Service description
Groundwork provides a community landscape service with a broad range of activities including environmental volunteering, workshops and events. Funded by H&F, it works to improve communal areas on estates and in public open spaces
Funded until
30 September 2023
Annual funding level
£45,000
What this service achieved in the past year...
Number of residents supported
1,000+
Use of volunteers
Number of volunteers involved: 132
Number of volunteer hours delivered: 1,308
Value of volunteer hours provided: £12,753
Outcomes/impact for residents
- 197 residents participated in community garden sessions and nature-based activities
- 646 accessed information and advice, guidance and educational programmes
- 232 took part in training and mentoring programmes for young people
- 498 participated in community and food-growing activities
- 496 took part in community activities, consultation, volunteering and well-being programmes
- 425 were encouraged to be actively involved in community improvement projects
- 202 took part in walking/cycle sessions
User feedback
“Thanks to the new garden and gardening sessions I have been able to enjoy the new outdoor space and grow fresh vegetables.”
“I am really thankful for a space to grow my own fruit and vegetables.”
“The gardening sessions are really fun and informative, and Jane the gardener is very knowledgeable and friendly.”
Funding raised
£118,281 through external fundraising
Other achievements/future plans
- Project highly commended in the Planning & Placemaking awards 2016 London category
- It won two Landscape Institute awards for adding value to a landscape, and the Fellows award for climate adaptation
- Groundwork attended a meeting at Rainville estate with H&F to discuss a proposal to transform a sunken ball court into a food-growing garden
- It raised interest and awareness about climate change on housing estates via creative design and innovative ways of working
- A new community group has been formed at Cheeseman’s Terrace to plan activities across the estate for the whole community
- There has been collaborative working with Good Gym, where volunteers spent 15 hours clearing and painting an old storage unit
- A new working relationship has been forged with Shepherds Bush Housing Association, with funding being secured for a landscape project
- Groundwork secured EU funding for a pan-London health and well-being programme, Trifocal, emphasising food-growing, healthy eating and food waste reduction, working with community groups and schools
- Two hundred standards trees are being planted in seven H&F estates, thanks to Groundwork securing City Hall funding. Work is being done by the award-winning Green Team, working with nine partner groups, including a training scheme which enhances young people’s employment prospects, H&F Housing, seven tenant and resident associations, and Quadron
- Housing estates improvement programme funding will create up to eight projects in 2017
- The repurpose team and H&F Housing aim to fund the White City Loop beyond 2017