Climate Week is a national programme that is designed to renew our ambition and confidence to combat climate change. It is for everyone wanting to do their bit to protect our planet and create a secure future.
This week will shine a spotlight on the positive steps that are already been taken by workplaces and communities across Britain who want to make a difference to their world.
During the week, thousands of events and activities are being planned by orgnisations to help combat climate change. But how can you help?
Climate Week is all about raising awareness, so why don’t you hold an event in your newly developed Community Spaces project? Bring everyone together at your project and see what steps your community can take to tackle climate change.
To find more about Climate Week and tips on how to hold your own event, visit the Climate Week website.
The Friends of Calder Holmes, in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire raised awareness about their Community Spaces project through the use of their website and Facebook page.
The group received fantastic news in December when they were awarded £49,999 from Community Spaces to extend their current Skate Park
The group have continued to share the news and updates with their community by keeping their Facebook page regularly updated with daily pictures and information.
Using social media sites is a great way to share your news and get people involved in your project. There is some useful information about how to set up your own social networking sites in our Publicity Toolkit, which can be found on the Community Spaces website
Alternatively, if you are completely new to the social media world, the view our social media help pages on our blog.
To see all the latest pictures and news about Hebden Skate Park, visit their Facebook page.
We look forward to following the projects progress!
The Big Lottery Fund’s Jubilee People’s Millions programme is open for applications until 4 February 2011.
The Big Lottery Fund and ITV, with the approval of Buckingham Palace, will be helping to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. They are looking for new projects that will improve local places and the lives of people in your community.
This is an exciting opportunity for London community groups to win up to £60,000 for a new project and be featured on ITV London Tonight news next year if they make the finals.
Since the competition has started back in 2005, they have awarded over £22m to 388 different projects.
To find out how your group can apply, visit the apply page.
The programme closed its doors to all new applications at 12 noon on 7th January 2011.
Since the programme opened in March 2008, Community Spaces has received over 1700 applications and have invested over £23.8m in community projects across the country.
To see the difference Community Spaces projects have made to some communities, visit our case studies page.
The Hawthorne Park Trust gave their local community a Christmas present with a difference as they scooped up a prestigious community award.
The local community group were awarded with the North West Together We Can Community Empowerment Award.
The award scheme is designed to showcase groups that have strong community empowerment and cohesion activity.
In order for the group to win, they needed to demonstrate improvements in community engagement and innovative and inspiring activities that addressed the needs of their community.
Rachel Summerscales, the groups Facilitator who worked with them during the groups Community Spaces project development, wasn’t at all surprised when the group won the award.
“The group were fantastic throughout the entire duration of their project- they worked so hard with all different authorities to get the project complete, they are a perfect example of a community group.”
Community Spaces have just awarded Rosliston Forestry Centre in South Derbyshire £41, 814 to create a 40ft herb garden in the shape of a human!
The human shaped herb garden, which has been nicknamed ‘Herbie’ will consist of a raised flower bed planted with herbs used for medical purposes on different parts of the body.
The group are aiming to a to have ‘Herbie’ finished by the summer! We look forward to seeing some photos of the finished garden!
We first mentioned the ‘Herbie’ project in our innovation blog piece see: http://blog.community-spaces.org.uk/2010/09/what-is-innovation If your group is developing a project that is a little bit different please tell us about it by following the link.
The Friends of Northampton Racecourse celebrated the opening of their new, dragon shaped, Adventure Play Project earlier this month to the tune of jesters and fire dancers!
The Midlands based group received £49,170 from Community Spaces to create a large natural play area for the all the residents and visitors of Northampton to enjoy.
The launch was hugely popular, with families attending from all round. Councillor Trini Crake opened the project and the celebrations continued throughout the afternoon with activities such as plate spinning and juggling!
Thomas Skidmore, Programme Development Coordinator for Community Spaces went along to the event.
“It was great to see such an innovative design mixing fixed and natural play. The children playing seemed to be having a magical experience, and the launch also let them learn skills from a circus entertainer and a wacky science lesson!”
To see for your self the dragon shaped natural play area, then watch this video as Community Spaces, Thomas Skidmore, takes us around the project.
All the photos from the launch can be found on our Flickr page.
Celebrity gardener Chris Beardshaw (pictured above) joined Groundwork’s Community Spaces team earlier this week at an event in Westminster to bring green space organisations together to discuss the future of our parks, playgrounds and community gardens at a time of cuts to public spending.
With a Groundwork commissioned ComRes survey of 443 local government councilors indicating nearly 50% feel their councils would be reducing their level of maintenance for green spaces due to budget constraints, we at Community Spaces are determined to highlight the value of these local green spaces to communities, and to not let the issue fall off the government’s agenda.
The event – introduced by Chris Beardshaw – pulled together organisations such as Natural England, The London Wildlife Trust and BTCV and included a discussion on how we can all work together to ensure communities continue to have access to quality urban green spaces and the chance to have their say on how they’re maintained.
We’re very pleased to say that the event was a huge success! Every organisation that took part had a tremendous appetite to tackle the issue head on to make sure communities receive the support needed to thrive and improve their local environment.
To see the difference that Community Spaces has already made to local communities across England, please watch the short video below.
