GroundsWeek

GroundsWeek is a grounds maintenance-focused event that takes place every year. It has been created to highlight the pivotal role grounds staff and volunteers contribute to making sport possible and keeping green spaces accessible to all our communities.

GroundsWeek 2023 is running from the 20th-26th March.

#GroundsWeek was a massive success in the last two years. In 2022, GroundsWeek ran from the 28^th February until the 6^th March, with a focus on recruitment, and encouraging more people from all walks of life to enter grounds management as either a career, hobby, or as a volunteer.

GroundsWeek has been created as an interactive campaign built on the participation of the groundscare profession with support from the community and the organiser’s sponsors. With the aid of the sponsors and all those involved, the Grounds Management Association will be putting the grounds maintenance sector in the spotlight once again and celebrating the impact of groundscare on sport and green spaces throughout the UK.

In 2021, the GroundsWeek campaign saw thousands of people come together to celebrate the work of grounds teams and received support from a wide range of household name sporting organisations, including the England national football team’s Wembley Stadium, Twickenham Stadium, Manchester City Football Club, Leicester Tigers Rugby Union, and many more. The GroundsWeek promotional campaign also received widespread media coverage from organisations such as BBC Sport and Yahoo Sport.

Given the challenges in getting physical activity and sport back during and after the Covid pandemic lockdowns, GroundsWeek 2021 highlighted the outstanding work of all grounds staff, volunteers, and support services who continued to maintain, and look after, our local sports pitches, despite amateur sport practically coming to a grinding halt at all levels.

GroundsWeek 2021 came after a year when Urban and rural parks and green spaces became more valuable than ever to the public’s health and wellbeing, with increased use for daily exercise, fresh air, and physical activity; when many people were spending more time than ever at home indoors with little opportunity to travel to areas of large open spaces.

Grounds staff are vital, and their work is essential to getting the nation active which is why the Grounds Management Association is launching #GroundsWeek to raise awareness and give their members the opportunity to get the praise they deserve.

As part of the GroundsWeek campaign, the Grounds Management Association will be posting and sharing content throughout the week related to this year’s theme which is recruitment, into the grounds maintenance sector. They will also be releasing a news story based on their latest research as well as sharing other content which will include a special #GroundsWeek webinar, with one of the biggest names in the industry and two Learning LIVE seminars that focus on recruitment and workforce development.

Other information shared during the week includes educational material for school-age children that can be shared to help increase awareness of the career possibilities in the groundscare sector, and stories from members of the groundscare community that represent the varied roles and experiences that can be found in our sector.