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Have your say in the Green's long-term vision
The long-term vision for the Green is under review by a broad community working party. 
Improvements are coming to Brook Green
£75,000 has been awarded for improvements this year
What is a Friends' Group?
Park friends' groups are established as independent voluntary local user groups with the purpose of being the principal forum for discussing views about the park and promoting more effective, beneficial usage of the park to the wider community.
- Partnership working with LBHF
- Hammersmith and Fulham Council will support friends' groups that are representative of the community as a whole, are actively inclusive of all user groups and represent the views of all members of their group. The council will work in partnership with all groups that meet these overarching criteria to improve parks and open spaces.
- It is important to state that, currently, financial support is not available to friends' groups as LBHF hope to encourage self sufficiency and independent governance. However, the council will support, wherever possible, the group to raise revenue through grants and other approved income sources. There may be, on occasion, council grants that the group may be eligible to apply for.
Council’s commitment to the park friends' groups will include:
- Attendance of an appropriate council officer to a minimum of two meetings per year, and an additional two on site walkabouts
- Consulting the group on all matters that affect the park,
- Provision of technical advice or make available ‘in-kind’ resources, where feasible, to support activities that are beneficial to the park organised by the park friends' group.
- The formation of a friends' group
- A democratic process is important for a group to be truly representative and we therefore encourage Friends' groups to be constituted and elect a Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer annually at the AGM. It is not expected that ward councillors or officers are elected to these positions. Model constitutions are available from the Charity Commission for voluntary groups and also from the parks and recreation department.
- To ensure that groups are representative of the community and reflect the users of the park, adoption of the following key areas of interest are recommended
- Biodiversity and conservation
- Events and activities.
- Disability, discrimination and accessibility for all (particularly socially excluded groups)
- Children, young people and the elderly
- Sports and play
- Fundraising and income generation
- Areas of activity
- Clear aims and objectives.
- Have a clear constitution
- Have stated members and officers
- Not replicate the role of any existing forum or group
- Have a clear vision as to what they want to achieve
- Organise events
- Have maintenance days
- Work in a specific area of the park
- Research into historic features / areas
- Encourage young people into the park, or other audiences
- Apply for a grant (from the council, Awards for All, GreenSpace etc)
The group must:
Develop membership
- Use a website to promote activities
- Link with council databases and publications
- Attend events and fetes locally to promote your work
- Link to council website
- Get coverage in the local paper (invite the paper along to meetings or send them minutes)
Friends groups that fail share the same characteristics, and the key one is that groups who fail to move beyond ‘talking’ to activity experience problems not only in developing membership, but also in terms of how they are viewed by the community. The successful Friends' groups work in partnership with the local Council to deliver events, and this is often through a Parks Development Officer or Park Ranger. It is also useful to partner other organisations (such as schools, or a local charity).
Clear programme.Keep it simple:
- Have a core annual event
- Organise smaller events such as maintenance days in conjunction with a Parks Development Officer
- Work with a local school to do bulb planting / the invite then back to see the flowers
AGM / Elections
- Must have an AGM
- All posts must be advertised c. 1 month in advance
- Advertisement must be wider than current membership
- Be aware of wider ‘park volunteers’ and issues
Join British Trust for Conservation Volunteers as the membership fee covers insurance for park volunteers e.g. doing basic tasks Look to www.green-space.org.uk (they have a useful e-zine)
Can you help the Friend's of Brook Green - please come to our AGM.
Download our leaflet
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