40 reps and members of active greenspace Friends and community groups came together in what may have been the first ever UK green space community empowerment conference. Workshops and discussions centred on empowering groups and sharing knowledge.
Partnership Working
Bromley Park Friends Toolkit
The Bromley Park Friends Toolkit provides guidance and information to help you find the appropriate place or person to solve problems in or associated with your green space, whether rural or urban. It does not attempt to prescribe how or what every Friends Group should do, the intention is to provide a starting point for “how do I?”
questions.
Building a network: Birmingham Open Spaces Forum
BOSF is a volunteer network organisation, set up at the end of 2004, that brings together all the community groups in Birmingham with an interest in green open spaces. Our main focus is supporting the volunteers who add value to the city’s open space.
What is community empowerment and how can we make it happen?
What does empowerment in green spaces look like?
Friends of Central Park dog show
Central Park in Peterborough has a large population of dog-walkers. The Friends Group organised the parks first fun Dog Show in 2016 and it continues to go from strength to strength.
Dukes Meadows: Local people organise together to save their park
Dukes Meadows is a 170-acre site which was pretty derelict 20 years ago. The community and volunteers helped regenerate the site into a lovely thriving park.
Disused wasteland transformed into Meadow Orchard
Meadow Orchard Project is 1.5 -2 acres in size. It’s a wild space, a disused area of wasteland that was developed by a dynamic group of volunteers to establish a nature conservation site based on permaculture principles for the public to enjoy and from which to learn. Permission was granted by the landowners, NHS Properties Ltd, in 2010. Haringey Council has listed the site as a grade one site for nature conservation.
Saving Turn Moss from non-community use development
In 2018 planning permission was sought to develop the Green Belt site as a training centre for Salford City Football Club. The Campaign to Save Turn Moss was successful and the campaigners formed Friends of Turn Moss to ensure the site was improved for the benefit of all the users.
Defeating a “land Grab” and making a green space an “Asset of Community Value” – Friends of Wandsworth Park
Friends of Wandsworth Park successfully defeat a land-grab. Neighbours adjacent to the park submit a planning application to ‘change of use’ to allow the space to be incorporated into their private gardens.
Woodcock Park Mural – from eyesore to local landmark
In Woodcock Park there is a wall that lies next to the path that leads to the park. The wall was always painted what can only be described as snot green.