| View this email in your browser Hello all, Hope you’re all good. Into proper autumn wild and woolly weather here – hope everyone’s sites are holding up. Climate Change and Tree Planting Last Friday’s climate change demonstrations were the largest held yet, in towns and cities across the UK. Unsurprisingly, in our patch many of those who volunteer in their parks and green spaces were out in force, asking for more action on climate change and the protection of our environment. As more and more councils declare a climate emergency, make sure your green spaces form part of their plan of action. Green spaces will play a significant role in limiting the worst effects of climate change across the UK. There is already a drive to plant many more trees – including the Government’s tree fund and the Woodland Trust, who are calling for a 1m volunteers to plant trees. Get involved here: https://campaigns.woodlandtrust.org.uk/page/46713/data/1?locale=en-GB. Community Empowerment conferences Many thanks to everyone who has been to one of our Community Empowerment conferences. Our last Saturday’s conference in Brighton, was really enjoyable – so good to hear about the amazing work going on. Our final three conferences for the regions in England are now confirmed – join us if you can – it’s been really good so far. 12/10/2019 – East – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parks-and-people-stronger-together-east-tickets-69194730301?aff=Mail 26/10/2019 – North East – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parks-and-people-stronger-together-north-east-tickets-70773556613?aff=Mail 02/11/2019 – South West – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/parks-and-people-stronger-together-south-west-tickets-73263197195?aff=Mail These events are helping to develop new and stronger grassroots networks. Importantly, they are feeding back into national policies and practices through the Parks Action Group (PAG), the national liaison body between the greenspace sector and Government. The events are being organised by the NFPGS, Locality and Groundwork, and funded by the PAG. We are amplifying and promoting greenspace community groups’ voices and experiences on a range of key practical issues like organising projects, fundraising, campaigning, promotion and social media, and working with greenspace managers and Councils. Ideally, if couple of people per group attend you can benefit from every workshop. Those supporting such groups (Councils, national greenspace charities etc) are also invited to send a representative. We will also celebrate community efforts in making a real difference to our green spaces! Community Empowerment Survey Forming part of our reporting back to the Parks Action Group, we’re aiming to get someone from every Friends or green space community group fill in this simple on-line Community Empowerment Survey – https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NFPGS-Community-Empowerment. Average response time is seven minutes only, so please get a cuppa and complete this for us. Valuing Volunteers As part of their summer of parks blog, Fields in Trust had an excellent piece about the value of green space volunteers. Read it here: http://www.fieldsintrust.org/News/valuing-the-work-of-friends. We think you’re all invaluable but if you ever need some evidence or justification, this should provide some useful stats. Save the Date The next general meeting for NFPGS will be in Birmingham on 23rd November. If you represent a Forum, you’re welcome to join us. Watch this space for more details and save the date. Other useful items Lots more information and others’ newsletters at our shared drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kff-rrZTXGZBPyu3on9msKuTtL-CptFE – all are really useful and well worth a read. Birmingham Open Spaces Forum – September newsletter The Parks Alliance – September newsletter West Midlands Parks Forum – September news Please keep forwarding this to other groups and get the word out there – they can sign up for our reasonable regular newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/go8KoH. There is only one of me – I’m trying to contact as many green space volunteers as possible, county by county. Any help is appreciated. Get social with us on Twitter or Facebook. Another busy weekend here promoting our green space groups – keep up your amazing efforts – it’s a joy to be researching all volunteer groups and seeing the pictures of events, beautiful spaces and all those added-extras you all do. Kind regards, Michelle Furtado Networks Coordinator, NFPGS |
