BLOG: Friends of Groundwork – From 1982 to Today
By Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive
“The project is concerned with you and your environment. To make it a success we need your ideas and your help – join the FROGs.”
This was the exhortation to readers of the St Helens Star in 1982, the year in which ‘Operation Groundwork’ went from idea to implementation. ‘Friends of Groundwork’ (see what they did there?) were being sought to identify projects, undertake practical tasks and fundraise for the fledgling organisation.
Although billed at the time as a ‘national experiment’, Groundwork’s programme of activity was built from the bottom up – street by street, park by park and school by school. Projects were simple but effective – mobilising volunteers to clean up ‘grot spots’ in the local area, turning derelict industrial sites into flower meadows, canalsides into linear parks and waste ground into community allotments.
Finding ways for all parts of the community to have a voice and participate in the process was a core commitment. Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University later commented on how Groundwork’s “intensive, patient and long-term activity, rooted in the needs and aspirations of local communities, can help rebuild confidence, trust and lay the foundations for renewal” .
Being a Friend of Groundwork was also a two-way deal. In return for offering time as volunteers to improve their local area, FROGs could enrol on training courses to increase their skills and understanding on environmental issues. The advent of Operation Groundwork coincided with the launch of major government initiatives to tackle record levels of unemployment, in particular the Community Programme run by the Manpower Services Commission. This funded temporary work placements in organisations delivering community and environmental benefit and helped expand the range of projects Groundwork delivered while establishing a model of employment support that is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.
Many of the ingredients baked in to the Groundwork model from the outset – cross-sector partnership working, expertise ‘on tap not on top’, delivering multiple outcomes from the same investment – were far-sighted at the time but are now considered integral to the delivery of effective community regeneration. The same is true of the principle that social and environmental issues should be tackled in tandem. A wise old head once described this to me as the ‘two skis’ principle – you may need to put more weight on one than the other to get where you’re going, but if they’re ever too far apart you fall over.
Over the years this has been difficult to conceptualise and communicate without getting wrapped up in the technical language of sustainable development and the ‘triple bottom line’, but we can now see clearly that those with least power and protection are impacted first and worst by climate change and that environmentally positive behaviours are better for our health and our ability to cope with cost of living pressures.
I’m often asked how Groundwork’s approach has evolved since those early experimental years. While the scale and spread of activity has clearly transformed, the principles of being partnership-focused, people-led and committed to practical action haven’t changed at all. But there’s a new context and a new need for the work we do. We continue to help people improve the physical fabric of the places that matter to them, but do that in a way that promotes nature recovery and climate adaptation. We’re still building skills and creating jobs but are now exploring a wider range of pathways into the green economy. We carry on helping people and businesses to understand and reduce their environmental impact, but with a more conscious eye on the cost savings this can generate. We remain committed to helping young people thrive, giving children a stronger start in life and developing the next generation of environmental leaders.
And we’re doing it all with a new generation of FROGs – people who share our aim of creating a fair and green future in which people, places and nature thrive. If you’re working alongside us already, thank you for your support. If you’d like to get involved, please do connect.
Notes to editors
For more information please contact: media@groundwork.org.uk
About Groundwork
Groundwork is a federation of charities with a collective mission to take practical action to create a fair and green future in which people, places, and nature thrive. We support communities and businesses to build capacity and resilience in order to tackle hardship, achieve a just transition to net-zero and help nature recover in a way that reduces inequality and leads to healthier, happier lives for all: www.groundwork.org.uk