community development

We believe what makes communities stronger and sustainable is having the space, time and resources to make decisions about shared ambitions and put them into actions. We offer free support to help communities to adopt strategies to tackle climate change in the areas of food and travel. We run a series of low-carbon workshops around the themes of local food, sustainable cookery and climate change.

We use a collaborative approach to work with community or voluntary groups to develop disadvantaged people and communities within Nottinghamshire. We collaborate with our partners to develop spaces into a place to inspire positive wellbeing with better community access, as well as sustainable biodiversity improvements in the long term. We share resources, skills, knowledge and experiences with other community and voluntary groups that will help make positive changes that matter to communities.

The principles which underpin our community development:

Ownership - people and communities have the right to make their own choices and decisions
Empowerment - people should be able to control and use their own assets and means to influence
Collective action - coming together in groups or organisations strengthens peoples’ voices
Collaborative approach - collaboratively work and sharing experiences is vital to good community activity

improving the environment people and places

The Dads Garden

We love to see more places where people can enjoy nature. We support people and communities to come together to take action on what's important to them, improve the environment they live in, and promote healthy lifestyles. We offer environmental improvement and/or heritage conservation. We also improve awareness of environmental issues and encourage and/or protect wildlife.

We are pushing the greener and cleaner initiative as part of our building sustainable communities. We are developing The Dad's Garden. a community-led green space, created by our team of dads for the people and communities to improve their physical and mental wellbeing through spending time in a safe natural environment. We are developing this into a place to inspire wellbeing with better community access, as well as biodiversity.

Our aim is to encourage people to look after the environment they live in, gardening, crafting skills, grow fruit and veg to improve healthy eating and improving their wellbeing. The garden is an open green space that is peaceful, safe, and calming. We also aim to provide healing through nature and gardening as well as healthy lifestyle activities whilst rebuilding strong community connections. The dads are also creating a remembrance bench for all the men that lost their fight in battling mental health illness. Our garden is also used as a place to:

help the community to grow and share local, seasonal food, cut food waste and promote sustainable cooking
facilitate a variety of community food events
facilitate discussion about climate change in the areas of food and travel
bring people together to foster positive connections
provide open access sessions to create a usable, safe green space for local people to enjoy
provide place to encourage local wildlife as well as preserving some of the original trees including an old mulberry tree that sits within the garden
run a series of low-carbon workshops around the themes of local food and sustainable cookery
provide relaxation area to help promote respite and improve mental wellbeing
deliver workshops including horticulture, simple crafts to create planters etc and cooking activities with the food harvested. Those taking part are encouraged to build on these activities with their own ideas which will help ensure good community ownership and long-term investment.
increase children's or family's knowledge of healthy foods, food skills and improve their eating habits

Come down to one of our weekly sessions to get involved in a variety of different activities; from gardening, healthy eating and healthy living workshops, there is something for everybody at the garden to enjoy and participate in.

local support

It is fundamental all people should have access to health, wellbeing, wealth, justice and opportunity.

We provide support to community groups that are supporting vulnerable people during the cost-of-living crisis
We provide community outreach activities
we provide information to the people about is happening in their local communities

For us community development is a process where people come together to take action on what's important to them. It is fundamental all people should have access to health, wellbeing, wealth, justice and opportunity.

We provide workshops to build capability of voluntary and community groups to ensure they are able to provide sustainable services across the communities
We provide a local hub with information for various support services that are available within the communities
We provide help to community groups that are supporting vulnerable people during the cost-of-living crisis
We bring the communities closer together through facilities for sport, recreation and other leisure-time activities
We offer environmental improvement and/or heritage conservation
We improve awareness of environmental issues, and encourage and/or protect wildlife

capacity building

Community development is a process where people come together to take action on what's important to them

We provide workshops to build capability of voluntary and community groups to support the to be empowered to control and use their own assets and means to influence
We provide programmes to help build the capacity of the community sector, and to widen participation in local democracy.
We provide a local hub with information for various support services that are available within the local communities

collaborative approach

.We bring the communities closer together through facilities for sport, recreation and other leisure-time activities
We offer environmental improvement and/or heritage conservation
We improve awareness of environmental issues, and encourage and/or protect wildlife