TONY CARLIN, EVENING TIMES

EDITOR

In the two years the Evening Times and our partners have been running the Streets Ahead campaign we have been inundated with stories of the superb work being done by individuals and organisations to make Glasgow a better place to live, work and play.

We have met groups who wanted to clean up their street, others who planted gardens or hanging baskets, and many who wanted to help restore vandalised playgrounds.

We have been fortunate to have met just some of the remarkable people who make such a positive difference within their communities throughout the year.

And with the support of our magnificent partners Clean Glasgow, City Charitable Trust, Glasgow Housing Association, Glasgow City Council and the former Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Service and its successor the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, we have been able to help some of them to achieve their goals.

The range of projects which have been carried out this year and which we hailed at this year's Streets Ahead Awards was truly remarkable, involving businesses, schools and individuals who have all gone the extra mile to make to help make our city truly Streets Ahead.

Congratulations to all who have participated in the campaign over the past year.

Hopefully their efforts will inspire others to come on board with our campaign next year. We want to hear from all of you.

Let us help you to make a positive difference in your communities.

GORDON MATHESON, GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL LEADER

I know the citizens of Glasgow are very proud of their city and campaigns such as Streets Ahead and Clean Glasgow have reignited a great sense of community spirit.

A key objective of this council is to make Glasgow a cleaner and safer city and we are delighted that the Evening Times has decided to continue their Streets Ahead campaign and continue to help us in this task.

This is one of the reasons why we joined forces with the Evening Times and partners to support the launch of their Streets Ahead campaign in 2011.

The council's own Clean Glasgow initiative has been up and running since 2007 and has been a great success.

Clean Glasgow is a campaign with a straightforward goal: to make our city and every neighbourhood within it a cleaner, safer place.

It is built on a partnership with our communities and a shared responsibility for our environment, whether we are at home or school, at work or at play.

The Evening Times, via its Streets Ahead campaign, has created hundreds of Street Champions and I'm delighted that Glasgow has once again this year grabbed this challenge with gusto and will be rewarded for their efforts.

Many of our schools have dreamed up some wonderful ideas and the young people are already acting on their plans and taking an active role in their community.

Everything from litter picks around their school and creating special wildlife gardens to investigating the road safety issues affecting the local environment.

And by joining forces with local groups, schools or businesses we are really making Glasgow flourish.

LEWIS RAMSAY, SCOTTISH FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE DIRECTOR OF PREVENTION AND PROTECTION

Preventative fire safety activities are central to the daily work of the modern Fire and Rescue Service and there is an ever-increasing range of initiatives that take place to promote a safer Scotland.

For the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, there are many benefits associated with being involved in Streets Ahead.

The programme is delivered across Glasgow and seeks to improve safety and wellbeing throughout the city.

Streets Ahead is very popular with members of the public and firefighters have been directly involved in a variety of projects, often working closely with local families and partner organisations, to make Glasgow safer.

The Evening Times' Streets Ahead programme is an excellent example of effective community safety activity.

SIR WILLIE HAUGHEY, CITY CHARITABLE TRUST CHIEF EXECUTIVE

The City Charitable Trust has been delighted to have been involved in the Evening Times' Streets Ahead campaign over the past two years.

Glasgow's greatest strength lies in its people, who take pride in their city and who want to make a difference.

The founding principle behind the campaign has always been simple: One good citizen on any street can make a positive and long-lasting difference to their community. And one good citizen on EVERY street can change our entire city for the better. When you hear some of the stories of those who have been involved over the past year you realise just how accurate that message is. That's why the CCT has been happy to support so many worthwhile and remarkable projects.

We want to help our citizens to have a renewed sense of pride in their community. Simple things such as assisting local people to transform an ugly gap site into a community garden is just one way of doing that.

We want to help local people to help themselves, thereby improving their community and instilling a sense of achievement and ownership within the hearts of those involved.

I've maintained since the start of the Streets Ahead campaign that Glasgow doesn't belong to businessmen or politicians. It belongs to every Glaswegian.

We at the City Charitable Trust have worked strenuously to make Glasgow a better place and through campaigns such as Streets Ahead we have been happy to work with the people of the city to continue to help improve the lives of all.

Streets Ahead has been a truly effective and powerful campaign and all of us at the CCT congratulate those who have made strides at improving their communities and we look forward to helping others make similar improvements in the next year.

GORDON SLOAN, GLASGOW HOUSING ASSOCIATION CHAIRMAN

We are delighted to support the Evening Times' Streets Ahead campaign which is all about people taking pride in their community and working together to make their neighbourhood a better place to live - and that's exactly what GHA is about.

Our staff and tenants work across the city to help people come together to make their communities better places to live.

The Streets Ahead projects have made a big difference to neighbourhoods. The highlight was the launch of our £50million Local Environmental Action Forums to bring our communities up to scratch.

We've also organised community clean-ups, upgraded allotments and helped put on local Christmas events.

By working closely with our city partners in campaigns like Streets Ahead we've been able to change lives and neighbourhoods for the better.

THE second year of Streets Ahead has continued its fantastic work in every corner of our city, according to our campaign partners. The Evening Times has had invaluable support from Clean Glasgow, City Charitable Trust, Glasgow Housing Association and Scottish Fire and Rescue.

It proves what can be achieved when everyone works together.

Here, representatives from each of our partners reflect upon the second successful year of Streets Ahead - and look forward to the next 12 months. Ann Fotheringham reports.