About Blue Sparks
What is the Blue Sparks programme?
Blue Sparks is our new community grants programme, created to support local projects that help more people connect with, enjoy and look after Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. Over the next three years it will back grassroots ideas that open up access to the water, deepen understanding of our blue spaces and celebrate Plymouth’s rich maritime heritage. Small but powerful grants are helping neighbourhood groups, social enterprises and community organisations turn good ideas into real change along our shores.
In this first year, funding has been awarded to ten local organisations, each bringing their own energy and creativity to the water. Together, their projects range from hands on environmental action and innovative seaweed trials, to celebrating hidden creeks and telling new stories about life by the sea. Every grant offers a different way for people to feel closer to Plymouth Sound and to play a part in its future.
Blue Sparks Awardees
- BBSB Community Forum – reconnecting residents with Kinterbury Creek and nearby blue spaces through creative community activities and seasonal events.
- Precious Plastic Plymouth & Tavistock CIC – leading a Creative Beach Clean and Recycling Challenge that turns shoreline plastic into new products using pedal powered recycling kit.
- Open Kamera CIC – using film and storytelling to help local people explore and share their relationship with Plymouth Sound and its coastal communities.
- Ethical Activities CIC – creating practical, nature based projects that give people the chance to enjoy, understand and care for local marine and coastal habitats.
- Fotonow CIC – running creative photography and media activities that shine a light on life around the Sound and amplify community voices linked to the water.
- Federation of Old Cornwall Societies – celebrating Plymouth’s maritime heritage and traditions, and connecting them to the modern story of the National Marine Park.
- East End Development Trust – opening up access to nearby waterfronts and blue spaces for local residents through place based community projects.
- Big Sis CIC – supporting girls and young women to build confidence and wellbeing through positive experiences linked to the coast and ocean.
- Turnchapel History Group – uncovering and sharing the coastal history of Turnchapel and its links to Plymouth Sound through local research and events.
- BluGreens CIC – delivering the Kelp Regen project, trialling seaweed cultivation on dormant harbour infrastructure to improve water quality and support a low impact blue green economy, alongside community outreach on sustainable ocean practices.