Glitter Bin Celebration Event
DATE: 28 April 2006
PARTNERS
Weston Coyney Infants’ School, Kid-Zone Youth Club, Coalville Residents Association, Tile Giant, Hydrock, Adgiftsonline, LSP (Local Strategic Partnership), Rob Flello (MP), Riverside, Stoke on Trent City Council (Streetscene), Renew, Business Brokers
BACKGROUND
Coalville is an ex-Coal Board housing estate, which is now a housing market renewal Pathfinder area and, consequently, will undergo large-scale intervention by way of clearance, demolition and new-build over the next few years. 260 children between 4 and 16 years old from Weston Coyney Infants School and Kid-Zone Youth Club had been working with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Coalville Residents Association on an environmental project, Cleaning & Greening Coalville, as part of the ‘Tidy Stoke Campaign’. The children had made drawings to try and encourage people to put litter in bins and keep the area tidy, 16 of which had been used to design a large square litterbin to be located on the estate.
The Business Brokers were approached to see whether they knew of any businesses, who would like to be involved in a celebration event to launch the litterbin. The Business Brokers were happy to help, and the response from a burst email sent to businesses was overwhelming – this sort of thing obviously appealed to many businesses, who wanted to be involved and endorse this initiative, encouraging the community to take responsibility for their area. Business donations gratefully received were:
• Tile Giant - 260 medium sized Easter eggs
• Hydrock Consultants Limited - £260 to Kid-Zone Youth Club for environmentally related products
• AdGiftsOnline – pencil cases and pens for goodie-bags
Offers were politely turned down from The Office Furniture Place, Source Success, Hulme Upright Manning, Business Innovation Centre, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Kondratiev.
OBJECTIVE
Sending out a positive message to local residents and visitors to the area about litter bins helping to make Coalville estate a cleaner and greener place to live in and visit. The whole exercise was very educational for the children, who themselves produced the drawings for the bin with the message about not dropping litter on the floor. This involvement should make the children take more ownership of the initiative, and, hopefully they would go on to educate their families and friends, thus making a bigger impact. The children were very appreciative of their rewards in the form of Easter eggs, goodie-bags and balloons, which made them feel proud of having done a good piece of work of art. Representatives from businesses, who had made donations, were very happy about the end result of the community initiative they had taken pride in supporting.
THE ACTIVITY
The Glitter Bin Celebration Event took place after school-out on a sunny Friday afternoon and, in addition to the children, there were many parents in attendance. It was like a beehive, very busy, as lots of things were going on:
• People admiring the great drawings on display in the community hall
• Balloons were handed out to the children together with Easter eggs and goodie-bags – thanks to donations from well-meaning companies
• Face-painting proved popular
• Rob Flello, local MP, welcomed the initiative, praised the children, thanked businesses, who made donations, and launched the glitter bin
• The Sentinel took notes and photographs
• Donation cheques were handed over by supporting businesses
LINK TO NEIGHBOURHOOD RENEWAL
This event took place in an area within Stoke on Trent identified as deprived and was open to all local children, parents and other residents, businesses and any interested parties.
THE IMPACT
By involving children in the design of a litter bin and giving them ownership of this symbol of a litter-free and pleasant environment, it should make them less likely to drop litter in the street and green areas. Children and adults would share this joint responsibility for keeping their community clean, which hopefully would make the residents start taking a more active interest and feel pride in the area and lift the community spirit. The fact that the local MP and so many local businesses were keen to support this sort of event shows how important it is for people to get positively involved in the regeneration process of Stoke on Trent, which can sometimes seem slow. Small steps like this could soon be felt as big differences throughout the area.
QUOTES
Mo Iqbal, Tile Giant (sponsor) said:
“I was more than happy to support the Glitter bin project as I have a warehouse/ distribution centre close to the area, and I wanted to give something back to what is a local deprived area. In particular I wanted to give a moral boost, especially to the kids, and it was a good way for my company to demonstrate our commitment to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).?
Lorraine Clarke, Youth Group, said:
“The day is brilliant. Bins are a good idea to stop littering. It should help children to understand that litter should go in the bin.?
Miss Kerry, mother-of-6, said:
“This event is good for kids to learn from. It is good for the community, which will stick together for a good cause.?
