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Nurture a network for green space volunteers

23-02-2026

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Case study

How good things happen for people and nature when local authorities and Friends groups put their heads and hearts together.
Communities - Friends of groups
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A joint force for nature

Forums for green space ‘Friends of’ and volunteer groups are helping people do more for nature together – connecting, sharing knowledge and making things happen.

And when local authorities work in partnership with these volunteer networks, it helps people and places grow stronger by:

  • Creating trusted partners for local authorities looking to deliver ambitious strategies for nature and climate
  • Raising the profile of the work volunteers do
  • Helping secure funding and strengthening the case to protect essential green services
  • Linking councils with boots on the ground ready to improve local parks and make green spaces more accessible
  • Enabling Friends groups to support each other and make neighbourhoods healthier and happier by nature

Read on to see how your local authority can partner with local volunteer networks as a joint force for nature, from setting mutual goals to establishing long term ways of working together.

Networks in numbers

Research shows there’s potential for thousands more groups to join Forums for nature volunteers. And local authorities can play a key role in bringing them together.

70+

Forums with over 3,000 local volunteer groups run across the UK

The National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces (NFPGS) is calling for a volunteer group Forum in every area and town in the UK.

Visit NFPGS

7,000+

Independent local Friends groups are up and running across the UK

A report from Parks Community UK shows they are most likely to do practical tasks, organise events and report maintenance issues.

Read the Better Friends report

1,000+

Volunteer hours are contributed per Friends group, per year across the UK

This equals around 7 million hours which could support local authorities with ambitious goals for people and nature.

Read the Better Friends report

60%

Volunteer groups are keen to work closely with site owners or managers

Often this is the local authority, highlighting an opportunity for more partnership working between councils and communities.

Read the Better Friends report

Connecting people for nature

Leeds City Council (LCC) and Leeds Parks and Green Spaces Forum have worked together to run a strong network of local volunteer groups for over a decade.

The Forum is independent, self-funded and run by a committee of seven volunteers who also volunteer in their local green spaces.

It helps deliver the council’s Parks and Green Spaces Strategy. They have shared biodiversity goals and support ongoing initiatives like tree planting, green corridors and food growing in response to the Leeds climate emergency.

Watch the video to discover how the partnership works and how it benefits the city’s people and green spaces.

About Leeds Parks and Green Spaces Forum Read Leeds Parks and Green Spaces Strategy
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Companion planting guide for partnerships

LCC and Leeds Parks and Green Spaces Forum share four tips to help local authorities and green space volunteer networks work and thrive together.

From setting shared goals to formalising the partnership and building trust, take inspiration from what’s growing in Leeds and start sowing for partnerships in your town or city.

How it’s growing in Leeds:

  • The Forum’s work is rooted in LCC’s Parks and Green Spaces Strategy. Set up in 2013 as one of the council’s objectives in the 2012/22 strategy, the Forum continues to play a key role in the current strategy and supporting action plan to 2032. In no particular order, its priorities are:
    • Mitigate against aspects of climate change and enhance biodiversity, promoting the importance of creating, maintaining and enhancing blue and green corridors
    • Promote the benefits of and access to public green spaces for health and wellbeing
    • Support and encourage tree planting across Leeds, including maintenance and protection
    • Help introduce food growing initiatives in parks and green spaces where appropriate, working in partnership with Feed Leeds, the city’s Incredible Edible movement, and other community growers
    • Improve Forum communication, engagement and recruitment through digital platforms (Instagram, YouTube and/or LinkedIn), website development, and wider marketing and news activity.
  • Forum support for initiatives like tree planting, green corridors and food growing reinforces LCC’s response to the Leeds climate emergency, which was declared in 2019.
  • The Forum welcomes a speaker (on a theme linked with one of their priorities) to each Members Meeting, increasing awareness of their strategic work.

 

The benefits they’re reaping:

Aligning with LCC’s strategy makes it clear what the Forum is supporting and why in the political landscape. It also ensures their work supports wider ambitions for people and nature across the city.

How it’s growing in Leeds:

  • The Forum has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with LCC, to formalise the relationship and clarify what each party will deliver.
  • Any Forum activity is regularly shared within key council teams (e.g. sharing meeting minutes with the Parks Outreach team, which includes council Rangers).
  • Having ‘official’ partnership status has helped the Forum attract 100 member groups (including Friends of groups, community groups, In Bloom groups and local branches of national charities such as the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), Canal & River Trust and Parish Councils).

