

At The Meadows in Hounslow, our
Green Spaces project installed a natural play
area, and youth and environmental facilities. We're now working
closely with local residents to deliver a range of activities aimed
at sustaining the new green spaces.
These include wildlife gardening, youth inclusion activities,
children and family play sessions, community arts programmes
as well as horticultural and volunteer training programmes.
The project has delivered community events to over 1000 local
residents and young people and supported by 17 local
volunteers.
Creative Café
Feedback from residents of The Meadows
highlighted the importance of positively engaging local young
people. This resulted in the delivery of the Creative
Café, an innovative project delivered in partnership with
local community organisation, Bounce Theatre.
This initiative supports young people to express themselves
through dance, drama and film. The Creative
Café takes advantage of the accessible and improved
green spaces to provide an alternative venue for performances and
film making.
A number of approaches are being adopted to ensure the project
is sustainable after completion of the BIG Lottery
grant, including:
- Supporting young people on the project to work towards an
accredited Arts Award qualification for 11-25 year
olds aimed at developing creativity and leadership.
- Building volunteering capacity amongst local young people. The
project will eventually be fully youth led.
- Working with staff from Bounce Theatre and
Places for People, the project leaders have
already managed to raise £300 of funding to keep the project
running, and a further £2000 has been secured in principal,
dependent upon project performance.