People, places, potential… why we do what we do
Global vision, local delivery. Our projects, initiatives and main areas of activity.
Campaigns and ways you can support our work.
Connect to our regional and local Groundwork Trusts.
Find out the latest about how we're changing places and lives.
Further your career or help us make a difference.
How to contact our team nationally and around the country
In the recession of the early 1980s, the environment and social cohesion of many parts of the country was under threat. The collapse of traditional industries with associated environmental degradation and conflict within communities called for a new response.
Groundwork was born out of a competition for local authorities won by St Helens. ‘Operation Groundwork’ was described by the then Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine as ‘an entrepreneurial team, which could act independently as an enabler to mobilise all the resources in the community - public, private and voluntary’.
The first Groundwork Trust was so successful that areas around the country applied to duplicate the experiment.
Over the following decades, we expanded geographically and also our work became more diverse as each Trust responded to local circumstances and innovated.
We’re now a federation of charities with a membership based on a mixture of local Trusts and regional organisations, with Groundwork UK acting as a national voice and co-ordinator. From small beginnings in St Helens, we now work across English regions, Wales and Northern Ireland.
