Fields in Trust has partnered with green space charity Groundwork and The National Youth Agency on the 'Future Proof Parks', programme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The project is supporting Friends of parks groups and local young people to work together in a series of innovative projects which will support heritage parks and widen the understanding of their importance. The aim is to encourage young people to join their local friends of park groups and volunteer to preserve and celebrate the local spaces that matter to the communities they live in.
The three-year programme has been awarded funding through the National Lottery Heritage Fund's Kick the Dust programme, which aims to enable more young people to be involved in the UK's heritage.
Introduction to Crowdfunding with Young People
For Groundwork Trusts
Introduction to Crowdfunding with Young People: This 1.5 hour interactive online session will introduce the concept of crowdfunding for greenspace heritage projects. The session will give an understanding of crowdfunding and how to develop fundable project ideas. We will also look at the key elements required to support groups when developing their crowdfunding projects. Learning from each other we will look at how to engage young people with potential crowdfunding projects.
- Wednesday 4 August 2021 (14:00-15.30)
- Wednesday 11 August 2021 (10:00-11.30)
For green space groups and Friend of Parks Groups
What is crowdfunding? This 1.5 hour interactive online session will introduce the concept of crowdfunding for greenspace heritage projects. The session will cover the following areas:
- Understand the concept of crowdfunding
- Develop project ideas –turn ideas into a fundable project
- How to present your crowdfund?
- Engaging young people with your crowdfund project
The session will be based around the Groundwork UK Crowdfunding Toolkit which groups will be shared with groups after the session.
- Tuesday 7 September (14:00-15:30)
- Wednesday 15 September (18:30-20:00)
For any queries, please contact Ian Goodman at ian.goodman@mypark.scot
Introduction to Young People's Participation Training
Throughout the pandemic a visit to the park has been so important - a chance to get out into nature, exercise, breathe and rebalance during a difficult year. We are all thankful to the volunteers who helped maintain our parks and now, coming out of lockdown, we can all play our part to make sure local green spaces will remain a healthy part of the local environment.
Local parks have been vital over the last year, we must make sure they will always be there for the whole community and for future generations - helping to restore the natural world and providing safe places to meet friends and neighbours.
The Future Proof Parks project is offering free training to Friends of Parks Groups and community organisations to help you work with young people – building the next generation of green space volunteers and handing-on the care of our much-loved community parks to future leaders. Led by specialists from the National Youth Agency, the online training will look at the principles and practicalities of young people’s participation in green space volunteering. Ensuring volunteers represent the whole community is vital to long term success.
We are also offering free Train the Trainer for Groundwork practitioners already working with young people. This training is designed so they can in turn train volunteers with the skills and knowledge to support young people’s participation and safeguarding.
If you are a Friends of Parks Group member or part of a community organisation who want to include young people, this would be the ideal first step on your journey.
Download the flyers for the Friends of Parks Group training or the Train the Trainer sessions for dates and booking information or contact Laura Keegan on Laurak@nya.org.uk for more information.
If you would like to keep in touch with the work of the Future Proof Parks programme please complete the form below and we will send you quarterly email updates about individual projects and the resources available to the wider Friends of Parks groups:
Summer of Parks: Join the discussion as we champion our parks and green spaces
Green Space Index: Our new barometer of publicly accessible green space provision
UK's Best Park: Celebrate your favourite local green space - nominations open soon
