Jo-Anne Van Levesley
Darnall Family
Development Project
The Blue Loop Community Project aims to reconnect communities around Sheffield with their local waterways and joins together the two major waterways in the area: the River Don and Tinsley Canal in the Lower Don Valley.
After consultation with local community groups, we devised and delivered a programme of events and activities to get local people interacting with the waterways. We created a new map to help people navigate the Blue Loop, and a website to help promote it.
We run weekly volunteer sessions which support local people to gain valuable work experience and skills, which will enable them to look after the wildlife and habitats of the Blue Loop.
The Blue Loop project has successfully engaged local schools, community groups and volunteers, and has helped to raise the profile of the waterways as valuable recreation spaces.
Blue Loop activity participant (who’s lived in the area for 20 years and never experienced the waterways before)