NEWS: Groundwork announces further funding to create Green Community Hubs across the North of England
Communities across the North of England will benefit from a £1.2m funding boost to create Green Community Hubs – spaces where local people can use their interests and skills to support sustainable, environmental action.
The exciting three-year project, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, is a collaboration of five Groundwork Trusts covering the North of England with funding creating 30 new hubs in partnership with members of the local community, to create a vibrant network of community-led spaces.
Communities will be at the heart of the decision-making – sharing their ideas and aspirations for their local area to decide the activities that could be offered at the hubs, including volunteering opportunities, educational workshops, community gardening and wellbeing sessions, food growing and conservation projects. The hubs will utilise existing assets providing a broad range of services that build resilience and improve health outcomes in the local community.
The Hubs will be established across the North West (Wigan, Stockport), North East and Cumbria (Carlise, North and South Tyneside) and Yorkshire (Leeds and Sheffield).
The pilot programme of the Northern Network enabled some fantastic community-led green activity, supporting nature’s recovery and providing support to voluntary sector organisations across the North. We are really excited to expand our work into more areas over the next three years.
Sam Marine, Northern Network Project Manager
Thanks to National Lottery players, we’re proud to support the creation of Green Community Hubs. These community-led spaces will empower communities across the North of England to be environmentally sustainable, doing their bit to shape a healthier future for the planet.
Phil Chamberlain, England Director at The National Lottery Community Fund
The funding will ensure the continued development of the established Northern Network project – that ran from September 2022 to April 2024 – and saw the creation of five hubs, with over 170 people signed up to the network.
Between March 2023 and March 2024, Green Community Hubs held over 700 events with close to 11,000 local residents in attendance.
The programme also funded the ‘Green Leadership Academy’ in partnership with Natural England, to support skills development for people working in the green sector, with seven people benefitting from peer support and guidance from experts on environmental, community, and business sustainability.
Notes to Editors
For more information please contact: media@groundwork.org.uk
About Groundwork
Groundwork is a federation of charities with a collective mission to take practical action to create a fair and green future in which people, places, and nature thrive. We support communities and businesses to build capacity and resilience in order to tackle hardship, achieve a just transition to net-zero and help nature recover in a way that reduces inequality and leads to healthier, happier lives for all: www.groundwork.org.uk
About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name. We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives. As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:
1. Come together
2. Be environmentally sustainable
3. Help children and young people thrive
4. Enable people to live healthier lives.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4bn of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
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