Grassroots nature-based charity, Your Park Bristol & Bath, is appealing for 20 local businesses to get their walking boots on and help raise vital funds for the two cities’ parks and green spaces.
The charity released shocking figures last month that show one-third of the local population struggle to access their local park. It launched its 12-month campaign, Reimagining Parks, to tackle the barriers, with an initial fundraising target of £30k by October to kickstart the work needed and much bigger ambitions by the end of the 12 months to make significant impact across the 580 or so parks and green spaces across the two cities.
It's now launched its 100km Challenge and it’s hoping to raise £10k, with 20 businesses each signing up and committing to raising a minimum of £500.
The charity says the majority of parks and green spaces across the two cities are not inclusively designed, which significantly impacts access to them – in particular, for Disabled people and carers, women and girls, minority ethnic groups, and people in low income areas. The three key factors preventing people from having the confidence or ability to get out into their local parks are physical accessibility, personal safety and mental wellbeing.
Your Park’s Reimagining Parks campaign has set a huge ambition for everyone in Bristol and Bath to have a park that is accessible to them within a ten-minute reach of where they live, work or study. That means making them physically accessible for Disabled people and their carers, designed with the safety and enjoyment of women and girls in mind, and used to support people with mental health issues.
Its initial plan is to create one exemplar park in Bristol (Hartcliffe Millennium Green) and one in Bath (Brickfields Park) to show what a fully accessible and safe park looks like. It also wants to expand its Roots to Wellbeing
GP-referral green social prescribing programme that provides weekly sessions in local parks for people with mental health issues to reach 300 more people.
For more information about the Reimagining Parks campaign, please go to https://yourpark.org.uk/reimagining-parks.