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Starting last year, Papa’s volunteers have been transforming the park into a space for wildlife. With funding from Groundwork London's Our Space Award, we’ve been working to make the park into a haven for insect life. Father Nature are collaborators on the project. No weed killers or pesticides A kid’s park and sports pitch might not at first seem like an obvious haven for wildlife, but if you look closely, there’s a lot going on. We don’t use weed killers or pesticides: better for children and wildlife. We let the park grow a little wild: wildflowers like Alkanet, Feverfew and Ragwort grow abundantly and are loved by bees and other insect life. New trees and old trees We've recently planted two new trees – apple and cherry. As well as being pollinators, they will eventually provide children in the park with fruits. Young volunteers were joined on the planting day by local MP Florence Eshalomi to dig in the trees. In the big storm March last year, one of our big tree branches came down in the storm. So, we made a log pile for stag beetles. Did you know, stag beetles are a national priority species and London is a hotspot? Plants for pollinators At our planting party with Father Nature, our amazing community of helpers transformed our park by planting a range of pollinators. In the central bed, you can find planted drought resistant flowers including Echinacea, Yarrow and Lamb’s Ear as well as grasses like Miscanthus (which birds love for their nests). Flowers are a really important food source for bees, moths and other insects. In the bed next to the street, we planted Dogwood, Cenothus and Liriope. And in the herb bed, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram and Curry Plant. As well as supporting insects like moths, bees and butterflies, these plants are kid-friendly: non-toxic, non-spiky and robust enough to handle being trampled on by little feet from time to time. Bugs, bugs, bugs Just this year we’ve spotted all kinds of insects. As well as common species such as ladybirds, shield bugs, the cucumber orb spider, we’ve seen rarer species such as the beautiful cinnabar moth (a priority species). Homes for bats, birds and insects This year, we have installed new bat and bird boxes and a spectacular insect hotel. Nature trail Pick up a map outside Papa's Café and follow the Papa's Park Nature Trail to see what animals and plants you can discover.

Papa's Park Nature Trail leads you on an exciting adventure around our park. Pick up a map outside Papa's Café, and follow the trail to find a home for stag beetles, an insect hotel, bat boxes and tons of insect-friendly plants. You might spot our woodpecker, a red admiral butterfly or even a bat or two! Our Nature Trail was written by Jennifer Fleetwood and designed and illustrated by Brixton local, Sam Le Mort. Its development and printing was funded by the Our Space Award from Groundwork. The insect-friendly planting was carried out by Father Nature. Our thanks to all those who made it possible!

Papa's Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up! We will be meeting in Papa's Park on Saturday 20th May at 11am. We hope you can join us. Find out what's been happening in the park this past year - and what we're planning for the year ahead. You will also have a chance to make suggestions and ask the committee any questions you have. Lastly, if you are a member of the park, you can vote in our elections. Become a member by visiting our membership page: membership gives you a discount on hall hire, plus other benefits. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday 20th at 11am. Papa's Park 2023 AGM Agenda 1) Welcome and introductions - Directors and trustees - Committee members 2) Apologies 3) Achievements over the last year 4) Election of officers - Chair (x2) - Company secretary (x2) - Directors (x 4) - Fundraising officer (x1) 5) Accounts 6) Plans for the year ahead 7) AOB / Questions Close of AGM

Do you want to join the Papa’s Park voluntary committee? We welcome people of all ages and from all walks of life. We are friendly and welcoming, and we meet once a month (a mixture of online and in-person) to discuss any issues to do with the running of the park. We also: open and lock the park to keep it safe manage the renting out of the sports pitch and community hall deal with any park damage or issues organise family fun days and other events in the park fundraise to improve our park - find out more about our current fundraising help look after the plants and trees (eg watering, pruning, planting) You can decide how involved you want to be You could: attend meetings and contribute your views help with the rota to open and lock the park at the beginning and end of each day help us raise the money we need to replace the current Papa’s Café and Hall with a brand-new building help to manage the rental of the sport’s pitch - this brings in much-needed funds so we can maintain the pitch and save money to replace it at the end of its life As a committee, we try to represent our whole community, so please come along and join us! If you are interested, please get in touch at papasparkltd@gmail.com

