Blue Spaces: highlights and learning so far

We’re excited to be supporting a total of 17 projects across the UK as part of the Blue Spaces programme. They build on earlier research by Cardiff University on priorities for action on freshwater as well as conversations I had with charities, organisations we fund, and public and private sector contacts to understand where to prioritise our efforts. About half of the grants awarded were for development grants, which are smaller grants to support organisations to develop their ideas and explore their potential to become longer-term, sustainable initiatives.

Our support includes:

• Eight development grants and one main grant to projects in Wales.
• One development grant and one main grant to projects in Northern Ireland. These focus on building capacity in the sector, particularly as the Assembly is now active again, and which was highlighted as a need by organisations we fund as well as public and water sector bodies in Northern Ireland. We are also supporting the Northern Ireland Environment Link freshwater task force to coordinate and support policy development and demonstration activities.
• Six main grants to projects in England and Scotland. Whilst these grants were not specifically made as part of the Blue Spaces programme, they meet the programme’s aims, and we’re pleased that they will be able to join the learning programme that runs alongside Blue Spaces funding.

We initially focused on supporting development projects in Wales due to the high potential for learning and innovation and launched an open call for applications as part of our Blue Spaces - Wales initiative.

How the Blue Spaces projects are supporting communities to improve their local freshwaters

Activities involve a mixture of environment, arts and community organisations, as well as public and private sector organisations. You can learn more about the projects using the map below. Click on a project on the map to go to that project's website (this will open a new window).

Click here to see the list of projects in a table. The infographic (second page above and also copied at the bottom of this blog) captures a bit more information about our support and the organisations being funded.

Approach to learning for Blue Spaces

Esmée’s Blue Spaces programme contributes to our Freshwater and Creative, Confident Communities priorities. Alongside our funding, we are running a learning programme to facilitate sharing of practice between funded organisations and more widely across the freshwater community.

Now that the majority of projects are underway, I am focused on supporting their progress and putting in place ways to facilitate and capture learning from the programme. We are exploring ways to better support work that engages with and is shaped by the diverse communities in a place and tests new ways of working. A key part to this is to capture and share learning within Esmée, the organisations we are supporting, and other funders.

We are taking a learning approach that:

• Supports and facilitates learning for funded projects
• Shares insights and findings from the work with those who can use them to improve freshwater environments
• Informs Esmée’s wider work on engaging communities and partnerships

To encourage joint working, new collaborations, and sharing of experience across the programme, we invited the Blue Spaces partnerships to join a learning network.

Key themes we're exploring

We’ve had two meetings of the network so far and it’s been great to have everyone together, sharing experiences, support and learning together. Hearing all about the projects has really illustrated the breadth of organisations, issues, and approaches involved.

Together, we have agreed some key themes to focus on through the learning relationship including:

• Action on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Welsh context, including in rural areas, young people and Welsh language aspects.
• How to work effectively with farmers, landowners and rural communities, including Welsh speakers.
• How to approach catchment planning and scaling up through genuine co-design, including meaningful open partnerships, and eco-cultural mapping.
• Environment, creativity and arts in partnership: benefits, techniques, community engagement skills, and expertise in arts applicable to the environment.
• Citizen science methods and acceptance of evidence (links to CaSTCo project by The Rivers Trust).
• Leveraging impact investment, and alternative funding models including social enterprise.
• Legacy of individual projects and the cohort as a whole: learnings, project resources, citizen science evidence, and ways of working.

How Blue Spaces is influencing Esmée’s work

Insights from Blue Spaces are already informing the way that Esmée works, including our approach to New Connections and the Youth-Led Creativity programme. Our Involving Young People Collective have a continuing core role in the programme, including the learning programme, visits to the projects and future decisions on longer term support for Blue Spaces development projects.

The response to Esmée's Blue Spaces - Wales call for expressions of interest showed that high-quality community-based project ideas exist, and the demand for resources to develop them. We hope this also helps other funders thinking about support for freshwater action in Wales.

Next steps

Our initial assumption was that by the end of 2024, we would be in a position to support four to six longer-term initiatives across the UK. Experience so far shows that it takes a lot of time to develop strong and effective community partnerships in a place, and the nature of the support they need to grow effectively is varied. We are currently talking to all the Blue Spaces development projects to understand what progress they have made, and to build a picture of where the best opportunities are for potential longer-term support.