Jubilee 2022

Introducing the ’70/100′ project, a celebration of the legacy of Her Majesty the Queen’s reign and the founding of Backhouse Park. Happening right now in Sunderland St Michael’s ward, this project aims to engage the local community in improving the area through a range of creative and educational activities. From environmental workshops and trainings to fun family-focused activities like outdoor events, there are opportunities for everyone to get involved. And with the restoration of the Sensory Garden at Barley Mow and the co-designing of the fairy trail at Backhouse Park with the local children, the ’70/100′ project promises to be a truly collaborative effort.

At the heart of this project is a commitment to engaging the local community and inspiring them to take an active role in improving the area. Through place-based community work and training opportunities, including for asylum seekers, refugees, and Eastern European migrants, we aim to equip local people with the tools they need to make a real difference in their community. Our environmental workshops and trainings cover important topics such as wildlife habitats and conservation, invasive species, land management, equipment use, and recycling awareness so you can be sure you’re learning valuable skills that can be used for years to come.

But that’s not all – we also want to encourage more people to use Backhouse Park and the adjacent Barley Mow Park. That’s why we’ve put together a range of fun and creative activities that focus on families, such as local environmental surveys, identifying different species, and making birdhouses and feeders from recycled materials, or leaning how to help hedgehogs to survive winter. Plus, we are restoring the beautiful Sensory Garden at Barley Mow and upgrading the enchanting fairy trail at Backhouse Park, all with the help of local children who are co-designing the trail.

We’re proud to share what we’ve already achieved through the ’70/100′ project. Thanks to the dedication of our team and the support of the local community, we’ve accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Here are just a few highlights:

Planted 100 trees, adding to the beauty and biodiversity of Backhouse Park (Click HERE for more)
Organized 5 bird watching walks for the public, allowing nature enthusiasts to explore the area and spot some feathered friends (Click HERE for more)
Led 4 bird watching walks for a local scout group, introducing young people to the joys of bird watching and nature appreciation (Click HERE for more)
Hosted an evening bat walk, providing a unique and educational experience for attendees (Click HERE for more)
Trained 16 people to become Rangers, empowering them to take an active role in improving the local environment (Click HERE for more)
Held a hedgehog rescue workshop, raising awareness about this important and vulnerable species (Click HERE for more)
Installed the fairy trail, providing a magical and enchanting experience for visitors of all ages (Click HERE for more)
Installed plaques for the park gate, acknowledging the support of our partners and sponsors
Conducted two taster sessions for students, providing hands-on learning opportunities and inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards (Click HERE for more)

ICOS’s work through the ’70/100′ project is ongoing, with a variety of events and workshops still to come! We’re committed to making a lasting impact on the community and the environment, and we couldn’t do it without the dedicated support of our volunteers. Our weekly clean ups, maintenance, and litter pick sessions have been a huge success, with volunteers working tirelessly to keep Backhouse Park and the adjacent Barley Mow Park looking beautiful and litter-free.

In addition to our ongoing efforts, we have several exciting events and workshops planned for the rest of the year. These include:

Global Recycling Day, where we’ll be raising awareness about the importance of recycling and reducing waste
The Great British Spring Clean, a national initiative that we’ll be participating in to help keep our parks and green spaces clean and litter-free.
Workshops focused on important topics like food waste awareness, gardening skills, and garden machinery training.
Fun-filled events like our Family Fun Day and Refugee Day celebrations
More bird walks, as well as workshops focused on frogs and amphibians, wildlife conservation and identifying plants and trees.
Finally, we’re thrilled to be expanding the fairy trail in Backhouse Park with new designs made by local children.

We have made great progress in restoring the Sensory Garden at Barley Mow Park. Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated volunteers, we’ve cleaned the space of weeds and planted some new edible plants during a gardening skills workshop.

However, there’s still more to be done. We’re planning to plant more plants and maintain them through the spring and summer months, adding even more edible flower species to the garden. We’ll also be performing general maintenance tasks like weeding, watering, and keeping the area looking beautiful for everyone to enjoy.

‘70/100’ project aims to achieve the following targets:

Enable 70 individuals from the local community to acquire environmental skills, with 25 of them obtaining accredited training.
Organise 25 events or workshops that will actively involve a minimum of 100 participants.

Platinum Jubilee celebration picnic in the Backhouse park

The Queen Platinum Jubilee event was an amazing experience and offered a bunch of smiles!

On the 1st of June International Community organisation of Sunderland (ICOS) in partnership with the The Salvation Army, Reinvented with Love, Groundwork NE & Cumbria and Scouts had the pleasure to organise the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee event in the Backhouse Park. More than 100 people enjoyed our event and participated in activities spending a wonderful afternoon with family and friends

It was a really great time, the weather was pretty nice and it allowed us to complete all our activities. Many families visited our event and brought their blankets to have a picnic together. We also had lots of refreshments and cakes for everyone In addition, we had free arts and crafts workshop for the children, donuts contest, badminton and a range of funny games that children really enjoyed and made unforgettable memories with their parents and their new friends that they meet at our Jubilee event.

Furthermore, Annie did a flag making workshop that children loved and they impressed us with their creativity. They made many flags and each of them was so special and different. On of the unexpected moments was the raffle. Our raffle had a lot of prizes for the kids and they were very excited about it. The raffle was really successful and we managed to raise a satisfactory amount.

Equally important to mention is that our collaborations played an important role and helped us make the Jubilee event even better, offering our guests the best experience we could. I want to thank them all and also the cooperation with them was very nice and enjoyable.

We cannot forget to say a huge thank you to our volunteers who from the beginning of our event were in the park to help and supported us with everything. We are very grateful that we had them.

So, to improve their experience, we conducted a survey in which they can share with us their comments and thoughts about their volunteering at ICOS. It is very important for our organisation to ensure that people enjoy what they do and have a good experience. We always try to make people’s experience better.

Also, we are very happy that we received such good feedback and some people spent time giving us an interview and participating in our video. We want to thank all the guests who visited us and spent this special day with us. We really appreciate it and we are very glad we made people’s faces happy!