THE third year of our successful Streets Ahead campaign is about to get underway - and we need you to play your part.

We want to hear about your street, your park, your community garden, your allotment or your school playground.

Let us know - and let us help you to make it even better.

Our fantastic partners -City Charitable Trust, Clean Glasgow, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Glasgow Housing Association - are all back to support the campaign.

And we are delighted to welcome a fifth, high-profile supporter on board -ScotRail is joining us for year three.

You can learn more about why they are all happy to back Streets Ahead in tomorrow's Evening Times.

This year, we want to find more Street Champions, dedicated to rallying neighbours and friends to transform their local area, and we want to hear from schools keen to play a part in their community.

We also want to get businesses on board, support existing projects in the community and kick-start new ones.

Since its launch, Streets Ahead has helped to transform areas of the city which have become unloved, run down or ignored.

Streets Ahead gained national recognition when it was nominated in the environment category of the UK Newspaper Awards.

One of only three Scottish titles to be shortlisted out of more than 1000 entries, we narrowly missed out on the top award.

By helping projects get off the ground, the campaign has brought communities together and encouraged neighbours to work with each other to get things done.

Last year we awarded thousands of pounds in grants to help communities turn dreams into reality.

We gave £4000 to Lamlash Nursery School after vandals destroyed their beautiful garden, setting fire to equipment and stealing plants and toys.

The community, including fire crews, businesses, local students and residents, rallied together to restore the garden for devastated pupils and staff.

We also provided £1500 to the hard-working team behind Milton Community Garden in the north of the city, another target of vandals.

With the help of Glasgow Housing Association, who generously donated £13,500 to the project, local fire crews and volunteers, the garden is now back on track.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was heavily involved with both projects.

Its crews and station commanders are keen to help other local groups as part of Streets Ahead.

In February, GHA gave Streets Ahead its biggest boost yet, in the shape of a £50m investment programme to bring its communities up to scratch.

One month later, we teamed up with British Gas to award an 'eco makeover' worth up to £135,000 to a lucky primary school.

St Albert's Primary in Pollokshields won, impressing judges with their dedication to making their school as environmentally friendly as possible.

With our campaign partner Clean Glasgow, we staged a glittering awards ceremony in the Winter Gardens in June.

Shettleston Community Growing Project won the overall prize for its work transforming derelict land into a community garden, allotments and children's gardening project.

Marion Bate, project co-ordinator, said: "Winning the best community initiative category and then the overall prize was a fantastic boost for us."

"It has really helped us raise awareness of what we are doing here, and all the volunteers feel their hard work has been worth it.

"Streets Ahead is a great campaign for communities - everyone should get involved."