Introducing...Ashley.

Ashley lives in Nottingham and has been volunteering for some time in Killisick, taking part in a variety of activities based on and around Killisick Park.

Having enrolled into college studying a City & Guilds Diploma in sport, Ashley supports his course by volunteering with Groundwork Greater Nottingham to bring sports activities to other young people in his neighbourhood.

"I'm keen and passionate about supporting the other young people of Killsick," he says. "I like feeling like I'm making a positive contribution, not only in my local area but also across the whole of Nottingham."

Out of the mouths of babes...

An eight year old from London has rallied his community together by forming a group to raise £225,000 to revamp a local children's playground. 

Ryan Wells and his mum Michelle Ball, set up Northbrook Park Community Group (NPCG) last year to help transform the park’s play area and raised funding from various sources - including Groundwork's Community Spaces programme.

You can read more about this amazing story here. 

Youth group lend community a helping hand in Manchester

Here's a fantastic story about a group of young people from West Gorton, Manchester, who gave up their time last weekend to do good deeds for their neighbours despite the wet weather.

The 20-strong group of 10 to 15 year olds donned their raincoats and took part in a ‘Helping Hands’ day on the West Gorton estate on Saturday 8 October, which was organised and funded by local housing provider Guinness Northern Counties.

The award winning youth group, who won the Young Citizens of the Year Award in December 2010 at Manchester City Council’s Be Proud Awards, worked in teams with Guinness Northern Counties staff to tackle various jobs across the estate.

Young people should be part of the solution, not seen as part of the problem

Young People Friendly Neighbourhoods launches today! 

Taking place in over 20 areas across England, YPFN will help young people have a real say in local decision making.  This magazine article by Groundwork Chief Executive Sir Tony Hawkhead argues the case for why young people should be at the heart of solutions to local problems:

"If we’re serious about creating a truly Big Society where everyone feels able to play an active role in making their neighbourhoods better places to live, we should start by putting young people at the heart of services that affect them and helping them to work with their communities, rather than viewing them as troublemakers, or, worse still, simply ignoring them.

"This is, after all, our country’s future that we’re investing in."