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June 3, 2015

Claim your park

It’s becoming increasingly common for a local park to become ‘adopted’ by a group of residents who want to have more say over how their park is maintained and developed as a community resource. From organising regular litter pick-ups, running community picnics, holding fetes and gala days, local people are beginning to reclaim these public assets for community use. A new website has just been launched to encourage more communities to take this sort of action.


3/6/15


 

GreenSpace Scotland

MyParkScotland is an exciting new project, to help people discover and support their local parks. The website allows us to collect donations using crowdfunding (raising funds from many people over the internet towards a common project). This is for individual and business giving to support parks and their projects, with an investment strategy to develop longer term sustainability and endowment funds.

It will be your first port of call if you’re looking to find your local park and what’s on through the interactive hub which provides information about park events, facilities and activities.

MyParkScotland is one of 11 UK ‘park trailblazers’ in the Rethinking Parks programme. Funded by Nesta, Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund. The Rethinking Parks programme is supporting the most innovative and promising new business models to enable our parks to thrive for the next century.

Why MyParkScotland?

MyParkScotland is unique. We want to help people discover and support their local parks, but also provide a method of funding park improvements and longer term investments.

This website combines elements of project funding, for individuals and businesses to support parks and projects, with an investment strategy to develop longer-term sustainability and endowment funds.

MyPark Scotland is Scotland’s only crowdfunding site specifically for parks and greenspaces. And the great thing about MyParkScotland is that you’re able to Gift Aid your donation and this ‘extra funding’ will go towards building an endowment fund for Scotland parks – helping to safeguard our national treasures for future generations.

Why parks?

Parks are really important as wonderful local spaces on your doorstep for play, relaxation and exercise.  They make a huge contribution to our health, our quality of life and our community spirit. And we really love them: last year Scots made over 160 million visits to our local parks and greenspaces. Since 2004 they’ve topped the list of locations visited in the Scottish Recreation Survey – well ahead of woodlands, beaches and hills.

Our parks really matter because they aren’t just the spaces where the kids kick a ball around or where your neighbour walks the dog – they make a big difference to our quality of life.

 

Greenspace is nature’s anti-depressant – just viewing a greenspace for 3 to 5 minutes can significantly reduce stress. When we’re not relaxing in our parks, they can help us get fit and active. And what better place for children to run around and play? Many of us have treasured childhood memories of playing in the park – feeding the ducks, playing hide and seek, whizzing down the slide…and we see our children and grandchildren enjoying these same simple pleasures.