Did you know that Papa’s Park has received no funding since 2016? The park is completely volunteer-run – by a committee of local residents who give their time for free to manage the park and raise money to ensure the park gates stay open 365 days a year. Our previous fundraising In 2018, the committee successfully fundraised £105,000 to fully update all the playground equipment. In 2019, we raised £50,000 from Sport England to replace the ageing sports pitch with a flood-lit, all-weather football, basketball and netball pitch combined. We are now planning to raise money to replace our community building that houses Papa’s Café, the hall and the toilets. The current community building The current building is 25 years old, was originally built to house street sweeping equipment and is not fit for purpose. It is coming to the end of its lifespan and showing its age: it is cold, damp, consumes energy at an alarming rate, and the roof has had to be patched up with plastic sheeting to prevent it leaking. Our plans for the future We have designs for a fantastic new eco building, and planning permission has been granted by the local council. As it does now, it will house Papa’s Café, a community hall available to hire for affordable rates, and 2 toilets. However, it will be a third larger, warmer, lighter and very energy efficient, meaning it will cost much less to run. It will also be more flexible - so can be used for multiple uses - and accessible to all. You can see our plans in detail here. We have estimated that building and fitting out the new building will cost £500,000. We are currently approaching charities, corporations and trusts to try and raise the money we need. How can you help? Please fill in our Park User Survey. If, like us, you are a regular user of the park, you will know that we attract a wide range of people. But to help show potential funders that the park is well-used, by a diverse community, it would hugely help if you could fill in the form for us. The form also shows how much of an impact it will make to have a new community building. If you know any companies or charities that fund this type of project, please let us know at papasparkltd@gmail.com. Finally, if you yourself are able to donate to our fund, every penny or pound will help. Many thanks! Photos of the current hall Images of how the new hall might look

The Papa’s Park sports pitch is hired out to a sports club from 7pm to 9pm every Monday to Wednesday. We also rent it out on Thursdays and Fridays to other groups - we try to make sure this is after dark, when the local community don't usually use it. Why did the voluntary committee that manages Papa's Park decide to do this? By 2019, the sports pitch at Papa’s Park was showing its age: the surface was coming apart, presenting a trip hazard, and the markings were almost impossible to see. That year, we raised £50,000 from Sport England and replaced the pitch with a Matchplay 2 surface suitable for football, netball and basketball. This huge improvement has led to the pitch being used more often by more people. However, Sport England gave us the grant on the condition that we raise enough money from the pitch to repair it when needed and replace it once it comes to the end of its life (probably at the end of this decade). We need to strike a balance between having an open-access park and raising enough money to fulfil our obligations to Sport England. Why we started with just one company We started out renting the pitch from 7pm to 9pm every Monday to Wednesday to a single sports club called Go Mammoth. Papa’s park is managed by a volunteer committee who all have day jobs and don’t have the spare time necessary to administer a booking system. Renting the pitch out to only one company meant that we didn’t have to deal with ongoing requests for ad-hoc bookings, which are difficult and time-consuming to manage. We now hire the pitch to other groups After 2 years of renting to one group and putting systems in place, we have now opened up Thursday and Friday evenings to other groups. We ask for a minimum rental of 8 weeks, to keep down the administrative burden. You can find out more about renting the pitch here. Why we only rent the pitch weekday evenings Renting the pitch out only in the evenings - and usually after dark - means that it's available to the local community for the vast majority of the time the park is open. The days and weekends remain free, as do most weekday evenings until dusk (at which point we lock the park anyway). We felt this was a good solution to the problem of raising money for the pitch - and helping with day-to-day running costs of the park - without burdening the committee with too much work or impacting park users too much. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email us at papasparkltd@gmail.com.

