Rossendale Forest campaign shortlisted at national PRCA awards

Rossendale Borough Council is shortlisted for a national Public Sector PR award in recognition of the Rossendale Forest initiative.

The council and Viva PR are shortlisted for the Public Sector Award at the PRCA DARE Grand Prix 2022 awards, in recognition of the Rossendale Forest project and the impact it’s had in just a few short months.

Rossendale Forest won the Public Sector Award at the PRCA DARE Award (North West) earlier this year, meaning it qualified for the same category at the national awards ceremony.

The awards take place on Thursday 6th October in London.

Rossendale Borough Council made a pledge to plant a tree for every child in the borough over the next three years, creating Rossendale Forest.

Together with the council, Viva PR developed a campaign to drive meaningful action and recruit an army of volunteers from the local community to plant the trees, starting with the initial 6,000 saplings that needed planting in February, March and April 2022, before the end of the tree planting season.

A total of 191 ‘Pledge to Plant’ registrations were made – the initial target was 50 – 289 separate volunteers worked across 19 planting sites, and community groups signed up included Bacup Pride, Haslingden and Helmshore Civic Pride, Rossendale Civic Pride, and Incredible Edible Rossendale.

(l-r) Neil Shaw (CEO of Rossendale Borough Council), Alyson Barnes (Leader of Rossendale Borough Council), Jac Jordan and Tony Garner from Viva PR at the PRCA DARE Awards North West

We were really pleased when we won the regional award for the Rossendale Forest campaign, but to be shortlisted at a national level is fantastic. The campaign garnered so much local support and encouraged many more volunteers than we could have hoped for to come forward, we smashed our initial targets.

This shortlisting is testament and recognition of what a well-run and engaging campaign can achieve when communities pull together, and it’s a real boost for everyone involved in Rossendale Forest as we start with the next phase of our pledge to plant a tree for every child in the borough.

Want to dig deep and volunteer for the next planting sessions in late 2022/early 2023? Pledge to plant below!