Seeds of Hope is a brand-new festival celebrating community gardening in Calderdale. Building on our rich heritage of growers and community gardens, in the birthplace of the global Incredible Edible movement, we will be celebrating our borough's gardeners and creatives through the creation of ten micro show gardens at the Seeds of Hope Festival at Shibden Hall this summer, celebrating 100 years of Shibden Park.

Ten groups will be creating unique micro show gardens, that will form the Seeds of Hope trail around Shibden Park.

The gardening festival will be free to attend and will also include family trails, talks and activities. After the festival the gardens will return to the groups who made them for everyone in the local community to enjoy.

We will be sharing more about the community groups and gardens on our social media channels, so please follow along for more information.

Family Trail Booklet
As part of the Seeds of Hope festival, we are looking to commission a designer for an information booklet containing a trail map and interactive activities for families.
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Find out more about the brief on our opportunities page.

How to get involved:
‍Are you a creative with an idea for an event, talk, tour or workshop linked to the Seeds of Hope Festival? Or do you have horticultural skills and knowledge to shareto support and mentor our community groups?

We are looking for a variety of free and ticketed events to present as part of the wider programme both at the festival and in our community gardens and would welcome connections to help support our successful show garden applicants.

Contact our team with your ideas by emailing culturedale@calderdale.gov.uk.

Volunteer
Would you like to volunteer at one of the community gardens or at the Seeds of Hope festival in Shibden Park this summer? All of our projects will be looking for hands-on gardening volunteers to support the creation of the gardens. We will also be recruiting event makers to support visitors during the festival in August.

You can find out more about the benefits of volunteering and register your interest on the CultureDale volunteer page here.

Schools
The inspiration for the festival came from Lights, Camera, Score! a UNESCO Seeds of Hope schools project, where musicians and animators are brought together with schools to dream up musical scores and animations to inspire environmental action. UNESCO asked us to think big to widen the impact of the project beyond the participating schools and Seeds of Hope Festival was the outcome!

The 10 Lights, Camera, Score! participating schools for 2026 are Ash Green Primary, Beech Hill Primary, Calder Primary, Cliffe Hill Primary, Dean Field Primary, Cross Lane Primary, Holy Trinty Primary, Wainstalls School, North Halifax Grammar, and Calder High School. Our community engagement team will be working with these schools to link them up to the Seeds of Hope show gardens to share ideas, knowledge, and practice.

We will be creating an educational resource with free workshops and ideas to download for wider schools’ participation. Check back soon to find out more. 

Seeds of Hope has been funded by WYCA Seasons of Culture, CFFC, Northern, and the Community Rail Partnership.

SEEDS OF HOPE ON YOUR STREET

Ward Forum Grants
Do you have an idea for a project that could improve the environment in your local area?

Calderdale Council has Ward Forum Grants available each year for constituted groups to apply for up to £500 for activity that will benefit people in each ward. Ward forum funding supports projects and activities that bring people together, improve wellbeing and improve the environment.

You can find out more about these grants if your area by speaking to our team or reaching out to your local neighbourhood team:
Ward Forum Priorities | Calderdale Council 

Active Calderdale
Are you an established group in Cornholme, North Halifax, Park, Rastrick, Sowerby Bridge or Todmorden wanting to improve a small area in your local community? This could be a ginnel, patch of unloved land, or a green space in your local park: help to make somewhere look and feel more appealing to enable people to move and be more active. 
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The Active Calderdale team would love to hear from you:
Cornholme, Sowerby Bridge, Todmorden contact Emma.Carter@calderdale.gov.uk
North Halifax contact Simon.Duckenfield5@calderdale.gov.uk
Park, Rastrick contact Anthony.whittaker@calderdale.gov.uk