Green Roots

Green Roots is a community arts & cultural programme that invites Sandwell residents to explore how we might build environmentally resilient communities through our local, natural and urban environments. From wildlife walks and community mapping to planting meadows and greening the high street, this programme sets out to provide opportunities for our communities in Sandwell to develop a greater engagement in, and knowledge about, the natural capacity of our surroundings.

Beginning in West Brom as part of Sandwell Council’s Urban Greening Project to improve and enhance green public spaces in the area, Green Roots offers a programme of co-produced & community-led activities that currently spans three Sandwell Towns: West Bromwich, Wednesbury and Tipton.

Green Roots brings together local residents, artists, activists, urban planners, community support groups, gardeners, schools and ecologists through workshops and events to explore the environment around us. Working in partnership with The Wildlife Trust and local councils, Green Roots encourages us to question: what is growing on our doorstep; how can we make space for both people and wildlife in our towns; and how can we utilise our green spaces for our benefit as well as nature’s.

Green Roots considers both our urban environment alongside the natural environment, and how these can work in tandem. Urban environments are home to plants and non-human animals, and can encompass public parks as well as other types of informal green spaces such as green streetscapes, nature areas, roof gardens and community gardens.

Plants play an important role in greening cities. Without them, there is no nature. If the right plants are planted in the right places, there can be multiple benefits for urban communities. By inviting more plants into our increasingly urban lives, whether in our living rooms or in the public realm, we build stronger connections with the natural world that ultimately sustains us and our planet.

Read more about the three Green Roots threads we are working on across Sandwell in West Bromwich, Wednesnbury and Tipton below.

This project has been generously funded by Sandwell Council’s Urban Greening Town Improvement Fund, Arts Council England, Energy Saving Trust and Historic England and DCMS’ Know Your Neighbourhood fund.

Programme

West Bromwich

Wednesbury

Tipton

Green Roots affiliate projects

Multistory x The Gaia Foundation “We Feed the UK”