Our Mission
Sunderland Green and Open Spaces Forum (SGOSF) aims to give a collective voice to volunteers who are working on green and open spaces in the city of Sunderland in all their forms but mainly to Friends Groups, Management Committees and Supporters who oversee these valuable community assets.
This includes parks, allotments, heritage sites, rivers, watercourses, community gardens, pocket parks and any other ‘green’ or ‘blue’ spaces whom we see all as valuable connectors with our city and our planet. Just like the English Oak we hope that we will assist in a growing use, interest in these community assets and the need to support them.
About Sunderland Green and Open Spaces Forum
The Forum came together in the Spring of 2017, as groups across the city are facing a number of challenges. Coming together as a group we can share ideas, knowledge, support each other, create new partnerships, and hopefully have more influence on decision making across the city. It should also make it easier to contact each other and make communications between groups easier.
The Benefits are:
- Providing help in setting up a Friends Group
- Develop and share good practice among the membership
- Maintain a consistent public-facing social media presence to encourage use and appreciation of Sunderland’s green and open spaces
- Help to strengthen local organisations by having a co-operative and coordinating function
- Encourage involvement in Friends groups and signpost where necessary
- Providing a first point of contact for groups who wish to highlight issues
- Influence and shape green and open space decision making in the city and, as appropriate, regionally and nationally
- Alert and respond to issues impacting on open spaces in the city
- Sharing Equipment
- Create new partnerships
- Sharing ideas
- Increase lobbying power
- Group Funding Bids