On the 9th of May Lemos&Crane and the City Bridge Trust held the 2014 Growing Localities awards ceremony at St Luke’s Community Centre. The evening saw speeches from Billy Dove - Chairman of the City Bridge Trust Committee, David Farnsworth- Chief Grants officer at the City Bridge Trust, and our own Gerard Lemos, as well as the distribution of £2,500 among winning entries. This has been the second year the awards have taken place; continuing to recognise projects that use nature to enhance and improve local communities and the lives of vulnerable or socially excluded people.
Greatly improving on last year's success, we received 167 submissions from a very wide range of projects. They were entered in the following categories: gardening and growing food (for communal eating and small-scale enterprise); looking after animals (for the experience of care but also to farm); nature-themed arts and crafts (woodcraft, photography, film-making, writing, etc); educational activities about nature and wildlife (including trips and excursions to teach people about flora or fauna); reclaiming and developing wasteland (initiated and led by residents and tenants); and “green “ exercise (groups for walking, cycling, running, etc with a nature theme). Despite being entered in different categories the projects were all extremely innovative and generated the same positive benefits: health and well-being, new skills and knowledge, new relationships, and a sense of purpose and belonging.
Congratulations to all of the Growing Localities Award recipients. We look forward to continuing the awards next year and hope for an even greater number of entries.
View live updates from the awards ceremony on twitter: @lemosandcrane, @CityBridgeTrust, #growinglocalities
View the winning entries here
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