CREATING TOMORROWS PARKS TODAY!
Parks are a hive of community activity created and organised by locals like you.
The Smart Parks strategy provides a unique opportunity for all parks and communities to become vibrant self-funding spaces that reduce costs on the public purse, with the following areas of interest running through everything:
Health and wellbeing of people
Health and wellbeing of nature
Education
Social Inclusion
Financial and Environmental Sustainability
It is already accepted that parks are a healthy place to spend time and if you agree with this, then also think about how many Councils have left parks to decay due to lack of interest or funds. Yet parks are healthier and cheaper to run than a community centre and when used correctly, they actually help Local Councils reduce their bottom line in a number of ways.
GREAT COMMUNITY SPACE
EVERY SUNDAY during the summer, we meet up in the park around 10.00am to do some light maintenance jobs, gardening and litter picking. This can easily be organised in any area or park, it's rewarding, healthy and a great way to get to know the locals.
OUR GOALS
Keep the litter picking going… it starts to bring in local support because people care. Then the area begins to look better…volunteers begin doing a few more jobs and things just roll on from there!
Volunteers are formed from everyday people like you and me who want to take responsibility for and transform the local parks and area. We want to build the number of volunteers working with us and support the realisation of their community dreams.
Provide a friendly, safe haven for all local residents…whether they want to get a little exercise while doing something good, want some company, need our help with something, have a fundraising idea or anything else. We want to be known as a place of support and inclusion for the whole community.
To create Smart Parks that offer a little something for everyone. The Smart Park goals have been created from the ideas and dreams of the very people who use the parks.
To work together on projects that enhance the community, binding us together in healthy non-contentious ways for the good of all…which leans itself nicely towards a better community feeling in the area and the myriad of goodness this brings.
SMART NATURE
Education is key to the wellbeing of our local habitat and each park has an abundance of bugs, birds, flora and fauna. If young people are encouraged to understand the nature in the park this will be an amazing step towards securing the parks for the future.
SMART YOUNG PEOPLE
Young people are interested in our environment, they want a better place for their future and educating them on how to support the Smart Park strategy and encouraging them to be involved is essential. We need ideas from across the generations, a melting pot of visions and dreams we can turn into new projects where we will work together to find inventive and innovative ways of making them a reality.
SMART TECHNOLOGY
The ease in which things just click, transfer and tether together nowadays is truly brilliant…so we thought why not click some tech together and use it for nature and wellbeing.
This objective is designed to encourage, cajole and enchant residents of all ages to use technology to learn about the parks in lots of different ways. Some ingenious and innovative…some simple and expected. Once implemented correctly, we will be able to work together and successfully deliver our goals.
SMART DONATIONS
Supporting our Smart Community Park goals costs you no money! If you are buying anything on Amazon, they will donate a small percentage of sales when you shop through this link. The prices and offers are exactly the same, except they donate some money to our charity.
If you DON’T donate this money - we all lose it! It simply goes to Amazon's profits. (Full Details Here)
SMART THINKING
Parks offer wellbeing.
Encouraging the community to get involved strengthens the community, increases wellbeing and ultimately reduces costs on the public purse in a myriad of ways.
Because this is done through volunteers, the community at large start feeling involved. This in turn helps people feel comfortable about taking responsibility, which further translates into litter picking in the park and the streets, bringing even further community benefits.
We have a rare window of opportunity to create a space that incorporates an accord between the scientific community, the mind body and soul community, and the hippies of the 60’s, that all agree parks are healthy…quality of life is important…being outdoors is healthy…talking to others is healthy.
Smart Parks bring this together using goodwill, technology and education…now that’s Smart Thinking.
SMART OPEN SOURCE PRINCIPLES
Open source is one of the most wonderful ecosystems humans have created. Many people have different views on what it is, to us Open Source is defined as a gift that keeps on giving…and if you give back the rewards are even greater.
The Friends of Harrow Weald subscribe to and embrace all aspects of Open Source and try to apply the principle to everything we do, online, on computer, and in the real world.
Sharing is caring.
SMART MARKETING
Working with local businesses and government organisations to create many different opportunities for them to get involved and support the Smart Park strategy. Support and donations come in many formats.
Click here for our Business section.
Click here for our Partnerships section.
ARE YOU LOCAL? There are several ways you can get involved. Why not join in with our existing activities that are held weekly and monthly? Or perhaps help with our ongoing projects, events and working groups which are constantly busy with many tasks.
Not Local, but interested? If you want to start a group in your local area contact your Council’s community engagement office who will point you in the right direction.
