Why not try to get along to a launch…  share some inspiration and pick up some tips!

February 15
Friends of Wyndham Square
Neswick  Play Area
Stonehouse
Plymouth
PL1 5JG
Playground

February 16
Parkstone Sports & Arts Centre
Recreation Road
Poole
Dorset
BH12 2EA
Multi-use games area

March 24
Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Great Dunmow
St Mary’s Riverside Project
Church End
Great Dunmow
Essex
CM6 2AE
Churchyard/nature improvements

March 31
Friends of Ashurst Recreation Ground
Lakewood Road/Whartons Lane
Ashurst
Southampton
Hampshire
SO40 7EF
Park improvements

April 11
Woodsend Community Group
Woodsend Park
Woodsend Circle
Flixton
Manchester
M41 8GY
Playground

April 14
Friends of Peckham Rye Park
Peckham Rye Park
Southwark
London
SE15 3UA
Community wildlife garden

April 21
Garstang Millennium Green Trust
Wyre Lane
Garstang
Lancashire
PR3 1HZ
Footpaths and bridleways

December 3
The Welfare Park Committee
Welfare Park
Garland Road
Parkeston
Harwich
Essex
CO12 4PA
Park improvements, play equipment

Hawthorn Mother and Toddler Group
Belmont Avenue
Hawthorn
Durham
SR7 8SE
Playground

Brixton Community Association
Woodland Drive
Brixton
Plymouth
Devon
PL8 2PB
Playground

December 4
Friends of Bottom Boat Playground
Bottom Boat Road
Stanley
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF3 4AU
Playground

December 8
Wildlife Habitat Protection Trust
Little Fenton
Leeds
LS25 6HG
Nature trail, community wildlife meadow

December 10
Derby Sutton Estate Tenants Association
Shalfleet Drive
Alvaston
Derby
DE24 0UR
Natural play area

December 11
Friends of Marsden Park
Manchester Road
Marsden
Huddersfield
West Yorkshire
HD7 6EU
Playground

Friends of War Memorial Park
Leamington Road
Coventry
CV3 6JD
Playground

Blackhall Community Association
Heselden Road
Blackhall
Hartlepool
Cleveland
TS27 4LG
Community garden improvements

December 17
Wellies Action Group
Wellington Place
Hereford
HR1 1SW
Playground

Gaddesby Play Ground Group
Paske Avenue
Gaddesby
Leicestershire
LE7 4WJ
Multi-use games area

Manor Park Fund
Johnson’s Lane Play Area
Crowle
Lincolnshire
DN17 4EW
Playground

Jarvis Brook Recreation Ground
Crowborough
East Sussex
TN6 2EG
MUGA, skate facility, natural play area

December 19

Quarrendon & Meadowcroft Community Action Partnership
Meadowcroft
Aylesbury
Bucks
HP19 9LS
Playground

St Mark’s Community Association
St Mark’s Terrace
Millfield
Sunderland
SR4 7BN
Community and activity garden

Felix Wilson, aged 10, won the fancy dress prize with his home-made Blue Knight costume

The Friends of Stationers Park in north London have launched their new playground after a whirlwind couple of weeks.
Anyone who has organised a launch event will know the effort required, so when the Friends were given just two weeks’ notice that their project would be ready, they swung into action.

The playground – which benefited from a £49,940 Community Spaces grant – features a fort at its heart, so the Friends organised a medieval-themed event, with a fancy dress competition, stilt walker, face-painter, musicians and other attractions.

Kle Savidge, chair of the Friends group, says: “Our event was turned around in less than two weeks as that was the most notice the council could provide on exactly when the fence around the building work would come down. I think I speak for everyone when I say it looked like it had been months in the planning.

“We are now fundraising for stage two of the playground build.  If anyone has time to get involved, please do get in touch by emailing friendsofstationerspark@yahoo.co.uk 

Good luck with the next phase…

Street Lane Community Association and Friends of Street Lane School in Derbyshire celebrated the opening of their newly refurbished Street Lane Recreation Ground with a surprise visit from ‘Ramie’ last Friday. 

The famous ram mascot from Derby County Football Club made a surprise appearance to help open the new project.

Street Lane Community Association was awarded £49,921 from Community Spaces to create a flat-leveled playing field and to extend the existing play area.

