Successful youth nature engagement project receives a funding boost

The Generation Green project (which first ran in 2021- 2023) has secured a second round of funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Building on its successful delivery of exciting educational activities for young people in the Broads, this new funding will help even more young people to learn about nature and become inspired by the Broads National Park.

The first phase of Generation Green gave 100,000 young people the opportunity to connect with nature in protected areas throughout the UK. The project works with young people who don’t normally get the chance to get out into nature and the local environment.

Around 550 young people got to experience the wonders of the Broads through hands-on learning outdoors, including 12 residential visits. They also learned about wildlife, the Broads’ windmills, grazing marshes and about how the landscape is shaped by people.

The second project phase: ‘Generation Green 2: A night under the Stars’ will build on the experience, activities and engagement gained with schools and partners during the first phase of Generation Green. ‘A night under the stars in a protected landscape’, is an aspiration for all children, identified in Julian Glover’s Landscape Review.

Phase 2 will help more than 25,000 young people living in England’s most socially disadvantaged areas to connect with nature and rural life through nights under the stars and a host of other inspiring experiences is in full swing.

The Broads Authority’s education team (delivering both project phases) expect the funding to support 300 residential visits, 300 ‘discovery days’ and 60 ‘nights under the stars’ in the Broads for young people.

Some of the many planned activities include: discovery days at Barton Turf Adventure Centre, where young people can go pond dipping, learn about Broads’ peatland soils by using peat cores, make charcoal, go geocaching and see the Broads on a boat trip. They might also go on a night walk with torches, catch dragonfly-larvae in a net, see kingfishers feeding up close and encounter many types of wildlife from a canoe.

Broads Authority Education Officer, Nick Sanderson said,

We are delighted to receive the next round of Generation Green funding, to help us keep inspiring young people through outdoor learning.

“During the first project phase, we saw how close encounters with wildlife - usually experienced for the first time - cultivate a sense of care for nature and the Broads, and how a connection with nature improves mental and physical wellbeing.

“During this next phase of the project, we hope we can deepen this connection with the same group of young people and inspire many many more.”

‘Generation Green 2: A night under the Stars’ is a £4.5 million fund by (Defra) as part of its ongoing support of access to nature, aims to help address major inequalities in access to nature by cultivating a wider interest in green spaces among the next generation, fostering lifelong wellbeing benefits among participants and opening protected places to a wider demographic.

Nationally, the project is delivered by the Access Unlimited coalition including: youth organisations, school residential outdoor education providers, and organisations responsible for managing our protected landscapes. The coalition comprises of: YHA, Outward Bound Trust, Field Studies Council, Girlguiding, Scouts, the National Parks Authorities (Via NPE) (Broads Authority), and the National Landscapes Association.

Participants in the project will be young people from geographic locations in England falling into the Index of Multiple Deprivation scale (1-3), and through schools that exceed a threshold of 30% of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding.

Delivery of Generation Green 2 began in spring this year and has so far enabled almost 6,000 young people to take part in experiences across England. Demand for courses from participating schools and groups has been extremely high and there is currently little remaining availability.

The project runs until the end of March next year, with many more opportunities planned for young people to connect with nature.