The Community Spaces programme will be closing to new applications on Friday 07 January 2011 at 12 noon. For more information see: http://www.community-spaces.org.uk/module/news/display/newsdisplay.aspx?news=74
Any community groups that wish to create or improve a green open space should ensure they are eligible and get their applications in no later than the deadline date of 12 noon on Friday 07 Janaury 2011.
A photography competition is being run by Dezeen, the online architectural and design magazine and The Photographers’ Gallery to find ‘Areas of Outstanding Urban Beauty’.
The idea behind the competition is to find out what people love about the places where they live.
The photo could be of a single building, a cityscape or your newly designed Community Spaces project. The only requirements are that it must be somewhere beautiful to you.
The closing date is 5pm on Monday 11th October 2010 and the winning photograph will get published in The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
For more information regarding the competitin, click here.
At a recent networking day for Facilitators, we discussed a perpetual topic – innovation. This is an area that can often be confusing and lacks tangible meaning to groups. The main questions we asked each other were:
What is innovation?
How does innovation differ between groups?
Where are the different areas for innovation in the project lifecycle?
Innovation is the introduction of new ways of doings things, something different, something unconventional, something exciting!
We have already seen good examples of innovation in Community Spaces projects, but we want to know things that you have done or seen that deserve recognition and should be shared. Your examples could be from any part of the project process: how you tendered; use of social media; a specific consultation event; the sustainability grant; the launch event; and, of course, the project itself.
Some examples that have already featured on our blog are:
Turning an old tree into some artwork
A group gave ongoing progress reports and photos via their website
School children designing their own artwork, featuring their own pictures
We want to share your experiences to help ensure all project offer something different and promote innovation throughout Community Spaces. Let us know your innovative examples.
A new and improved Publicity Toolkit has been launched this week and is now avaliable online.
The toolkit is designed to help you meet the requirements of your Community Spaces grant. It provides advice on how to promote your project, organise events, and how to deal any media enquires you may have about your project.
We have designed the toolkit to make it more user friendly by adding new navigation links, so you can flip through the chapters with ease. We have also included a new ‘Social Media’ chapter, which offers detailed description on how you can use social media sites to promote your projects.
To download your copy of the new Publicity Toolkit, visit http://www.community-spaces.org.uk/toolkit
The first part of the development has got underway at one of Community Spaces flagship projects.
Halton Community Association received £450,000 from Community Spaces to build leisure and recreational activities outside their newly extended community centre. The group are using the money to build a toddler play area, an adventure zone for older children, a BMX skate park, a seating and socialising area, along with adding more planting to redevelop the wildlife area.
Within the last month, the community group have seen a new car park being installed; the old skate park equipment being removed off site and grass seeds being been planted on the turf surrounding the community centre
The project is not due to finish until August 2011. We are looking forward to seeing the project develop over the next 12 months.
Bryer Road Environmental Group celebrated the opening of their new natural play area in style by throwing a fun filled launch event. The group’s facilitator, David Hammond, reflects on how the play area has been transformed.
The hard work by the Bryer Road Environmental Group (BEG) in Prescot, Knowsley, has been rewarded this month with the launch of a natural play area which brings the beach to the centre of Prescot.
The natural play area is the third and final phase of a landscape master plan created back in 2001 with the help of local Groundwork Trust, Groundwork Merseyside.
A Surestart-funded children’s playground was the first phase of the project, sited behind the Bryer Road Community Centre. A community garden & outdoor education area (used regularly by the children of nearby St Mary and St Pauls schools) was phase two.
The natural play area – paid for with £35,000 of Community Spaces funding – is the third and most ambitious phase of the project. It provides a range of challenging and fun equipment for both young and older children, including a wooden climbing frame, a tunnel, lookout post and boulder slope. Rather than rubber or wood chip, the surface under the climbing frame is play sand, which is proving a hit with the local children.
Parents and tired children can enjoy taking a break on some very special benches. Carved from solid logs with a chainsaw, the benches feature an array of wildlife. Woodlice and centipedes crawl across the surface and a mole, dormouse and owl are just some of the creatures that peer out of the timber.
At the launch event, the face painting was as popular as ever. And so a parade of young vampires, superheroes and animals enjoyed herb planting with the charity Landlife (based at the nearby National Wildflower Centre), jewellery making and a bouncy castle. The mayors of Whiston and Prescot both visited to be shown around the play area by the BEG members.
Local residents enjoying the sunshine thought the new play area was fantastic. One lady said ‘It’s like bringing the beach into Prescot. We will bring buckets and spades and stay all day.’
To see the fantastic photos from the launch event, visit our Flickr page.
Since work commenced in January, the Friends of Middleton View have increased the protection of local landscapes and biodiversity by creating a tranquil green space that is being enjoyed by the residents of Middleton, and its surrounding wildlife.
The group received £28,147 from Community Spaces to improve an overgrown green space that had been forgotten about. They used their funding to plant trees, create a large flower meadow, and add steps around the park to give the locals easy access.
Since the project was completed in May, local school children have been planting snowdrops in the park, and large numbers of Bullfinches have found a home in the meadow.
Congratulations to the group for completing such a successful project.
Has your Community Spaces garden or allotment been made possible by the hard work and dedication of one individual or a small group of people?
Well, you could recognise their commitment by nominating them for the ‘Gardening Against the Odds Award.’ The competition is being run by the Daily Telegraph in association with the Conservation Foundation and Green & Blacks, and is dedicated to the memory of the Sunday Telegraph writer, Elspeth Thompson, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
The entries can be on behalf of individual gardeners or small communities who have overcome obstacles such as creating a garden in an unlikely or hospitable corner or gardening in the face of physical or mental health problems such as depression or grief.
You can enter yourself, or nominate a friend by downloading an application form at www.telegraph.co.uk/gardeningawards.
A selection of the best entries will be posted on the Telegraph gardening website. For more information about the award and how you can enter, visit: www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening
Earlier this week we visited St Mary’s Churchyard Project in Lutterworth to see how their project was coming along.
Do you want Community Spaces news sent right to your in
box? Well you can now subscribe to us and we’ll email you when something new is available.
The link to subscribe can be found on the Contact Us page and down the left hand column. However, to make it even easier for you we’ve included it here.
To subscribe to the Community Spaces blog, click on on the following link.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
See all these images at the Community Spaces Flickr Pool.
Image from the Community Spaces Flickr Group
