Garden plot in bloom in sky garden on viaduct in Manchester

Working with Communities

Community Engagement in Greater Manchester

We’re a Community Forest charity and engaging people in planting trees, looking after trees and nurturing a culture of trees is at the heart of what we do. We create meaningful opportunities for people to enjoy, learn about and celebrate our urban forest, while contributing to better outcomes for the people of Greater Manchester.

We have a variety of ways to inspire people to get involved in our work, this includes everything from our Citizen Forester volunteer programme to year-round events.

Explore our events

Become a Citizen Forester

Are you interested in helping make Greater Manchester greener?

Find out how you can get involved with our work

Find out more

Trees for everyone, trees everywhere!

We’re passionate about embedding the importance of trees throughout the fabric of life in Greater Manchester – from arts and heritage, to health and wellbeing. Trees provide us with life, and we believe that for their importance to be realised, they shouldn’t just be confined to the typical environment and forestry sectors!

The core of our engagement approach is to provide an opportunity for people to make a difference. This might be physical improvements to their neighbourhood, or to undertake activities or actions that make a difference to their livelihoods or the planet.

Six yellow buckets with whips ready to be planted

Green Spaces Fund

The Green Spaces Fund, launched by Andy Burnham and distributed by the Greater Manchester Environment Trust, helps community groups increase the amount of accessible, nature-rich green space where people need it most.

Since its launch in 2022, the fund has invested over £3 million and enabled more than 100 community groups to develop projects across the city region, including orchards, green alleyways, allotments and community gardens.

So far, over 28,000 m² of new green space has been created, and nearly 400,000 m² of existing green space has been improved.

City of Trees is a proud delivery partner of the GM Green Spaces Fund. We provide funding advisor support for groups in Stockport and Tameside looking to apply for the fund.

For more information, visit our dedicated page.