Joining or starting a Friends of Park group is a great way to play an active role in shaping your local park or green space.
What is a Friends of Park Group?
Friends of Park groups are made u of local people who work with the Council to improve their local park. They might organise community volunteering days such as park clean ups, bulb planting or gardening. Other might be interested in exploring how their park could be improved by adding new play equipment, seating or trees. Have a look at our list of Friends of Park groups in Barking and Dagenham on the right hand side or our Friends of Park map below to see if there is an active friends of park group in your local park.
How can I get involved?
Have a look at our list of Friends of Park groups in Barking and Dagenham here
No Friends of Park group in your local park? Why not start up your own Friends of Park group? Have a look at our Friends of Park Starter Pack which has lots of handy tips for setting up a Friends of Park group.
Have a look at the stories that inspire tab below to see what other residents have done to improve their local park!
Joining or starting a Friends of Park group is a great way to play an active role in shaping your local park or green space.
What is a Friends of Park Group?
Friends of Park groups are made u of local people who work with the Council to improve their local park. They might organise community volunteering days such as park clean ups, bulb planting or gardening. Other might be interested in exploring how their park could be improved by adding new play equipment, seating or trees. Have a look at our list of Friends of Park groups in Barking and Dagenham on the right hand side or our Friends of Park map below to see if there is an active friends of park group in your local park.
How can I get involved?
Have a look at our list of Friends of Park groups in Barking and Dagenham here
No Friends of Park group in your local park? Why not start up your own Friends of Park group? Have a look at our Friends of Park Starter Pack which has lots of handy tips for setting up a Friends of Park group.
Have a look at the stories that inspire tab below to see what other residents have done to improve their local park!
Nature walks and community picnics: Great ways for people to connect with nature whilst meeting new people. Tree talk(External link)(External link) can help you design a walk around the most interesting trees in your park!
Start a Facebook or WhatsApp Group for the park: This is a great way to connect with other park users and/or share photos of the park. See our video on how to set up a Facebook group here.
Planting: Enhance your green space, improve biodiversity, create pollinator corridors, help mitigate the effects of climate change, or increase shade/cooler areas by planting shrub or flower beds, trees, hedges/hedgerows, wildflower or wild grass meadows, and/or bulbs
Litter picks and park clean ups: Invite people to collect litter in the park, the council provide the litter pickers and other equipment and will collect all the rubbish you collect at the end of the day. It might be nice to finish the litter pick off with a community picnic.
Improving your park’s infrastructure: Your group might want to explore opportunities to improve play spaces in your park, or to add infrastructure like outdoor gyms, seating, or to establish a community garden to grow flowers or food.
How can the Citizens Alliance Network Team support my group?
over 1 year ago
Growing your group: We can provide posters, leaflets and banners to help promote your group. We can also promote any events you have in our weekly newsletter and add you to our list of Friends of Parks Groups on our website.
Events and activities: The council owns the park’s land and so we can make sure that council staff know what you would like to do and that you get their permission first. This is also important so that, for example, the team responsible for mowing the grass doesn't cut down your newly sprouting bulbs by accident!
Support and advice: We can also provide support and advice with setting up your group.
Hot tip: remember to make your group public so others can find it!
