Your Back Yard CIC Annual Report 201819 Foreword

Your Back Yard CIC Annual Report 2018/19

Foreword Our Purpose 2018/2019 was another busy time here at Your Back Yard. We’ve ran numerous successful project spanning over Leeds and Bradford. We’ve continues work on our Healthy living Park Projects, and developed our walking sports for over 50 s as well as branching out into renewable energy. We will continue to develop these projects and work with communities to promote health and well-being. We have more ideas to come for the rest of 2019 and 2020! Your Back Yard was created to help communities in need in the North of England create places to be proud of. We did this because we passionately believe that everybody - young or old, rich or poor has the right to great community facilities. As always, finding funding to allow us to do this beneficial work is always difficult. Positively, in November 2018, the government announced a £ 1 million ‘pocket parks plus’ fund to help communities transform 157 neglected and derelict spaces and create 31 new green spaces in urban areas across the country. Futhermore, in March 2019 The Stronger Towns Fund was created. This fund is £ 1. 6 billion and runs from 2019 -2026 to create new jobs, help train local people and boost economic activity. Yorkshire and the Humber have been allocated £ 197 million of this fund. Hopefully, this reflects the Government beginning to prioritise parks, green spaces and communities more! We will also continue to seek funding from brilliant outside sources such as the National Lottery and Trusts and Foundations Sadly, we know that this is often not the case, particularly in poorer areas. So we try to help wherever we can, working with local people to find ways to improve their neighbourhood. Whether that means managing community buildings better, setting up youth clubs, cleaning up open spaces, creating play areas, supporting routes to employment or promoting healthy living, our aim is to ensure that those places that need it the most get support to make things better. While we wait for Government to agree with us, we will continue to seek and seize opportunities to help communities make their areas even better places to live. If you want to work with us to make this happen, or would like to know more about us and what we do, please get in touch. There are lots of ways to do so, and we have listed them at the end of this report.

Project Highlights 2018/2019 Healthy Living Parks- Bramley Fall Park Your Back Yard was commissioned by Leeds City Council to deliver a programme of healthy activities in Bramley Fall Park over with a focus on young people aged 5 -12, those with physical or mental health issues, and those who are generally inactive, or at risk of becoming so, as well as the general public We created the concept of a Healthy Living Park (HLP) in 2015, aimed at encouraging people to use parks and green spaces, and in doing so, improve the viability of parks, and the health of the population In May 2018 we hosted a fun and activity day in Bramley Fall Park, in partnership with Friend's of Bramley fall park. The day was a great success, helped in no small measure by the glorious weather. An estimated 150 people came along on the day and all activities; football, yoga, multi sports, tug o’ war, penalty shoot-out, wildflower planting and the dancing, were well attended throughout the day.

Healthy Living Parks- Wibsey Park Bradford In May 2017 Your Back Yard was commissioned by Wibsey Ward Councillors to survey park users and use the data gathered to create a summer activity programme The key findings from the research highlighted the fact that people enjoyed using the park, and would like to spend more time taking part in events that are held in the park. Notably, there was strong support for the suggestions of reinstating a nature trail, and for hosting a Family Fun Day. As a result of this research a family fun and activity launch day was organised for May 2018. Organised by the Friends of Wibsey Park group, with support of Your Back Yard, the event was a huge success, with an estimated 350 people attending and taking part in events such as football, yoga, and cricket. Your Back Yard also surveyed 80 people on the day, and found out that the events people wanted to go to most during the summer programme were family activities (51%), cycling (45%), tai chi (36%), rounders (36%). These results advised the planning of the summer programme comprising of up to 50 sessions, which proved to be a real success.

Sports Activities for over 50 s In April 2018 we were awarded a grant from Sport England to deliver a programme of activities for the over 50’s in LS 6 or, more specifically, Hyde Park, Burley and Little Woodhouse. The aim of this project was to provide more accessible, enjoyable, healthy opportunities for people, particularly those from ‘inactive’ groups, to participate in sport. Tackling inactivity is becoming an increasingly bigger part of what we do, partly because, more people die a premature death now from inactivity as they do from smoking (Public Health England), and partly because if we can get more activity into a park setting, that helps our beleaguered parks too. This theme of tackling inactivity has become even more prominent in our work since 2018 and it’s now one of the key things we aim to deliver. To underpin this project, we surveyed more than 250 over 55’s in Leeds and Newcastle to see what activities they would be interested in. The most sought after activities, by some distance, were guided walks, tai chi, yoga and Zumba. As this choices were the most popular they were heavily incorporated into the programme of sports activities that we delivered. We delivered a variety of sports such as walking football, guided walks, yoga, meditation, and tai chi. We worked in partnership with numerous brilliant organisations who operate in west Leeds such as Older Wiser Local Seniors (OWLS), Bramley Elderly Action (BEA), Catch up Club and Armley Mosque to deliver these sessions and we have continued to work with them on similar projects. We also learned key lessons from this project. For example, we learnt that when we run activities through a pre-existing group, such as OWLS Lads Lunch or Bramley Saturday Men’s Club, they are much more successful than when we simply put on activities and hope that people will come. We have used this to inform how we approach future projects and we have aimed to continue targeting pre-existing groups.

