Project Scope, Objectives, and KPIs: Combating Litter in the Community

This project aims to raise awareness and actively involve the community in addressing the pervasive issue of litter, fostering a sense of shared responsibility and pride in public spaces.

Project Scope

The project’s scope encompasses a range of activities focused on education, engagement, and direct action related to litter reduction within the local community. It specifically includes:

  • Awareness Raising: Educating the community, particularly children, about the negative impacts of litter and promoting responsible waste disposal.
  • Community Engagement & Mobilisation: Actively involving residents, local businesses (especially takeaways), schools, and community groups (like churches) in project activities.
  • Volunteer Recruitment & Management: Building and nurturing a dedicated volunteer group for litter collection and other project tasks.
  • Litter Collection Initiatives: Organising regular, social litter collection events, particularly on evenings.
  • Creative Interventions & Public Art: Commissioning artists to create public artworks from recycled materials and potentially designing interactive waste bins to encourage proper disposal.
  • Workshops: Conducting creative workshops in schools and with community groups to animate litter collection.
  • Relationship Building: Fostering strong relationships with the local council, community leaders, and local businesses.
  • Legacy Planning: Considering the long-term impact of the project beyond the initial timeline to include advocating for more bins along Luton Road and increasing awareness of and use of the bins along Luton Road.

Project Objectives 

The project aims to achieve the following specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives:

  1. Increase Community Awareness: To significantly increase community awareness of the litter problem and its environmental impact within the project area by December 2025.
  2. Mobilise Community Action: To actively engage local residents, businesses, and schools in litter reduction efforts through participation in collections and workshops, aiming for sustained involvement.
  3. Enhance Public Spaces: To contribute to the cleanliness and aesthetic appeal of public spaces through organised litter collections and the installation of community-created public artworks by December 2025 – to ultimately increase ‘Pride in Place’ and help to shift outsiders perspective of the area.
  4. Foster a Sense of Ownership: To empower community members, particularly children, to take ownership of their local environment by providing opportunities for direct involvement and creative expression.
  5. Build Sustainable Partnerships: To establish and strengthen collaborative relationships with the local council, businesses, and community groups to support ongoing litter reduction initiatives beyond the project’s initial timeline.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To measure the success of the project and track progress towards its objectives, the following KPIs will be monitored:

  1. Volunteer Engagement:
    • Number of registered volunteers
    • Number of volunteer hours contributed
    • Volunteer retention rate
  2. Litter Collection Impact:
    • Number of litter collection events held
    • Total weight of litter collected (if feasible to measure):
    • Number of unique locations/streets covered by collections
  3. Community & School Participation:
    • Number of schools engaged in workshops
    • Number of children/students participating in workshops
    • Number of local businesses actively participating (e.g., installing bins, promoting events):
  4. Creative Output & Visibility:
    • Number of public artworks installed/displayed
    • Number of performances on the street
    • Social media reach and engagement
  5. Partnership & Collaboration:
    • Number of council departments actively collaborating
    • Number of community groups/churches actively involved
    • Number of positive media mentions/press coverage
  6. Qualitative Feedback:
    • Positive feedback from community members, volunteers, and partners (e.g., surveys, testimonials)
    • Vox pop feedback – conversations on street to feed back to council
    • Evidence of increased community pride in public spaces – qualitative – interviews with participants and residents along Luton Road.
  1. Health metrics
  • Number of steps taken
  • Sense of community and pride
  • Average calories burnt
  • Total distance covered
  • Improved sense of pride in place
  • Improved sense of community cohesion