Streetwise Environmental Ltd provide Social Value economically, environmentally and socially all year round. We have a close relationship with colleges, local training providers and provide work experience and/or full time jobs for local and less fortunate people. Streetwise have also been involved with various community projects with Borough Councils, Housing Associations and local residents.
Local residents within the Borough join small groups of volunteers who carry out cleansing and litter picking within their Village or Town. Streetwise Environmental support those groups by providing litter picking equipment such as litter pickers and black bags, we also pick up and dispose of the waste after the litter pick. A project went underway a few months ago called ‘The Litter Champions’ Streetwise are looking to promote this further using social media and the local Town and Parish Council’s to influence local residents to join groups in their village or town. Streetwise Environmental will be looking into awarding an individual or a group on a yearly basis to thank them for their effort and time.
Cotgrave Day of Action was a community project in October lead by Rushcliffe Borough Council which involved Streetwise, Via East Midlands, Metropolitan Thames Valley, Cotgrave Town Council and the local community. Our involvement meant that we could listen to and assist the local residents in the area with their requests and thoughts of improvements in the village. During the project, Streetwise’ duties included replacement of old bins and signs, planting new plants and weeding, litter picking with moss removal and street sweeping where a total of 15.34 tonnes were collected. This project was promoted on Notts TV & ITV News.
The young project works various schools across Nottingham providing them with the opportunity to visit an employer and spend half a day within the various departments. This helps the students to learn more about the different roles that might be available within that business and give the more ideas about future careers.
Streetwise opened its doors to a local school and welcomed 10 young 15-year olds into Streetwise for the morning, we did a question and answer session with them telling them all about the different roles within Streetwise.
We did a guided tour for the students of the depot looking at all the different machinery that we use in our day to day work, we then met some operatives at work in the park and they told the students how they got into their current role and what they liked about working at Streetwise.
The priory is a homeless shelter in Rushcliffe that provides support for the homeless, they operate a drop-in centre to provide advice on housing, practical assistance (food, clothing), health and emotional support.
Xmas is a tough time being on the streets, last Xmas Streetwise put together 50 Xmas boxes for the homeless. These boxes included food, soft drinks, toiletries, warm socks, hats, gloves and a torch, these were very gratefully received by the priory and were delivered by the support workers to the people in greatest need on the streets.
Supported every year, providing activities such as seed planting for the children and competitions to provide a fun day out for all as well as promoting Streetwise. This year we did face painting to raise money for the local hospice.
The Church Croft Project was a joint project in June where Streetwise, Metropolitan Thames Valley and Scouts worked together to provide a nicer looking area at the scheme for the elderly residents to encourage them to sit outside during the summer and interact with each other. Streetwise initially dug over and rotavated an area to provide the look of an allotment type garden. We provided over 200 plants and assisted in the planting with the Scouts and residents.
Streetwise Environmental have a close relationship with Babington College and MHT employment advisors where we provide support to adults who are long term unemployed. The college provides a 2 weeks employability programme which is accredited by City and Guilds. At the end of the course we give all candidates the opportunity to have an interview for any vacancies that we may have available. In partnership with MHT and Babington we have given 12 people from these courses an interview, 6 of the group were offered work and at least 4 are still employed by Streetwise.
All candidates are given a fair non-judgmental chance of an apprenticeship or full-time work with Streetwise regardless of their background, age, disability, culture etc. Generally, the people that attend these courses are either long term unemployed, disabled or offenders and have found securing paid work very difficult.
Last Xmas the local hospice wanted to raise money for the hospice by providing a service to the community of collecting used real Xmas trees for a donation. The hospice approached Streetwise to ask if we wanted to be involved and could we dispose of the Xmas trees. We co ordinated the collections and received over 500 Xmas trees into the Depot and chipped them all free of charge. The hospice raised over £4k over the 2 weeks, we received a letter of thanks from the hospice for all of our hard work.
We were approached by the residents on Thyra grove (St Anns)to sponsor 4 trees on the street that had previously had to be felled due to diseases. The Nottingham city council was also a partner in this sponsorship by digging the tree pits and planting the trees. Streetwise have purchased 4 heavy standard trees to support the programme.
Briarwood Court was a day-project in August that Metropolitan Thames Valley initially thought of and had an idea of what they wanted. However, it was a Streetwise’ run project for the off-set. Streetwise provided ideas to Metropolitan’s project team and the residents of Briarwood Court who are vulnerable adults with mental health issues. The project was to design and make an area of the garden into a beach themed area. Streetwise provided labour and materials for building planters, replacement of rotten trellises and benches. We also supplied paint for painting of the area, soil and plants.