Our colleagues and service partners had a fantastic time yesterday, creating a green space for the children at Grinling Gibbons in Deptford, many of whom live in high rise flats in the surrounding local area and don’t have access to safe, green spaces. The school leaders wanted a versatile safe space for the children that could be used for learning, playing and rest time. We surveyed the site and identified two areas that were completely overgrown and unused. Together, we spent the day planting flowers in planters, spreading wood chip over the designated area, and created steppingstones for the children to walk to a bench amongst the plants and flowers. Many of our amazing service partners including Wessex, ACS, FAB, Mayflower, Tailormade, and EBS, kindly donated money, and took part in the volunteering. Alongside this, and our food donation and coin trail fundraising, it all contributed to purchasing items for the green space.
The project stemmed from our partnership with local charity partner, Street Trees for Living, who we’ve been working with since 2019 on the ‘The School Trees Project’. We donate 10 mature trees per year which are planted in the local community and then our colleagues volunteer to support the tree’s maintenance. The School Trees Project aims to plant 100 street trees annually outside twenty local schools. This project improves air quality and biodiversity, helps reduce temperatures and creates healthier and safer places for children.
We want to improve health and wellbeing by creating green spaces for children, people, and nature, and as part of our Better Places strategy, we are dedicated to taking climate action and investing in the quality of life of our local communities.
Huge thanks to all of our amazing team of colleagues and service partners for volunteering.