30 years of change
Groundwork at 30
‘Join the FROGs’ was the rallying cry when Groundwork first began changing places and changing lives in St Helens on the edge of Merseyside in 1982.
Friends of Operation Groundwork (the FROGs) were a vital part of the model for a new organisation testing out a new way of tackling some new – and some very old – problems.
Those friends came from the local community but also included local businesses, schools and all the organisations and agencies that had an interest in improving the physical and social fabric of areas hit by multiple challenges.
The driving force behind Groundwork was John Davidson, an inspirational environmental thinker working at the time for the Countryside Commission. His vision was for an initiative that could mobilise people and money to make a difference to the prospects of struggling communities using the local environment as the trigger point for action, a vehicle to address social tension and conflict, a resource for learning and education and a driver for jobs and investment.
John persuaded the government and local councils to back the idea and won friends in industry to take ‘the business of the environment’ seriously. Operation Groundwork was launched to the public in July 1982 under the stewardship of Dr John Handley, another passionate environmentalist with a strong, practical business streak and who now is a renowned expert in land management at the University of Manchester.
The Groundwork idea and model took root in places suffering from the decline of traditional, land-hungry industries – coal mines, steel works, quarries – leaving landscapes blackened and scarred and whole communities isolated and facing a bleak future.
This ‘post-industrial landscape’ of slag heaps, urban dereliction and blight was the proving ground for Groundwork’s unique approach to helping local people drive change on their doorstep as the first step on the road to recovery. Of course, as a small, fledgling charity Groundwork wasn’t acting alone. Working hand in glove with councils and bringing businesses into the process as active champions of their community was a hallmark of Groundwork’s approach. Groundwork’s birth also coincided with a growing consciousness of wider environmental issues around waste, resource use and global warming. A focus on the immediate environment outside people’s front door quickly opened up the opportunity to increase people’s awareness and understanding of how their behaviours impacted on global trends.
These principles of helping people change their communities – and their world - one green step at a time are still at the heart of the Groundwork approach thirty years later. The world is a very different place in 2012 but there are many parallels with 1982. Communities are being buffeted by economic forces beyond their control. Unemployment is high and social tensions are simmering. There is a need for new thinking about how we manage land and green spaces and increasing urgency about not just the threat but the real and unstoppable impacts of climate change.
In the last three decades Groundwork has delivered tens of thousands of projects involving and benefiting millions of people. Our work has been supported by successive governments and championed by major business leaders and led to the creation of independent Groundwork networks in the US and Japan.
But we need to redouble our efforts and reach out to new Friends of Operation Groundwork.
As John Handley said in an open letter to the people of St Helens in 1982:
“The environment has a big effect on all our lives, whether we are children at play, a family out for an afternoon stroll or a businessman seeking a new factory location. There is an opportunity to lead the way in showing that strong communities and vigorous industry can go hand-in-hand with a clean and pleasant environment. The progress we make will depend on your support. Please join the FROGs.”
www.groundwork.org.uk