Bradford-based Rockwell Community Centre garden gets new play area

Rockwell Community Centre in Bradford has a refreshed community garden and new play area for children.

The new play area was built by a team from Yorkshire Water, in collaboration with Participate, with volunteers creating an activity area for children including a tyre balance beam, new benches, several new allotment vegetable beds and a mud play pit. The community garden was also tidied up and refreshed.

The Rockwell Centre is a local community centre for Thorpe Edge and surrounding areas. They offer different activities daily, including mental health groups, a singing group, tai chi, Bloomin’ Buds Theatre Company and a youth club.

The work has provided the community with a great outdoor area, particularly for children to play and learn to grow their own vegetables and herbs.

Katie Mahon, founder of Bloomin’ Buds Theatre Company, said: “It was incredible to see the centre as a hive of activity. We were very lucky to have 22 volunteers to help clear up our outside space.

“As a charitable organisation that is always short on funding and manpower, our outdoor space is often last to be sorted out, so this helped us massively!”

The volunteering comes as part of a wider partnership between Yorkshire Water and Participate Projects, a non-profit that aims to co-ordinate and increase delivery of colleague volunteering in communities across the county.

Anne Reed, social value and education advisor at Yorkshire Water, said: “Our colleagues are passionate about helping out in local communities and providing value beyond our water and wastewater services.

“Our partnership with Participate Projects is already increasing the frequency of our volunteering events and is providing meaningful support to organisations and people across Yorkshire.”

The partnership has already seen Yorkshire Water colleagues embarking on a range of volunteering projects, from decorating community spaces to building outdoor play areas for children, with more plans still over the next few months.

Anthony Waddington, CEO at Participate Projects, added: “We are really excited to see Yorkshire Water colleagues’ time and skills make a real impact in the communities where they operate. The passion and enthusiasm we have seen from them in supporting the people and places around them is a great match to the values and mission of Participate.”