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 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 makes a difference to their livelihoods or the planet.

Our partnerships

We can only broaden our reach and impact with successful partnership work and at City of Trees, we are proud of our track record. By working with partner organisations we can effectively share resources, collaborate on funding efforts and reach more people in a wider audience.

From groups that support those facing inequalities through to ‘Friends of’ and faith groups, we believe in the collective strength of community as City of Trees is here for every person in Greater Manchester.

Six yellow buckets with whips ready to be planted

Current projects

Gazebo with bunting sheltering people at community event

Nature for Health

The Nature for Health Network is a collective of individuals and organisations across the Greater Manchester region who are actively engaged with, or interested in, the social and health benefits of connecting with nature.

Castlefield Viaduct

In 2022, City of Trees joined partners, the National Trust, to bring the Castlefield Viaduct, an iconic Mancunian landmark, back to life. We played a key role in the creation of the community sky garden which opened to the public in July 2022 with the opening of our partner plot.

three older people enjoying view of a woodland from a bench in Sale

Dementia Friendly Walks

We're committed to supporting those living with dementia, hosting our Dementia Naturally Active walks twice a month in the city centre and Bolton. Our walks are designed for anyone living with a diagnosis of dementia, their friends, family and carers.