Community Spaces is a £57.5 million open grants programme funded through the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces initiative and managed by Groundwork UK on behalf of an experienced national consortium.

The programme empowers community groups to improve public spaces in their neighbourhood. It responds directly to people’s aspirations to have better places on their doorsteps and aims to:

• Create better local environments 
• Increase people’s access to quality local spaces for interaction, play and recreation
• Increase the number of people actively involved in developing and running a practical environmental project that is visible in their community 
• Improve partnerships between communities, support organisations and local authorities

The programme closed to new applications in January 2011

To successfully apply for a Community Spaces grant, applications had to show that projects would improve local neighbourhoods and environments. The programme offers grants of between £10,000 and £49,999 to create the following types of projects;

• Community gardens and parks
• Informal sports areas and multi-use games areas
• Nature reserves
• Squares and village greens
• Churchyards 
• Ponds and projects which improve the local community’s access to green space

A full list of what Community Spaces can and cannot fund is available under the Criteria section of the Community Spaces website.

This blog is a space for the Community Spaces team to share information, news and stories with successful projects and others who are interested in our work.  It is hoped that this blog will develop into an informative network  that supports community groups across the country that are actively working to improve their local areas.