Rethinking Parks: The Role and Place of Charitable Giving (Workshop Report)

On Tuesday 30th April 2019, the University of Leeds, Leeds City Council, Leeds Community Foundation and the Leeds Parks and Green Spaces Forum jointly hosted a national workshop titled ‘Rethinking Parks: The Role and Place of Charitable Giving’ at The Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds.

The workshop was generously funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Nesta as part of ‘Rethinking Parks’ - a national programme that aims to develop promising operational models for parks across the country through investigating their potential in locally-implemented national pilot projects.

Some 46 delegates from 31 organisations across the public, voluntary and charitable sectors participated in this lively and engaging event, which shared learning and research from the Rethinking Parks project in Leeds. Notably, Dr Anna Barker (University of Leeds) presented the findings of research into public and business opinion of charitable giving to parks and green spaces. The workshop created opportunities for discussion of the findings and their application for similar initiatives in the UK and convened two themed workshop discussions to explore the role and place of charitable giving to parks and green spaces, and ways to harness voluntary donations, drawing on the expertise and practical experience of delegates.