In 1982 a team of three people was installed in a converted terraced house in St Helens charged with finding new ways of addressing post-industrial decline – the social fragmentation and environmental blight caused by the transition away from heavy manufacturing on the edge of Britain's towns and cities. 

The original plan was for a public sector team of 30, but the minister backing the new venture – Michael Heseltine – preferred instead a voluntary mechanism able to engage the community and mobilise the assets of local businesses.  The organisation was christened the Groundwork Trust and went public that year with a rallying cry of ‘Join the FrOGs' – Friends of Operation Groundwork.

The approach adopted by the Trust drew on a number of contemporary influences – the work of the Countryside Commission on revitalising the urban fringe, the growth of the ecology movement and learning from the international development sector about the principles of community capacity building.  Early projects focused on volunteer-led clean-ups and planting, but the model soon embraced the need to tackle rising unemployment – with ‘green teams' and intermediate labour markets providing skills and jobs through the delivery of conservation and regeneration tasks.

The Groundwork network grew and now covers England, Wales and NI (operating through partners in Scotland).  Last year this included working with 7,000 community organisations, 1,800 schools and 5,700 businesses to improve 1,000 open spaces, plant 60,000 trees, support 15,000 young people and help households save £2m on their utility bills.

Working closely with local government has been integral to the model with Groundwork's reach into communities and the practical nature of its projects offering opportunities to engage people in decision-making and test the principles of community power – from the hyper-local management of community hubs and green spaces through to estate-wide regeneration programmes and the maintenance of country parks. 

This focus on working with local people to identify need and develop bespoke solutions is complemented by the ability to provide resources and support nationally that develop social infrastructure.  Examples include management of Tesco Community Grants, through which more than £100m has been distributed to local organisations over the last six years – many of which have never previously applied for funding.  With recent research showing the disparity in the distribution of small charities and the anxiety that many have about rising costs and escalating demand, this type of infrastructure support has never been more vital.

Underlying all of this is the need to continue addressing the climate and nature emergencies. Groundwork Trusts are working to connect people with the environment on their doorstep, to build a more circular economy, deliver environmental education and green skills and ensure communities are more resilient in the face of extreme weather. 

One of those three people originally employed at the Groundwork Trust in St Helens is Professor John Handley, still driving local environmental action in the North West and co-author of a recent study looking at what can be learned from the experience of the early 80s.  This study defined the legacy of those regeneration initiatives as ‘the mainstreaming of a collaborative approach to place making that puts expertise and resources directly into the hands of local people'.  The authors go further with their view that this model of place leadership has contemporary relevance given the need to mobilise the public sector, businesses and local communities around efforts to address climate change.  They call for ‘a visionary strategic framework coupled with community-level engagement through vertical and horizontal partnerships … that could be used to make these transitions possible.'

At the start of COP27 world leaders were told ‘We're in the fight of our lives.' This is a fight that matters as much in community centres as it does in town halls, parliaments and corporate boardrooms.  Groundwork's experience is that it's a fight we'll only win by putting fairness and social justice at the heart of our response – and rooting solutions in the reality of people's lives.  Communities can and want to drive action – but need national and local government and trusted intermediaries to be joined up and behind them.

Graham Duxbury is chief executive of Groundwork, a federation of charities mobilising practical community action on poverty and the environment across the UK

@groundworkuk