The Friends of Fishwick and St. Matthews was formed in 2011 in response to cuts to community funding. Our aim is to lift the communities of Fishwick and St. Matthews through engagement and environmental enhancement.
In our ten years existence we have been at the cutting edge of community engagement policy, creating one of the first urban Neighbourhood Plans and running a Big Local scheme for 5 years. In that time, we saved a derelict brownfield site from development and turned it into a community owned green space in the centre of one of the most deprived communities in the UK.
At the 2021 AGM we converted to a collective, utilising Open Collective to help run our group, fundraise and work more co-operatively, governing by consensus. Our aims are now to secure the future of our community green space at Paul’s Pad and better engage with the wider community, businesses and organisations working in our area for the benefit of all.