 

The benefits they’re reaping:

Commitment via an MOU lays the groundwork to support community work within a local authority framework. It supports ongoing visibility and representation of the Forum across LCC, opening doors for easier access to senior officers and councillors and adding weight if they need to escalate issues.

How it’s growing in Leeds:

Through the partnership, LCC and the Forum offer each other lots of mutual support:

  • A manager-level LCC employee acts as Secretary, keeping the website up to date, sending communications between meetings and co-editing the Forum’s Facebook page.
  • The Senior Parks officer or deputy attends Forum meetings, to update members and take questions.
  • Council officers give presentations to members at their meetings, which include clarifying why things are happening and how (e.g. arranging events), and offering updates and reassurance (e.g. confirming damaged playground equipment will be replaced).
  • The Forum uses LCC venues for their meetings.
  • LCC helped fund recruitment flyers when the Forum was first set up.
  • In return, the Forum continues to attract new members which add to the ‘boots on the ground’ (caring for local green spaces that could otherwise put extra stress on stretched council resources).
  • Forum representatives build links with other like-minded organisations (e.g. two Leeds universities and Love Leeds Parks – a small charity that works to empower communities in hard-to-reach areas to shape and use their local green spaces).
  • The Forum uses networking to tap into extra support for members (e.g. Love Leeds Parks provided a small grant towards an emergency first aid training session).

 

The benefits they’re reaping:

Mutual support ensures the Forum and the partnership are stronger in the long term. Access to council expertise and resources saves the Forum money and helps build members’ confidence. In turn they are able to deliver more for people and nature, which takes some of the pressure off council time and resources.

How it’s growing in Leeds:

  • Over time, LCC has developed trust in the Forum to do more and take more responsibility. It’s still an ongoing process.
  • Senior officers listen to the Forum’s views (e.g. the Forum has responded to surveys and consultations over the years regarding car park charges, potential closure of some bowling greens, urban tree planting and relaxed mowing).
  • The Forum was consulted on the council’s Parks and Green Spaces Strategy.

 

The benefits they’re reaping:

Mutual respect gives every voice in the network space to be heard, giving key council team members such as Rangers an essential link into their communities’ opinions through Forum and members’ local knowledge and experience.

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Helping you set up a network for green space groups

The Parks Community UK website is a great place to start if you’re looking for help, resources and ideas to get a strong network up and running.

Click the buttons to explore what this Friends group umbrella organisation has to offer. This includes the free Better Friends strength-checker tool which helps greenspace groups understand where they’re performing well and where they could improve.

Expand the arrows to hear how three more volunteer group networks are giving nature a helping hand.

Setting up a Friends Forum Councils and Forums working together Parks Community UK homepage Better Friends tool

Haringey Friends of Parks Forum is the umbrella organisation and network for the many local Friends groups ‘taking ownership’ of, and protecting and improving, local parks and open spaces. Friends groups hold regular well-represented meetings of the Forum every two months, and the groups communicate and co-ordinate through the Forum’s email list.

Council Parks officers attend a session during the Forum’s meetings. Close working with the council has enabled groups to bring in millions of pounds in external funding to improve facilities for local people. They have also worked together to achieve Green Flag status for 22 parks and open spaces.

Forum Chair Dave Morris speaks about the vital work of Friends groups in Haringey and how the Forum connects with the council in this video.

Visit the Haringey Friends of Parks Forum website.

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF) has been connecting and supporting the people who care for the city’s open spaces since 2005. Whether that open space is a park, a community garden, an allotment site or a piece of land which has significance for a resident and their neighbours.

From toolkits to events and a members’ map, visit the website to find out how BOSF is bringing communities together, improving open spaces and ensuring they thrive for generations to come.

Visit the Birmingham Open Spaces Forum website.

The Friends Forum of Bromley Parks and Green Spaces works in partnership with the London Borough of Bromley to create a better environment for all. Each Friends group helps care for a specific park or green space in the borough. Through the partnership, users and visitors to the community get a greater say in what goes on in their local areas.

The website is a great place to get started, with a diary of events, templates to download and policy documentation to reference. There is also an online Forum to contact members with questions and ideas.

Visit the Bromley Friends Forum website.