Great Place To Grow Up

Introduction to GP2GU – mission and vision

We are excited to announce our programme, “Great Place to Grow Up”, which we are undertaking with the expertise of local partners. This initiative is one of Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation’s strategic aims for 2028. Our commitment to this programme includes:

Dedicated staff: Leading key priority areas to ensure effective implementation

Funding: Providing financial support through our grants programme

Resources: Offering tools to help you promote your activities

We believe the world’s first Garden City should be the best place to grow up. We are leading a well-established network of partner organisations with a shared vision shaped by our children, young people and families, to deliver improvements in six key areas of work:

Learning

Health

Prosperity

Leisure

Culture

Nature

Together, we can create a thriving, inclusive local community.

Our partner organisations are those which deliver activities and services for the benefit of our local communities. We will actively fundraise from national organisations to support their work, as well as ensuring our own investment in Broadway Cinema and Gallery and Standalone Farm contributes to this goal.

Our overall vision is that living in Letchworth Garden City offers everyone the opportunity to flourish as part of a vibrant community, enjoying the best that both town and country offers, benefitting from easy access to nature and with unrivalled facilities, culture and support networks.

Background and context

Letchworth families are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Income deprivation, child poverty, eligibility for free school meals and high rate of PIP claimants for mental health reasons are all at higher than local average rates, causing us, and our partners, concern. These challenges are clearly presented in data, but in reality the picture is much more complex, with individuals experiencing multiple challenges, and consequential impacts causing harm.

Agencies are working hard to support a variety of issues and challenges, but the complex picture needs a more joined-up and supported approach. These organisations often can’t respond to the level of demand and need support to ensure we are collectively developing pathways and opportunities for families.

We believe that everyone in Letchworth deserves a great start in life. Whether that be through access to services, strong relationships, great education, leisure, or creative opportunities.

The Great Place to Grow Up programme aims to bring together all those organisations and groups who support children, young people and families to deliver systemic change, enabling all children and young people to have a great start in life.

In the development of a Great Place to Grow Up, we agreed that meaningful change takes shared effort and collaboration. This is why a Great Place to Grow Up is rooted in a strong, shared partnership approach.