Ground Source heat Pumps In 2018 Your Back Yard, Eb. Tech (an energy company specialising in the development and delivery of renewable energy products) and Kensa (an UK heat pump manufacturer) worked together to put together a feasibility study into the possibility of using green spaces as a source of renewable energy. This would be done via the installation of Ground Source Heat Pumps in a project that combines the benefits of renewable energy, cheaper fuel for lower income families, and the creation of a fund to support community projects. Furthermore, there is also potential for playing field improvements as proper drainage systems could be installed at the same time as the Ground Source Heat Pumps This project is important as it will create more opportunities for people to get active. 1 in 3 amateur matches were lost across the country in 2017/18, as a combination of wet weather and poor drainage combined to make sports pitches across the UK unusable. This is a serious problem as, according to the biggest grassroots survey ever conducted in 2015 by the FA, the quality and availability of pitches is the biggest factor in how often people play football. It’s also important that council-owned pitches are focused on as 83% of amateur football matches take place on council-run pitches, which the FA said were in an ‘abhorrent state’. In terms of the Ground Source Heat Pumps themselves, it is also vital that a more renewable and cheaper energy source is invested in as more than 1 in 10 households live in fuel poverty, and the UK is currently not meeting renewable energy targets. The overall aim of the project is to install Ground Source Heat Pumps beneath a sports field, park, or other green space near a location where there is a large end user. For example, the green space could be near a school, community centre, or block of council owned flats with a poor energy saving certificate. There is also the potential for a local community endowment fund to be created, as the scheme should generate a surplus. This could be used to fund energy efficiency projects at the household level such as solar panels, and double glazing or projects for general community benefit, such as improvements to play areas. The fund would help ensure ‘buy in’ from the local community, and also make a significant contribution to reducing fuel poverty, particularly as pilot projects will be targeted at disadvantaged areas.

Bracken. Hill Park Research In February 2019 Your Back Yard was commissioned by The Friends of Brackenhill Park to carry out a survey of park users to get some ideas surrounding what people liked and didn’t like about the park and how it could be improved. The surveys were carried out between February and May. This included 4 sessions in the park. In total, 100 surveys were completed from site visits and online respondents. There were also additional surveys completed by school children aged 8 -11 years old. These were the key findings: • • • Park users visited once or twice a week for less than an hour at a time on average. People were more likely to attend parks in the afternoon. 63% of people believed the park had worsened over the past 3 years. The park notice board was how most people found out about events. 50% of people would maybe attend and 35% of people would definitely attend a fun day in the park. 71% of people wanted a better play area for children to use. We also spoke with key local stakeholders such as the chair of Friends of Brackenhill Park, Council wardens, the supervisor for parks and landscapes and local schools. They all agreed that the park needed improved maintenance and updated equipment to reach its potential. The results of this research will be used to inform future plans and events for Bracken Hill Park A full copy of the research report can be found on our website.

Green Moor Big Local In early 2019 we worked on creating a feasibility study for a Big Local project with the purpose of increasing and improving activity provision in the Scholemoor and Lidgett Green (‘Greenmoor’) area of Bradford. The main aims of the feasibility study were to: • Identify a building, or space within a building, that could be used as a base for Big Local and their staff, and for the staff of any successor body e. g. a CIO • Ascertain the best way forward, e. g. to buy or lease the building, based on a cost-benefit analysis • Identify what services, functions, and activities a CIO/similar body, operating out of that building, could provide or commission, and how this could be funded For this research we interviewed community groups such as Friends who Care, Khidmat Centre and Scholemoor Beacon CIO. We also interviewed service providers such as St Wilfred’s Church and Great Horton Stay at Home Scheme. Finally we did a community facilities audit. The key findings from this research were: • There is a shortage of activities and facilities for younger people. • There is a significant and varied level of provision by way of community services and activities, but it is rather fragmented. • Activities around welfare, advice, young people, tutoring are being delivered by at least 3 different providers in the area. • There already quite a number of key stakeholder organisations operating in the patch, including 2 CIO’s and a thriving community resource centre. • Relations with the area seem quite positive, between residents and partner organisations. • The exception to this is the relationship between parts of the Council and the Big Local, where trust appeared to have broken down on both sides. • There is a good supply of community space across the area; the Beacon Centre, the Community Room at the. Mosque and Khidmat (very busy). Ukranian Centre, and St Wilfrids church (underused, particularly during the day) and there is a lot of spare capacity. • One of the growing demands in the area appears to be around support for new immigrants, and refugees, and arelated need for translators. • Another area of demand need are projects around health and well-being, a potential area of activity for Greenmoor Big Local or the CIO.

Achievements/Next Steps 2018/19 saw us get involved in delivering a number of successful projects. Many of these were related to green spaces, parks, health, and well-being, all of which overlap in aims and outcomes. Next year we’ll be looking to expand more into this area through projects such as: • Continuing to host a series of health and well-being events for over 50 s in the LS 6 area, funded by Sport England • Working to install Ground Source Heat Pumps, a renewable energy source, under a publicly owned sports pitch in Bradford • We are also hoping to improve the quality of local sports pitches by inserting effective drainage systems under the ground at the same time as installing the Ground Source Heat Pumps • We are hoping to run more Healthy Living Park programmes Directors 2018/2019 Tony Mullin Robin Beveridge Rosie Mc. Eachan Taiba Yasseen Paige Kesemeyer Suzanne Hallam Contact us We are always open to new ideas and suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch! Visit our website: www. yourbackyard. org. uk Follow us on Twitter: https: //twitter. com/Your. Back. Yard. CIC Like Your Back Yard on Facebook: https: //www. facebook. com/Yourbackyardcic/ Like Healthy Living Park on Facebook: https: //www. facebook. com/healthylivingpark Email us: contact@yourbackyard. org. uk