We're still collecting donations
On the 3rd September 2022 we'd raised £16,730 with 231 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
A new all-weather space for skateboarding is coming! We need your help to fill it with amazing things to skate and deliver free activities.
by Skate Nottingham in Nottingham, United Kingdom
On the 3rd September 2022 we'd raised £16,730 with 231 supporters in 42 days. But as every pound matters, we're continuing to collect donations from supporters.
If we exceed our initial target of £15,000, which will fund all of the skateable street furniture that will go into the new space at Sussex Street, plus resource towards free activities, we will go on to try to raise £20,000 with your help. This will fund more activities, including designs and materials for even more skateable forms to go in the space in the future, alongside kick-starting development work with the City Council and other partners to improve, update and extend ('fill in the middle') of the unfinished skatepark at King Edward Park, Sneinton.
This page remains open to donations from people who want to contribute towards the ongoing activation of the space. We've already delivered an incredible range of free activities, from coached skate sessions, to creative workshops, ramp building sessions and even horticulture workshops at the pop-up allotments next to the space! Every donation, however small, helps to keep this going.
And now a new skatepark funding campaign is about to happen - so watch this space for the launch of a new Crowdfunder UK page for a skatepark in the nearby town of Stapleford. The original wooden skatepark at Hickings Lane was incredibly well used, especially during the Covid-19 crisis, but had to be dismantled in summer 2022 due to its dilapidated, dangerous state. Ever since, local skatepark users have been working hard to raise awareness of the critical mental and physical health benefits of their facility - and now have incredible support from Broxtowe Borough Council and Stapleford Town Council. So we're very excited to get going with that new campaign, which will be launched very soon!
Tram Line Spot is a free-to-use, inclusive all-weather 'skate-friendly' space in central Nottingham. Its open 24 hours a day, and you can find it here: Sussex St, Nottingham NG1 7EZ
Its a 50x12m space beneath the tram viaduct, near the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery and new Nottingham College campus. We're calling the space 'Tram Line Spot' or 'TLS'. It comprises of a flat plaza space with a 3-set and skateable perimeter ledge.
But what goes into this space was up to you! And now its there!
We worked with Nottingham City Council, skatepark specialists Betongpark and Skateboard GB to design, fund and install 3 modular items of skateable street furniture. These bespoke corten steel forms were fabricated by legendary pro skater and maker Ewen Bower. The forms were installed at the site by the team from Betongpark and Skate Nottingham volunteers a few days before the space opened to the public.
We needed to raise £15,000 for at least three installations. Skateboard GB kindly committed £5,000 towards this. We also needed to fund free activities at the site, including weekly beginners' lessons, public arts exhibitions, photography workshops and skate jams and comps. We achieved all this, with the £16,885 raised with kind donors to this campaign covering all of the costs of the forms. Alongside the grant from Skateboard GB, this also helped to fund the fit-out, which included densification and sealant treatment of the perimeter skateable ledges, hard-wearing resin filler in all the joins between the prefabricated concrete units and other preparations for opening - ensuring the space skated incredibly from the very first day it was open, on the 17th December 2022. Then on 2nd April 2023, the official opening event, with DC Shoes and Supereight, saw 2-300 skateboarders of all abilities get their shred on with national coverage in The Skateboarders Companion.
Skate Nottingham CIC are a non-profit dedicated to growing the benefits of our amazing skateboarding community. Since forming in 2017, we've engaged more than 3,500 people with free skateboarding lessons, largescale events, skate photography courses and exhibitions, skatepark design and building workshops, and multi-venue festivals of skate culture. We've been instrumental in getting three new outdoor public skateparks built in and around Nottingham, with several more in the pipeline.
Tram Line Spot is the biggest project we've ever taken on. We can't do it alone.
We needed your help to ensure the best skateable features get built at TLS. We also need your help to continue to deliver free activities, including weekly beginners' sessions led by trained coaches and a public arts programme with an outdoor exhibition space and graffiti wall.
