A huge thanks to all who voted for us in the Skipton Building Society/Grassroots Giving competition, it was confirmed today that Friends of St George's Park will receive one of the 161 grants of £500 given by Skipton Building Society to mark their years of existence since they were founded in 1853. The funding will go toward the Let's Eat the Park initiative which is really taking off in the Horsefair and surrounding areas.
We are also grateful to Project Dirt for their support and of course to Skipton Building Society for their incredible generosity.
It is always great to receive funding and of course all of us at FoSGP are made up about it, but for us this is something even more important than the funds, it is about recognition on a national scale. The competition was very tough, we were amongst more than 300 shortlisted groups and projects all over the UK and of those we received enough votes to be among the 161 winners.
The support of those who voted for us is worth much more than money can buy, it is a recognition of our LEAP project and the other activies the Friends group organise in the community and shows we can hold our own in a highly competitive national funding arena and win the support of many friends locally and further afeild. This is especially gratifying for a group which has no professional input and is entirely community based and resident led.
Our sister park at Baxter Gardens is also part of of Let's Eat the Park with interest shown by St George's church, the Co-Op Children's Centre, Kidderminster Transition group, the Prince's Trust and of course our partners Wyre Forest District Council. Let's Eat the Park has been funded with Health Lottery money from The People's Health Trust and has other funding bids currently in progress to develop the project further. We are grateful to all who have sponsored us including Worcestershire County Council who have provided, through the Changing Futures Fund, the support of Droitwich CVS and Tonia Enderbury who delivered a CFF package that will help us change our legal structure in the near future. More on that later. For now we can just enjoy our success and watch our projects grow in the knowledge that community sector activists are changing the area from the grassroots upwards.It is therefore fitting we think that we have now received grassroots funding to continue to develop this work, just as it was that the People's Park received People's Health Trust funds to kick start Let's Eat the Park in the first place.
These twin themes of grassroots activity - by the (local) people and for the people - lie at the very heart of what the Friends of St George's Park are all about.
If you want to be part of the action why not get involved? Its easy..... just contact us through the website, Twitter or Facebook, or by email ...or why not just turn up at one of our meetings or work parties where you can be sure of a warm welcome, give it a go, you won't regret it!
In the meantime Let's Eat the Park together.