A Little time in the Big City

Last week saw us step outside of our comfort zone when we visited London. It’s not often that we get out of the county but having being shortlisted as a finalist in the Groundwork Community Awards we were kindly invited to attend the House of Commons for the Awards Ceremony.
What an event it was, starting with a tour of Parliament we were then taken to the Strangers Dining Room for the ceremony. The room was filled with MP’s, Businesses and the 30 community projects that had been shortlisted as finalists and what amazing projects they were.
We had been shortlisted for an award for Best Community Partnership with Business, and though we didn’t win, we were delighted to see Bridgman & Bridgman get the award for their impactful work. For us, as such a new project, just getting recognised by being shortlisted was more than we had ever expected and to say we were proud, humbled and delighted to receive this recognition for our work was an understatement.
The event for us was more than just an award ceremony and has helped us progress our work as a result of just being there. We met some amazing people there, in addition to the Groundwork staff we met Environmental Plymouth (winner of Best community group contribution to environmental sustainability), Givewith who sponsored our award and many others who we will surely be working with in the future.
The whole experience was hugely inspirational and has helped inspire new ideas and reenergised us giving the motivation to continue pushing our ideas forward whilst exciting us about future possibilities.
To make the most of our trip, before heading home the following morning we met with Nick Gardner, founder of Semble (previously Project Dirt) to discuss our ideas and their possible involvement in some projects we are working to create for next year. Nick loved what we were trying to achieve and will be supporting us in making them a reality which completely blew us away.
So, from our mad 24 hours in London we came away with so much more than we had ever expected, even if it meant coming away without an award. We met some amazing and hugely inspirational people, we formed business relationships and we set out plans for how we want to grow next year and got on support that will help us make it a reality. Really, we couldn’t have asked for much more.