Groundwork
Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Tameside & Trafford

A group of 8 young girls between 12 and 15 years old organised a launch event to reveal the revitalised outdoor area of the Key Hole Centre on the Ridgehill Estate this week.  The Deputy Major attended the special event alongside family, as the group gave a presentation on their work and officially opened the space.

The project was managed by environmental charity Groundwork and funded by the Community Space Challenge.  The girls were put forward to Groundwork from a variety of partners for the 4 month programme, with interactive, hands on sessions taking place every week. 

Attendees chose the project they wanted to tackle, worked together to plan and undertake it and will achieve an ASDAN qualification for undertaking the community project. 

Millie Nicholson, 14, from Stalybridge said; “I’d recommend this course to my friends; it’s fun and you get a lot out of it.  We decided we wanted to improve the back garden at the Keyhole Centre on the estate.  We started by planning what we wanted to do, then made some collages to decorate the walls, cleaned the area to remove all the moss, then painted the walls and furniture.”  Millie is going on to study a Diploma in Construction at Hyde College.

Emma Nicholson added:  “I’ve enjoyed everything we’ve done.  Before I did this course I used to be angry all the time. Since I’ve been coming here I’ve calmed down and I can control my anger. 

Lauren Fitton said:  “You learn how to behave and work as a team to organise things.”

Rob Fulton, Groundwork Project Officer said:  “The girls have all worked really hard to plan and do the physical work on transforming the community space.”