Power up London's Friends of Green Spaces Network
by CPRE London
£2,695.00
raised by 15 donations
of £25,000.00 Target Goal
11%
The Story
With your help, in 2025 we want to:
• Support the community planting of c.2000 metres of new hedgerow in the 24/5 planting season. We will do this working with Friends groups and other community groups such as schools. Funds go towards training and the provision of hedgerow whips for planting.
• Build capacity in the Friends Network including the creation of 25 new groups in 2025, focussing in areas of multiple deprivation. Improving access to quality greenspace is widely acknowledged as a significant strategy to addressing London's physical and mental health inequalities.
• Upgrade the digital platform (goparks.london) to enable friends groups to create, edit and maintain their own listings. This will release capacity for our Network co-ordinator to support the existing network and seed and enable the formation of new groups.
CPRE London
We are going to grow the Friends of Green Spaces movement in London so more neglected green areas can benefit from community love, including capacity-building training for friends groups and directly support hedgerow planting for friends groups.
Situation:
Climate crisis and local authority funding challenges mean that London's green spaces have simultaneously never been more important but also most at risk from neglect. Meanwhile a small army of volunteers stands ready in one of London's c.900 'Friends Groups' who help maintain, improve and promote local green spaces for the good of their communities. These groups benefit enormously from networking, training and direct provision of plants that help improve these green spaces.
Solution:
We support London's Friends of Green Spaces with network events, training, ad hoc support and thematic campaigns like 'hedgerow heroes' where we work with community groups to restore and plant much-needed urban hedgerows. We also provide a digital platform that helps friends groups recruit more volunteers and promote their local parks so that the entire community benefits. Working in partnership with many of London's 32 boroughs and accessibility champions ensures the work benefits everyone.
Sarah donated £200.00+ £50.00 on 2025/4/5 at 13:41.