The launch attracted a huge number of local’s as the children from Street Lane Primary School opened the project and paraded around the recreation field with homemade Chinese lanterns.

To hear about how Community Spaces funding has made a difference to their community, watch this video.

Photos from the launch can be found on the groups Flickr page.

Not only is this week the beginning of spring, it’s the start of Climate Week.

Climate Week is a national occasion running from the 21^st-27^th March, which is campaigning to raise our awareness and ambition to tackle climate change.

To do your bit to tackle climate change, your group can hold an event in your newly developed Community Spaces project to help raise awareness about the ongoing issues surrounding our climate.

The event could be a talk, workshop, training session, a party or any other kind of activity.

For more information about the kind of events you can run or what you can do to help combat climate change, visit the Climate Week website.

Let us know what you’ll be doing for Climate Week!

To celebrate the beginning of the warm weather, Love Parks Week is celebrating its fifth birthday and is aiming to get over 1 million people out into their local park!

Love Parks Week is an annual celebration of our parks and green spaces. It is organised by Community Spaces partner organisation, Green Space.  Love Parks Week raises awareness of what our parks have to offer, and is a campaign to save these valuable community assets.

This year, Love Parks Week is running from the 23^rd-31^st July, so there’s plenty of time to plan how you are going to celebrate Love Parks Week in your newly developed Community Spaces project.

For more information on how to organise your own event, visit the Love Parks Week website.

Community Spaces wants to help ensure that your project will continue to be a valuable asset in your community for many years to come and to help your group do this we have allocated an additional pot of funding (a Sustainability Grant) to every project that has been successful with securing funding from the programme.

The maximum Sustainability Grant payable is related to the size of grant you have been awarded and is included in your offer of delivery grant letter.

What will it fund?

The Sustainability Grant can be used for a variety of things and we encourage groups to be innovative and creative with the ideas they submit. The idea is to use the funding to ensure that the project you have delivered is well used within the community and that it will continue to be valued. There are three key areas that can be covered by the Sustainability Grant: 

•  Events and activities

•  Training/Group capacity building

•  Equipment and tools to help volunteers maintain the site

Some examples of how groups have used their Sustainability Grant can be found below:

Stoke Gabriel Pre-school

This group is running Chainsaw Carving Woodshops as many of the locals admired all the carved woodwork in the Community Spaces project. Find out more about this project by following this link.

St Mary’s Church Parochial Church Council

This group has used its Sustainability Grant to hold a series of ‘Fun Days’ at the churchyard. At one of these events children were invited to bring their tteddy bears and let them abseil from the church spire. This teddy bear abseil day proved hugely popular and has now become an annual event. The group has also started up ‘Autumn Watch Days’.  

If your group has used its Sustainability Grant in a creative way, please tell us about by leaving a comment. If you are struggling with ideas, then let us know too – I’m sure we’ll be able to help get you inspired…

Holbrook Parish Plan Group have been celebrating as one of their youngest members wins the Young Achievers Award.

The community nominated Emily Staton for the award because of all the dedication and hard work Emily showed when the group was fundraising for a new playground. When Emily was just 14 years old, she led a small group of teenagers to conduct a survey and present the results to the Holbrook Parish Plan Group requesting a refurbishment of a very dilapidated play area in their village.

Emily then led a presentation at a Parish Plan meeting to 80 residents, gaining full support from everyone attending. Following Emily’s hard work and perseverance, the community group secured £49,999 from Community Spaces to refurbish the tired and neglected play area.

Emily’s mum, Sue Staton said her daughter was over whelmed when she won the award. “It was such a great achievement for her. Emily was in complete shock that she had even been nominated, so when she won the award, it was a fantastic surprise. It is something she will treasure forever. Everyone in the community is so proud of her.”

The Barnfield Estate Resident’s Committee have been working tirelessly to create their very own urban oasis in the middle of their Woolwich Common estate. The patch of green land, which is surrounded by social housing, acts as a back yard for most of the local residents and is in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods of South East London.

To read about the groups project visit from the Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, Peter Wanless, visit our website.

A fantastic story on our website today about a mother of two who worked against the clock to secure £47,000 from Community Spaces.

Tracy Evans tells us how she juggled family life, application writing and event organising to secure the much needed funding for a new playground to be built in her busy community at St Margarets at Cliffe.

To read the full story, visit our website.