

Young Community Leader of the Year WINNER: Akeim Mundell (Manchester) Finalist: Aycha Ates Di Adamo (Bournemouth) Finalist: Marc Smith (Glasgow) Community Leader of the Year

Best community project on a social housing estate WINNER: Possibilities for Each and Every Kid (Glasgow) Finalist: Ark Community Gardens (Newcastle) Finalist: OASIS Community Church, Centre & Gardens (Worksop)

WINNER: Yetunde Adeola (Gravesham) Finalist: Babs Protheroe (Rhydyfelin) Finalist: Angela Parton (Feltham)

Inspired?

The Groundwork Community Awards aim to showcase the achievements of groups already active in their local areas. However, we know many more people could be motivated to act with the right encouragement and support. Below is our ten-point plan for supporting more people to become award winners of the future.

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1.

Get organised. Turning your kitchen table talk into proper plans will be easier if you’re a constituted group. It’s a simple process and you can get help and advice on how to do it. Most funders will only award money to constituted groups.

2.

Get the council onside. They may not be able to give you much money these days but they can help you in lots of other ways in terms of advice, permissions and publicity. Make your local councillor your best friend.

3.

Do your homework. If your project involves land or buildings then you’ll most likely need permission and advice about regulations. You could also research the history of your area to maximise your project’s heritage potential and to build on the pride and knowledge of local residents.

4.

Go for strength in numbers. Check if there’s a local group or charity already active in your area that you could join forces with. You might also design your project so that it interests local schools, hospitals, faith groups or uniformed organisations who all support social action in their communities.

5.

Give everyone a stake. Good community projects will harness the knowledge, skills and networks of everyone in the area. Young people can be champions on social media, parents can link with the local school, faith groups can raise funds, older people can pass on skills. Having a mixed group of volunteers will ensure other people don’t see you as a self-serving clique.

6.

Go with the seasonal flow. Piggyback on festivals and awareness days to drive interest in your project and get some expert advice on when and how to do things e.g. build gardens over the winter ready for people to enjoy in the better weather.

7.

Appeal to business. More companies are embracing the need to be seen to be responsible citizens. Many will provide materials or labour in the form of volunteers and some will offer their professional skills to help but don’t forget to give them something back in terms of public recognition.

8.

Consult, consult, consult. It may seem like the more people you ask about your project the more different answers you’ll get but it’s worth the time and effort – the more people who feel a sense of ‘ownership’ over the project the more likely it is to work – and stand the test of time.

Groundwork Community Awards 2017 Finalists

9.

Think about the end at the start. A lot of good projects never reach their full potential because not enough thought was given to how to sustain them beyond the initial enthusiasm. Think about how to recruit volunteers, how to identify opportunities for income or enterprise and how to recruit younger supporters who can carry on your good work.

10. Make it fun and productive. Most people engage in community projects because they meet new people and find it personally rewarding. Make this part of the deal by giving people roles that work around their other commitments, enhance their CVs or build their social networks – and don’t forget to celebrate your achievements.

The Groundwork Community Awards are sponsored by:

The Groundwork Community Awards also benefited from the support of Firmdale Hotels, Skanska, GVA, One Stop, Greenspace Scotland, Fields in Trust, Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, Ambition, PWC, Clarion Housing and Balfour Beatty.

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