Kirkstall Valley Grants Awards Evening 24 October

This was the second awards evening to celebrate small scale community projects and what they can achieve.

The grants programme is sponsored by Power to Change, and is a collaboration between Open Source Arts and Kirkstall Valley Grants.  The grants are awarded to help projects which improve the environment as well as the wellbeing of the communities in the Kirkstall Valley.

The winners in this second round were:

James Gray – Park Green Community Project
This is a community-owned space in Armley.  The grant will be used to buy tools to work the land.  Residents are working together to change the Green into an ecological space.  This includes a new bee-friendly border with indigenous wildflowers, insect hotels, communal composting for kitchen waste and maintenance to the iron fence. It is hoped that residents will take pride in their local green spaces, share skills and knowledge by getting involved in gardening and engage with recycling.

Dr Tig Calvert – Flower Gardens
There are some properties off Kirkstall Lane where either the residents or the landlords are not able to maintain gardens, so their neighbours want to populate the gardens with bee and butterfly attracting plants.  The grant will help to buy planters, plants and aftercare.  It’s hoped that the project will be extended to other areas within the Valley.

Priya Sidharh and Beth Stepan – One Billion Rising Leeds
One Billion Rising is a global response to the UN statistic that one in three women experience rape or serious violence, encouraging people everywhere to ‘rise’ against this issue.  One Billion Rising Leeds supports local charities and will be facilitating workshops so that residents can come together creatively to print the artwork created into a booklet, to contribute towards fundraising for the various charities working to combat violence against women.

Your idea
If you have an idea for a community project, visit the Kirkstall Valley Grants website
http://kirkstallvalleygrants.org/ to find out if you’d be eligible for a grant, and to send an
application – or you can call Open Source Arts on 0113 246 8975.

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