Between 2014 and 2016, Rethinking Parks invested £1million of National Lottery money in 11 schemes that piloted and explored innovative ideas to fund, manage and help parks thrive at a time when budgets were, and continue to be, under immense pressure. 

It yielded some real successes.  ParkWork in Bristol found new ways to engage the community in caring for their park, whilst Bloomsbury Squared tested a way of including a parks focus in a Business Improvement District.

With a further £2m in grants now available, Rethinking Parks II is inviting groups, including local authorities, social enterprises, business improvement districts, ‘Friends of’ groups and beyond, to submit their ideas for funding in two areas:

• Replication – which will support partnerships to replicate and build on promising models for managing public parks sustainably, including some of the concepts from the original Rethinking Parks such as Parks Foundations.
• Prototyping – to support new ideas for testing and learning with parks communities and managers; finding ways to use digital and data approaches to help address parks challenges.

More information about the Rethinking Parks programme, including how to apply, can be found on the Nesta website.