We create unique projects inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our projects in schools and the communities include Threads, an online game and education materials about sustainable fashion (SDGs 8,12 and 13), and a Groundbreakers competition for young people to create new climate and social action projects to meet local needs, across all SDGs. 

Both of these projects were targeted at schools and youth groups in the most deprived areas of Bristol, where GGC is located, to enable a more diverse cohort of young people to engage with the issues. 

Threads workshops reached 300 young people aged 9-13, 70% of whom live in the most ethically diverse and lowest socio-economic wards.

“I like how they gave us solutions like teaching us how we could reuse clothing by sewing buttons - and we got to do this in the session!”  Benj, Hotwells Primary

Threads has been played over 1200 times, and the educational materials were downloaded over 200 times in the first two months alone. 

“I love this. This is a fantastic project and one that is probably not on very many young people’s radars. Great to get some really high quality teaching resources in circulation.” (Key Stage 3 teacher)

Groundbreakers engaged 634 young people aged 7-24 from across the city region - schools,

youth clubs, guide groups and colleges. The most consistent feedback from the Awards ceremony in June was how inspired the young people were by seeing the projects and actions of other young people, which motivated them to do more in their school and Neighbourhood.

We are also curating an online SDG Hub for educators, students, businesses and the public to access films, toolkits and other resources to learn and be inspired to promote sustainable development (SDG 4, particularly target 4.7).

Our digital work is vital to reaching a wider audience. The Foundation has funded a new part-time Digital Producer role enabling us to improve leaps and bounds in our web and social media output. 

In her first month, Alice, our new Digital Producer, is increasing engagement opportunities, optimising pages for search engines (SEO) and improving accessibility and readability. She has secured a Google Ad Grant which allows up to $10,000 per month to spend on Google search ads to drive paid search traffic to the website and set up advanced website tracking.

These improvements alone have seen an increase in website users of 45% on the previous month and pages viewed per session are up by 75%. Resource Hub page views have also increased by 64% on the previous month. Bounce rate has reduced from 60% to 30%.

With this funding, we have also been able to form a Digital Advisory Group, recruiting experts in education and digital fields who are able to support the growth of GGC’s digital channels. This group has already proved incredibly beneficial, providing great insights and ideas on how we can improve our ability to inspire and measure behaviour change through the website, and informing the scope of our upcoming website user testing project also funded by the Foundation, focusing on two core audiences of Educators and Young People.

What’s Next?

Our VOICES: Art is refuge installation launches on 28th October, celebrating the work and creative resilience of refugee and migrant artists in the UK. Read more and watch a short film here. The installation and schools workshops aim to challenge stereotypes and media representation of migrants and refugees, and encourage using our own voices and creativity to contribute to a collaborative sculpture.

Working with creatives from across the world has been a privilege and has enabled us to reach diverse communities in Bristol and globally. The project brings to life SDGs 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and 16 (Peace and Justice), but has also provided work opportunities (SDG 8) and educational impact through school workshops (SDG 4).

We are also working on an exciting opportunity to use an empty store in the heart of Bristol to create a pop-up SDG Hub. We are working with a number of community partners and our own Young Advisors Group to co-create the space (SDG 17). The aim is to create a vibrant, hopeful space where people can buy re-used goods, have items repaired, learn repair skills, learn about and be enabled and inspired to take action on climate, inequality and wellbeing - the themes of the SDGs. 

Our challenge, which we hope to be able to meet with help from the Foundation, is how to create a similar experience online for those who are too far away to visit the hub, which we hope to open in April 2023. 

We would like to develop interactive content on our website for many more people to take easy, affordable actions to help reach the Goals, as well as be inspired by innovation and progress already being made. A story worth telling!

For more information visit our website.

Jenny Foster

Project Lead