Apply for an Our Space Award to improve your local green and open spaces by 9 December 2024. These grants are for a greener London with funding up to £5,000 so apply today.
What is the Our Space Award?
The Our Space Award (OSA) is empowering Londoners to clean and green the city. They encourage active community engagement and participation and so enhancing a sense of ownership over shared spaces.
The Our Space Award is run by Groundwork London who take practical action to create a fair and green future in which people, places, and nature thrive. They support local communities and businesses to build capacity and resilience. This is vital if we are to tackle hardship, achieve a just transition to net-zero and help nature recover in a way that reduces inequality and leads to better work and healthier, happier lives.
The grants supports individuals of all ages and backgrounds, including communities and schools, in transforming their neighbourhoods into greener, more inclusive places for everyone to enjoy.
Our Space Award Project Examples
Our Space Award has so far distributed about £552,000 by supporting 143 projects across Greater London to improve community spaces. Some examples of the projects are:
- Lady Allen Secret Nature garden: Created a sensory garden space where all the children can relax in nature and explore different sensory experiences. They wanted a secret garden theme with hidden features including mirrors and musical chimes, and rewilding areas with bird feeders to welcome wildlife.
- Shandy Park flourished: The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, London, and dedicated community volunteers brought Shandy Park to flourish with a grant from the Our Space Award.
- Leyton Boundary Community Garden, Removed a concrete path and transformed the space into a new bed building project and a polytunnel.
As shown above the Open Space Award enables more groups to access funding for impactful projects. For example, the projects selected aim to create welcoming environments and green spaces while promoting sustainability. The activities funded through the Open Space Award are designed to make a meaningful contribution to broader social and environmental goals. Specifically, this includes addressing issues like inclusivity, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Ultimately, the initiative strives to create lasting benefits for communities across London.
What support grants for a greener London are available?
There are two tiers of grants from £500 up to £5,000:
- Small grants of £500 to £2,000;
- Standard grants of £2,000 to £5,000.
Eligible group/organisation can apply for either Small and Standard Grants. See their Application Guidance for more details on Our noSpace Award.
Project Objectives
Projects will aim to make a significant contribution to a number of wider social and environmental objectives and need to include objectives such as:
- Tree planting (each project can plant at least one tree)
- Climate resilience and adaptations to climate change
- Improvements to water quality and drainage through planting and reducing hard surfaces
- Ecological and biodiversity benefits
- Climate education alongside physical improvements
- Improving air quality
- Reducing health inequalities and social isolation
Ways in which you may be able to achieve the above objectives are:
- New tree planting
- Native planting
- Pollinator planting
- Drought tolerant planting
- Rewilding areas
- Nest boxes, rock piles, bug hotels
- Water habitat creation or improvement
- Planting aimed at improving water quality
- Rainwater harvesting
- Creation of composting area, use of organic compost, organic mulching, use of food waste.
- Volunteer and community engagement
- Increasing access to nature
Applications to the Our Space Award are now OPEN. The deadline for submitting your application form is midday on Monday 9 December 2024.
The delivery of projects must be completed by Monday 9 February 2026 and monitoring information submitted by Friday 25 February 2026.
For more information contact Groundwork who runs the Open Space Award on:
T: 020 7922 1230
E: london@groundwork.org.uk or ourspaceaward@groundwork.org.uk
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