Dave Morris, Chair of the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces took part in the April Midland Parks Forum webinar a few weeks ago.
Dave delivered a powerful presentation on the UK grassroots Friends Group movement, looking at its structure, importance and aims. He also shared information on Parks Community UK and the range of toolkits and resources available on our website, a unique resource designed to support green space volunteers.
Thanks also to Sarah Royal and Martin Willis from NFPGS who gave valuable contributions. Sarah discussed the fact that there have been 18 new Friends groups starting up in the Birmingham area in the last 12 months. This is really encouraging to hear. And Martin pointed out the diversity of volunteer groups, calling it a ‘green stakeholder network’. He believes parks and open spaces should not be seen as isolated individual sites but as a shared environment for communities. He believes green space forum’s will play an important role in helping groups re-focus and re-engage with their communities post-COVID. He also uggested many of the new COVID-safe practices will continue to play a role whilst the virus is still a threat to communities.
You can watch the 15 minute presentation here plus the 15 min long Q & A session which followed (including discussion of attracting younger members and working alongside youth groups).
The whole webinar can be viewed by clicking here.