• Swindon & Wiltshire Social
• Monday August 5 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

National Grid announced as first key partner in charity’s bid to reimagine Bristol and Bath parks

Grassroots charity Your Park Bristol & Bath has announced National Grid Electricity Distribution as the first key partner for its recently launched Reimagining Parks campaign.

Alongside corporate sponsorship, some of the National Grid’s Bristol team will go out into the city’s green spaces and get stuck into supporting some of the charity’s work on the ground to transform local parks and make them accessible for everyone to enjoy.

The partnership will run until Spring 2025.

The team days provide a chance for colleagues to connect outdoors and improve their mental health, whilst taking part in a range of nature-based activities like planting trees, building pathways and benches to improve accessibility, and planting environments to enhance biodiversity and carbon capture.

Emily Green, volunteering & sponsorship coordinator at National Grid Electricity Distribution, said: “The benefits Your Park Bristol & Bath delivers to people’s health through access to nature, as well as boosting biodiversity, are impressive and their mission closely matches National Grid’s priorities.

“Through this partnership we will be able to support this valuable work in several ways. This includes employees taking part in team days doing practical activities to improve parks, and in the process their own wellbeing.

“We look forward to seeing the continued positive impact Your Park Bristol & Bath is having on communities.”

Charlee Bennett, chief executive of YPBB, says: “We’re delighted that National Grid has come on board as our first key partner.

“This is a real testament to the importance of the work our campaign is aiming to deliver, and we’re so proud of the support we’ve had so far.”

“With National Grid’s support, both financial and hands-on, we can accelerate our efforts to create truly inclusive and accessible green spaces for everyone in Bristol and Bath to benefit from.

“We hope that many other local organisations will follow suit and join our campaign. The more help and support we have, the more impact we can make.”

YPBB’s Reimagining Parks campaign was launched in May and aims to reimagine the two cities’ parks and green spaces to tackle the barriers that it believes prevents around a third of the local population from being able to access and fully enjoy them.

YPBB says the majority of the approximately 580 parks and green spaces across the two cities are not inclusively designed, which significantly impacts access to them – in particular, for disabled people and carers, women and girls, minority ethnic groups, and people in low-income areas.

According to the charity, the three key factors preventing people from having the confidence or ability to get out into their local parks are physical accessibility, personal safety and mental wellbeing.

This campaign aims to lead the change, with the ambition for everyone in Bristol and Bath to have a park that is accessible to them within a 10-minute reach of where they live, work or study.

That means making them physically accessible for Disabled people and their carers, designed with the safety and enjoyment of women and girls in mind, and used to support people with mental health issues.

Since the campaign launched, it’s raised nearly £14,000 and is aiming for £30,000 over the next year.

YPBB has just received a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund of £18,870 through Awards for All to support its community work, specifically for a pilot project supporting BAME communities and the development of the Roots to Wellbeing project in central Bristol.

Its key targets for the next 12 months include:

• Create one exemplar park in Bristol that is fully accessible to cater for all physical disabilities and differences.
• Create one exemplar park in Bath redesigned by a woman, with safety in mind and the introduction of female-focused activities and facilities.
• Support 2,000 people with a new programme of accessible and enjoyable activities, such as sensory walks, supported play sessions, family activities and accessible gardening, in every neighbourhood in Bristol and Bath.
• Support an additional 300 people struggling with their mental health by expanding our unique green social prescribing programme (Roots to Wellbeing) in two new areas of health deprivation in Bristol and Bath.

Pictured: National Grid’s Bristol team out in Ashton Court on its first employee volunteering day