Our story
Stroud Valleys Project is a community-based charity in the Stroud district, with the purpose of enriching lives and transforming places.
We run a series of projects which we couldn't do without our volunteers, so it's a mutual relationship of sharing our skills and abilities whilst caring for our environment, biodiversity and local community. The projects are primarily environmental, with a focus on looking after our wildlife or growing food, whilst learning, exploring and meeting local people.
Here are just a few of our current projects:
Bisley Old Road Allotment: Since 2012 we have turned a long-forgotten plot into a productive food-growing site full of bees, butterflies and crickets. Our produce is organic, and we share surplus with the Foodbank or sell it in our eco shop.
Rackleaze Wetland: One of a number of practical conservation projects, this site in Cam has benefited from boardwalks, bridges, picnic benches and more. People can enjoy this peaceful wetland and spot all kinds of birds, mammals, insects and even reptiles.
Wild Classrooms: Over 1000 learning places have been created by the project, which benefits schools, Brownies, colleges and Woodcraft Folk. Our Project Officer creates free resources for groups to link to the primary science curriculum including a series of calendars to learn about nature through the year.
Stratford Park's Sensory Garden: Transforming a former pitch-and-putt into a multi-sensory garden full of beautiful sights, smells, and textures as well as an amphitheater built by our team.
We offer volunteer opportunities to anyone and everyone who wants to get involved in our community. Everyone works together. There are all kinds of jobs to be done, and we make sure there's something that could be of interest to everyone regardless of their background. Our volunteers include professionals taking a break, people recovering from health issues, people looking to learn new skills, and all other walks of life. It's about coming together and doing something amazing in, and for, our local community.
Our advice
Don't let anything go to waste. We partner with the local Food bank and share our surplus food, and a lot of our work is done on old or unloved sites such as run-down nature areas or abandoned allotments, and even a disused pitch-and-putt golf course. There are resources in every community that could be revived and rejuvenated.
If your project is quite specific, you'll probably want to look for people with a keen interest in that topic as volunteers, which means you can attract new ideas and expertise. We do things differently and focus on providing a wide variety of things for people to get involved with, which can work wonders for both people and the planet. This means we get a wonderful variety of visitors and volunteers who can come together and learn from each other as well as the project.
Our metrics
Surplus food donated to the Foodbank and sold in our shop
Increase in local biodiversity
Number of volunteers involved in our projects (over 100 volunteers helped for over 10,200 hours in 2022)
Number of Wild Classrooms in operation (over 700 people came to our walks, talks and other events, and more than 815 sightings were recorded on our fun, interactive Wild Classrooms app in 2022)
