In every corner of the city there are men, women and children working hard to make a difference in their communities.

Today we launch our annual awards celebration to pay tribute to the best projects and most inspiring individuals across the city.

Hosted by Glasgow City Council at the City Chambers and supported by our other partners City Building and City Charitable Trust, the Streets Ahead awards celebrate all the hardworking groups and individuals bringing neighbours together around Glasgow.

Our campaign, now in its eighth year, continues to go from strength to strength with more groups than ever before backing our efforts to improve Glasgow, one street at a time.

Evening Times Editor Donald Martin said: “Our Streets Ahead campaign, with the generous support of our partners, continues to inspire people all over Glasgow.

“The annual awards ceremony gives us a chance to reward those who have gone the extra mile for their communities and worked hard to make life better for everyone.

“We are looking forward to receiving nominations for each category and to welcoming the finalists along to the awards night in June.”

The ceremony will be on June 18, and we want to hear who you think should be there.

One of last year’s big winners was Concrete Garden in Possilpark.

This urban community food growing project has transformed the local area, changing attitudes and improving the environment along the way.

As well as the growing spaces, this excellent group created a natural play area and delivers weekly horticulture sessions, outdoor play projects and more.

The Concrete Garden has also had a massive impact on waste reduction, reducing carbon emissions, diverting textile waste from landfill into their own swap shop and turning wooden pallets and cable reels into play equipment.

Thanks to the group’s efforts, three acres of stalled or derelict land in Possilpark has been transformed into beautiful, welcoming community spaces.

Last year’s best community initiative and overall winner was St Roch’s FC, a junior football club which has become a hub for local people of all ages.

From homework clubs and jobseeking projects to employability initiatives and free football academies, the club is tackling many of the challenges its community faces.

“I’m a great believer a junior football club should be at the heart of its community,” says manager and club secretary Andy Cameron. “There’s a lot of poverty in this part of Glasgow. We wanted to do something about that.”

There are hundreds of exciting, inspiring projects like Concrete Garden and St Roch’s out there – we want to hear all about them.

To nominate yourself or someone else, visit the dedicated awards website at newsquestscotlandevents.com/streetsahead Closing date for nominations is April 26.

For more information please email holly.rutherford@heraldandtimes.co.uk or call 0141 302 6019.

We will be awarding eight prizes, including an overall winner, to be announced at a special ceremony on June 18.

There will be trophies for the best garden, best clean-up campaign, best environmental initiative, best community garden, best community initiative and best business initiative, plus a schools award.

The best garden prize will be presented to the best residential garden. We are looking for gardens which are attractive and well kept, which improve the appearance of the local area.

The clean-up campaign category celebrates the best clean-up initiatives taking place across the city. We want to hear from people who have come together to tidy up their local area, whether it’s a street, gardens, allotments or even a park.

The Glasgow City Council environmental initiative award will be presented to city’s best “green” project, whether it’s a recycling scheme, a sustainable travel initiative or something completely different, while for the best community garden category, we will be looking for gardens which are used by the whole community.

The winner of the best community initiative category will be an exceptional example of a project which encourages people to work together, which has gone the extra mile to make a real difference to people’s lives.

The Green Glasgow Business Award will be presented to the company, large or small, which has played its part in keeping Glasgow clean and green and the schools award will be given to a nursery, primary, secondary or assisted support for learning school which can demonstrate what contribution it has made to its local community.

The overall winner will be chosen from the winners of all the other categories.

Don’t miss our Streets Ahead coverage on Thursday and Friday, in the newspaper and online at www.eveningtimes.co.uk. We will be catching up with some previous awardwinners to inspire you to get involved.