Community involvement in cities, towns, villages is so important for so many reasons.
It’s a way of building a feeling of belonging and we have an innate need for this; it gives us a sense of achievement, it gives us a social grouping, it prevents loneliness, it makes for a better local environment and it gets things done. The enormity of a project or an idea is sometimes overwhelming and community involvement can help disperse the workload and make it achievable and fun. Hopefully it means there are many strings and many bows that allow inclusivity and shared experiences that bring people together.
One example where this has been extremely successful is in the communities near to our Monkwood nature reserve where many hands make light work. Hazel Kemshall, Chair of Hallow Parish Council, kindly took time out of her busy schedule to write the summary below.
The power of partnership in Hallow
The power of partnership has been evidenced in Hallow recently with groups coming together to improve local green spaces for wildlife. In the Old Churchyard the Parish Council have partnered with local volunteers to increase bulb planting, wildflowers and general habitat improvement using advice from Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. Alongside this, Hallow Primary School children and Scouts have provided bird, bat and insect boxes whilst Wildgoose Rural Training have provided a bench and compost bins. This lovely, tranquil space has also provided an important educational experience for children with input from Worcestershire Wildlife staff and an inspirational talk from volunteers about the importance of these kinds of habitats for wildlife. The children had fun and learnt something (“sticks are important because animals live in them”, “bees like flowers”), they learnt where and how to site a bird or bat box and the volunteers also had fun passing on their knowledge and enthusiasm to the next generation. We were so impressed when the children could remember all our names at the end of the visit!
