BLOG: Participating in a Groundwork Volunteer Day – helping each other, help out

At the start of April, I attended my first Groundwork volunteering day at Annie Lennard Primary School in Smethwick, alongside Teacher Active. This was a chance to see the hard work of my Partnerships team, and our colleagues at Groundwork Trusts who deliver Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), put into action. Despite saving ‘before and after’ photos or viewing site information about a particular day, I’d only ever had a two-dimensional picture of our employee volunteering days, witnessed from a screen in the office, where I help to set them up. To be outdoors, helping the local community, and working with others to make a positive difference, it was such an exciting prospect! And with walking boots and sugary snacks in hand, I was prepared to get stuck in. Yet, I had no idea just how fun and involved (read: muddy) this day would be…

Upon arrival, I joined volunteers from Teacher Active in the school entrance where we received an introductory talk and tool talk from Sami, the facilitator for this day and all events within the West Midlands. Some tools – like a rake and trowel – were familiar to me from childhood gardening. But the loppers for pruning, less so. It all felt very adult and like I was part of making serious change!

Annie Lennard is a small primary school, with one form per year, and no prior green space for the children. A lot of the pupils do not have usable gardens at home and only concrete to play on at breaktimes. Every year, the school receives a high intake of SEND pupils and this inclusive space will also have a sensory garden, with bug hotels, wind chimes and inviting solar powered fairy lights.

The project with Teacher Active was completing a forest school, where a former electricity substation, now an unused area, had been partially cleared (with a lot of manpower!) for outdoor learning and break off groups. The week before, Teacher Active volunteers had installed a fence and began clearing the site. Our tasks for the final day were to clear the ground of vegetation completely, digging out rubbish, roots, and bricks, to eventually get covered over with bark. We were really laying the groundwork!

At first, I stood around taking pictures of the volunteers (I had to get in some comms work, after all) who had taken a tool each and were now engaged in various clearance activities. But soon after, unable to resist joining in, I put the camera down and picked up a pair of gloves to begin removing branches. It was much more physically demanding than I had anticipated, and I soon became warm. In 11-degree weather, a heap of coats began to pile up.

Over the next few hours, I saw a LOT of worms, broke up even more uneven ground, and removed countless chocolate wrappers and plastics buried comfortably in the dirt; at one point, other volunteers unearthed a bike! My back ached and my clothes were covered in mud, but I was loving it, and as one Teacher Active employee said to me, this volunteering felt ‘class’.

My main task was focused on pruning tree roots that were sticking up through the ground, so no children would trip over them. Now, you might think four people tackling a single root sounds overkill. But together, we were able to remove the necessary earth from each side and reduce a time-consuming task by helping each other. Volunteers – me included – were learning new skills, working as a team, and doing something different from our normal office work.

Before I knew it, we paused for a much-needed lunch break. I took the opportunity to ask Sami what difference the Teacher Active volunteers were making to the school in real terms.  She told me that firstly, there has been around 20 volunteers across two days. It would have taken the single caretaker an unimaginable amount of time to achieve a similar task, especially when considering working in school holidays. She also praised the amount of enthusiasm from people who aren’t used to tasks like these, which can make a real difference.

The final push came in the afternoon when the ground was all even and raked over and the bark got scattered across the site. Immediately, volunteers started to comment on the noticeable difference. Pride entered their voices and they spoke about a sense of achievement, about not realising how much they had done until they went back to it. When an employee was discussing annual volunteering with Teacher Active, I questioned if they would do this again next year. ‘Definitely!’ they enthused.

Together, we had started building a dead hedge to protect a bird’s nest at the edge of the forest area.  One employee sliced off branches, and I weaved them through other, sturdy branches to create a natural barrier. It was a combined effort. This was the formula for successful volunteer days – and only by participating in one could I really understand it.  In the same way that it is only through the combined efforts of volunteers with Trust facilitators, like Sami – who has to contact the site; purchase the materials and refreshments; drive the tools around; and deliver first aid – that a day like this can happen in reality.

It’s back to the office for me now, but volunteering with Teacher Active in Birmingham was a real joy to experience! I have so much respect for employee volunteers and Groundwork staff who create and facilitate these transformations to the community, to people’s lives and their local places. I look forward to the end of the holidays, when the children return to school, and get to benefit from and enjoy this new green space.

Before

After