Papa's Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up! We will be meeting in Papa's Park on Saturday 28th May at 10.30am. We hope you can join us. Find out what's been happening in the park this past year - and what we're planning for the year ahead. You will also have a chance to make suggestions and ask the committee any questions you have. Lastly, if you are a member of the park, you can vote in our elections. Become a member by visiting our membership page: membership gives you a discount on hall hire, plus other benefits. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday 28th at 10.30am. Papa's Park 2022 AGM Agenda 1) Welcome and introductions - Directors and trustees - Committee members 2) Apologies 3) Achievements over the last year 4) Election of officers - Chair (x2) - Company secretary (x2) - Directors (x 4) - Fundraising officer (x1) 5) Accounts 6) Plans for the year ahead 7) AOB / Questions Close of AGM

Children and grown ups: please come and help us transform Papa’s Park! Father Nature is coming to Papa’s to help us turn the park into a haven for biodiversity (funded by Groundwork London). We’ll be planting bushes, flowers and shrubs that support butterflies, moths and bees. Friday 27th May - 3.45-5pm Digging day - help us dig up the old plants and weeds, and clear space for our new plants. Sunday 29th May - 2-4pm Planting party - help Father Nature plant our beautiful new bushes and flowers. All are welcome: please come and join us! .

We have just launched a survey to find out what our users think of Papa’s Park. The more responses we get, the more it helps us raise funds to rebuild Papa’s Café and Hall. The survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete. The questions range from asking how often you come to the park, to what you think of the facilities and any changes you'd like to see. The answers can help us show potential funders our thriving, diverse park community. They can also show what a huge difference it would make to replace the old, tired building that houses the Café and Hall with one that is a third bigger, warmer, lighter and energy efficient. If you haven’t filled in the survey, please follow the link and give us your views. And please ask any of your friends who use the park to do the same!

In October last year, Papa's Park submitted a planning application to Lambeth to get permission to rebuild our hall and cafe. Permission has now been given, which is fantastic news for the park and for our local community. Dyfed Price said, "As joint Chair of Papa’s Park, I’m absolutely delighted to announce that we’ve got planning permission for the last phase of the redevelopment of the park. This phase includes the demolition of our existing unfit for purpose building and rebuild of an eco-friendly, purpose-built hall and café for the park and the community around us. Although we have a long way to go to raise the money, this will secure the future of Papa's Park for many generations to come." Details about the planning application and building design can be found on Lambeth's planning website.

This year's AGM was a little delayed by Covid-19 but we will be having our inaugural online AGM on Thursday 6th August and we hope you can join us. To attend the meeting, you need to register below and we will then send you a Zoom link closer to the meeting date. Please consider becoming a member of the park so you can vote in our elections! We look forward to seeing on the 6th. Papa's Park 2020 AGM Agenda 1) Welcome and Introductions - Directors and Trustees - Committee Members 2) Apologies 3) Achievements in the year 4) Election of Officers - Chair (x2) - Company Secretary (x2) - Directors (x 4) - Membership officer (x1) 5) Accounts 6) Plans for the year ahead 7) AOB / Questions Close of AGM

Parks and playgrounds across the country have been closed since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, including Papa's. Our closure, which includes the cafe and hall, has meant the complete loss of all our revenue so we have launched a crowdfunder* to raise £10,000 by 29 June 2020. £10,000 would ensure the gates of Papa's remained open once Covid-19 restrictions start being lifted and would allow us to continue with the work we started to build a brand-new sustainable community space, which would include a larger café for locals and better hall facilities. We are therefore asking that if you, your children or your family and friends have ever used our park, you support us during these unprecedented times by donating to our fundraiser and help keep Papa's gates open! *Pay It Forward London is working with Crowdfunder to help London businesses to get through this exceptionally difficult period by offering 100% free fundraising using the Crowdfunder platform, so we will receive 100% of your donation.