The power of urban blue spaces

SAFE Regeneration's Splash The Light Fantastic! programme was bringing people back to an adopted stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool canal in Bootle — inclusive, accessible activities designed to improve health, wellbeing, and community cohesion through access to water and the outdoors. But the change was hard to evidence in a funding report.

The team needed a story that showed why access to water matters to a neighbourhood: new skills, stronger connections, better physical and mental health, environmental awareness, and a sense of pride and belonging — without flattening all of that into a promotional video.

We spent time on the water before filming anything, listening to the people who paddle, volunteer, and run the sessions.

The film lets the partners and participants narrate their own experiences by capturing a documentary style 'raw' feedback session along with sit-down interviews.   

A film used in funding conversations, partner meetings, and public events, alongside short cuts made for social and screening use.

The project now has a shared reference point for what the work means to the people taking part.