People who work together to a common cause, who have a strong team spirit and work well together with people of diverse skills

GROSVENOR GROUND COMMITTEE

Grosvenor Ground Committee have worked very hard over the past three years in leading the development of Grosvenor Ground from a 0.8 hectare derelict site on Lumb Lane, Bradford, to create a safe area of green space for play, sport and recreation for all the community in the heart of their neighbourhood.

They set out to improve the environment in the area, where there are few play areas or green space. They were involved with organising community consultations, events and fundraising for the project over three years.

They support the youth group in fundraising for the sports pitch, in organising healthy living events and arts and crafts workshops.

Grosvenor Ground Committee members grew up around the derelict site with old concrete foundations and broken glass, with a strong feeling for safeguarding it for play and sports for the next generations.

They have raised aspirations for the community for the quality of their local environment and encouraged the community to look after the new play area, sports pitch and community gardens.

They are friendly, determined people who have become good role models for the youth group in listening to what the community wants and working with others to develop a project respecting the community’s wishes for a place for exercise, play and enjoying the green space.

A natural play area was built in 2010. The new sports pitch, paths and community gardens have just been completed in July and they are supporting the youth group in organising a launch and celebration on an Olympic theme for the community on 1st September. The event will include an opening ceremony, fun games and sports, healthy snacks and a closing ceremony with children who have made their own Olympic torches and crowns.

They have recently encouraged the community to take up some of the new community garden plots to grow their own vegetables. They are meeting on a monthly basis to get them going.

ST MARY’S CENTRE

The Centre is an easily accessible hub providing a variety of services for the poor of Bradford. There are five projects running from the Centre. The Curry Project, on two nights of the week, The Immanuel Project on Monday and the Welcome on Friday, both serving breakfast and lunch. Also two support groups for recovering addicts on Monday and Thursday evenings.

A Zimbabwean Church, with many refugees and asylum seekers, worships in the Hall on Sunday. The Bradford Metropolitan Foodbank uses the Church building on the same site.

The Centre provides a free meal and support four days of the week. They now have a Clothes Store and assist people who have been given accommodation but do not own a stick of furniture, a cup or a spoon. They have recently started to source and co-ordinate the collection and delivery of furniture to those in need. Professional staff call in often to catch up with hard to reach homeless people.

They say their most important quality however is that all the groups are wholly run and staffed by unpaid volunteers.

For the last three years St Mary’s Centre has been a venue for Inn Church’s Winter Shelter for the Homeless. For two separate weeks we open our doors and serve a nourishing evening meal and provide beds for eight people in warm, safe, non-judgemental surroundings. These people would otherwise have been spending the night out in some of the coldest winters in recent years.

Eileen Armstrong, who coordinates the different groups and looks after the building said: “I am so proud of the people who, without looking for any reward, give their time and care to serve the poor of Bradford.”

SHIPLEY GLEN TRAMWAY MAINTENANCE VOLUNTEERS

Britain's oldest working cable tramway re-opened in summer 2011 following a two-year refurbishment.

Shipley Glen Tramway, which is 117 years old, was refurbished mostly from donations from the community. It paid for the trams to be completely refurbished, with each given a new chassis and emergency braking systems.

The original roofs have been re-installed and the original seats have been newly varnished. Now organisers are looking for volunteers to help run the attraction.

The tramway, which first opened in 1895, has been seen by generations of people in Shipley and Bradford as part of the district's cultural heritage. The team of maintenance volunteers takes full responsibility for repairing and maintaining all parts of the Shipley Glen Tramway to the highest of health and safety standards. The work includes repairs to track, sleepers, rollers, cables and trams and electrical work.

The volunteers have been involved in this work for over four years, and in some instances over ten years. Without these volunteers the tramway could not remain open.

The tramway has been operating on Sundays since July 2011 (after a one-and-a-half year closure for refurbishment) and up to the end of December 2011 clocked up over 9,000 passengers.

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