Vertical Garden Wisbech

Wisbech Park Vertical Garden

The Wisbech Park Vertical Garden project is being led by Blackfield Creatives, in partnership with Clarion Futures and Wisbech Town Council, as part of their work with the, I Love Wisbech Group.

The aim of this community project is to create a vertical garden that will be attached to one of the public buildings in Wisbech Park. The original idea came from local residents and we are working in collaboration with members of the community and other organisations to create a unique garden within this beautiful Victorian park.

Much of the garden will be created using recycled materials, which will offer a great opportunity to raise awareness of environmental issues. We also plan to run a range of events in the park, including gardening workshops, to encourage everyone to get involved and enjoy the benefits of being outdoors.

Blackfield Creatives deliver projects that are open to people of all ages and abilities and believe that the Vertical Garden will encourage the community to come together again and create new friendships and networks. More information about the project can be found on their website at www.blackfieldcreatives.com

Looking after community centred spaces

For many April has marked the beginning of a gradual easing of national lockdown restrictions and has enabled friends and families to come together for the first time since Christmas for a socially distanced catch up.

Whilst the importance of social interaction and access to nature for mental health and wellbeing is now common knowledge, the challenges that accompany increased use of parks and open green spaces has also been brought to the forefront this month. We are all familiar with the well-publicised images of excessive quantities of litter left behind as remnants of people’s newfound freedoms.

A key ambition of projects, such as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks, is to address unequal access to nature and enable greater access to parks and green spaces. However, as recent events have so clearly demonstrated, this cannot be sustainable unless accompanied by positive messaging and conscious efforts towards pro-environmental behaviour change.

Keep Britain Tidy launched a campaign in July last year launched a ‘Love Parks’ campaign to encourage people to behave respectfully in their parks. They found that more than half of the Country’s parks have had to invest more resources to activities such as cleaning up litter, emptying bins and maintaining public order. They advise a messaging approach focused on values of community, care and citizenship. Our communities’ value their parks and public open spaces and only by engaging and working with communities can we sustainably maintain our parks and open spaces for generations to come.

Volunteers

Unlocking the potential to develop volunteer capacity

In March 2021 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks work collaboratively with stakeholder engagement experts Futurebright Solutions to run a Volunteering Development workshop to explore the potential to develop the capacity of parks and open space volunteers in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The workshop was widely attended by volunteer groups, representatives from community and voluntary umbrella organisations, university representatives, and parks and open space practitioners and conservations managers.

The aim of the workshop was to introduce the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks work, bring people together to discuss options and opportunities for collaboration and build collaborative relationships. We asked attendees about building capacity for parks and green space volunteer groups, how groups currently support each other and share good practice, and whether there was an apatite to do more of this, and what impact COVID19 has had on volunteer groups.

We explored how we can work collaboratively with community and volunteer groups across the county to share knowledge, expertise, resources and build capacity and capability.  Attendees discussed the need for a support package and opportunities for sharing skills and learning, the importance of a collective voice and the potential of a volunteer network or forum.

Developing a network of volunteer groups across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was a popular idea. This could be used to share experience and ‘know how’, help new groups, create stronger partnerships, support and encourage local residents to engage with their local parks and open spaces, share good practice and connect with other groups doing similar activities. We then asked volunteer groups what kind of support they thought would be most beneficial, the most popular responses were opportunities to connect with other groups; a forum to discuss and resolve common problems; a way to identify opportunities for collaboration, including joint funding bids; and support the sharing of knowledge and skills.

The value of a comprehensive map of our parks and open spaces was also discussed. Participants explained that a map of parks and green open spaces which included information on local volunteer groups operating in those spaces would be useful for signposting new volunteers and demonstrating the opportunities available.

We wanted to thank all the individuals that took the time to talk to us and share their thoughts, ideas and aspirations for the future. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks are continuing their engagement with Volunteer groups, and look forward to sharing more about our journey as it continues. Find out more about our engagement work as part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Future Parks Project and read about our Health and Wellbeing workshop.