TLS couldn't have come at a better time for our city. Nottingham has the lowest household income in the UK, as well as lower rates of physical activity and higher childhood obesity than elsewhere, which together contribute to a lower than average life expectancy. Despite being a young city with two large universities, fewer local young people go onto Higher Education and Nottingham has one of the lowest rates of graduate retention.
We're proud of our work to get local young people active, making them feel part of the skate community from the first time they step on a skateboard, and connecting them to inspirational figures in the creative and built environment trades and professions.
Almost half of our current weekly skate session participants are girls, 60% identify as being Black, Asian or from another Minority Ethnic group and 47% live in neighbourhoods that are significantly disadvantaged.
Our #inspiredbyskatespots project enabled 110 young people to help design the new skatepark at Rushcliffe Country Park with Canvas and a small 'legal DIY' skatepark at Beeston Fields with Betongpark. We work with volunteers to renovate run-down public amenities, such as 'Skate & Give Back' in summer 2020, where young people and their parents 'earned' free skateboarding lessons by litter-picking and repairing and re-painting a community pavilion.
Starting in summer 2022, we were the only organisation in the UK to pilot Edu-Skate, which helps young people develop essential life-skills during skate lessons, including creativity, perseverance and teamwork. We deliver this amazing programme, created by international charity Concrete Jungle Foundation, for free to the young people who come to the beginners' sessions at Tram Line Spot, alongside one-to-one and small group lessons that you can access as rewards for donations to our Crowdfunder.
The communities we work with have been hit hard by Covid-19, as have members of our own team. Challenging employment situations and rising living costs have resulted in the loss of volunteers whilst a number of local funding sources have been discontinued. At the same time, the costs linked to delivering our activities have increased - particularly with the loss of free, secure spaces to store our ramps, boards and helmets in Nottingham. At the same time demand for skateboarding has risen hugely! In the 12 months from spring 2020 alone, we worked with more than 1,000 young people. More than 300 people came to our event at Nottingham Castle last summer and the new skateparks we helped design, Lady Bay and Ruddington, are frequently filled beyond capacity.
Although Nottingham City Council are kindly funding the 'blank canvas' for the new space (the plaza area, steps and perimeter ledge), there is no local finance available for the skateable features within the space. So, as a community, we needed to step up to this challenge. And we did, thankyou.
In return for your support for this campaign, you'll have a load of rewards to choose from! Boards, shoes, T-shirts, private coaching sessions, and limited edition photo prints are just a few things we're giving away to make the new Tram Line Spot a success.
Only one reward can be chosen at a time, but if you want to cop several of our available goodies, simply donate again!
1 - Jack Allison's kickflip at Sneinton Market - 2021 (ALL 10/10 CLAIMED)
2 - Elliot Maynard's noseblunt slide in The Meadows - 2020
3 - Theo Fearon's 5-0 grind on Station Street - 2021
4 - Andrew Holt's backside 180 at the old DIY - 2015
5 - The Sneinton Market jam crew - 2022
Check back for more exclusive & limited items dropping throughout this 6-week Crowdfunder, including some very special ones that link back to TLS's historic location - just steps away from where the legendary Broadmarsh Banks stood for decades.
We estimate that the total cost of the project will be £35,000, including the 3-4 items of skateable street furniture and 12-month programme of activities.
Skateboard GB have kindly pledged £5,000 towards the installations whilst The National Lottery Community Fund have kindly awarded us a £10,000 Awards for All grant towards the activity programme.
We therefore need to raise a further £20,000. We are setting an initial target of £15,000 for this Crowdfunder (with a stretch target of £20,000 if we hit that), and are applying for a range of other grants at the same time. If we exceed our target, we will invest any extra resources into more free activities alongside a renewed campaign to 'fill in' the middle of the unfinished skatepark at King Edward Park.
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a donation. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success! The faster we raise money towards our target, the more likely we are to secure match-funding from organisations like Sport England, which will really help us hit our target.
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get. Times are hard at the moment, so we understand that not everyone will be able to make a donation, but if you share our project as widely as you can, you'll still be helping massively.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out on social media during the campaign and in our press releases to local and national news platforms once our Crowdfunder has finished.
4. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!
This project offered rewards