We will continue to offer regular activities for families and children within schools, parks and at Bradgers Hill. For example, our Little Bugs Club for under 5’s resumes at Wardown Park in early October as do our Wild Ed sessions for children educated at home. We are also pleased to able to re-launch the Walk in the Park programme that was previously delivered in partnership with LBC, and which aims to offer monthly well-being walks in accessible green spaces.
 
However, the new project has a particular focus on engaging older children and young people. We will be reaching out to more secondary schools and building on existing relationships to help improve grounds for biodiversity, to teach more children outdoors and to offer real life work skills and experience to students either within their school grounds or at nearby green spaces.

Outside of schools we will work with youth groups to provide more regular nature- based activity, including tailored well-being walks for that age group, but also to develop some heritage skills workshops that allow young people to share time together in a green space whilst learning a new skill. For example, we will be running an introduction to green woodworking on November 23rd for our Youth Rangers in Luton and Beds (these are monthly meet-ups for 12-18yr olds that include visits to various WTBCN sites.
 
Project staff recently started working with Mary Seacole Housing Association to engage their residents in some gardening activities within their housing stock. Those attending will learn how to garden with wildlife in mind and they will also complete some simple carpentry tasks, such as making a bird table and new raised beds for planting.

With such practical activities we hope to highlight conservation and other land-based industries as a viable career path for young people, and those who are looking to re-train or change career, in addition to the well-being benefits. During the second and third years of the project we will offer four paid traineeships which will cover a broad range of skills and experience. 

Our other main aim for this project is to work with existing and new partners to establish a central presence in the town centre where people can more easily find out about the unique chalk hills surrounding Luton, and other natural spaces such as the River Lea, and discover the myriad ways there are to explore and enjoy them.

Funding from Wilder Futures helped to create informative videos about the River Lea and the mammals that live in Luton, which you can view below, and we aim to create further films that help to highlight the beautiful landscape and biodiversity that can be found in and around Luton for people to enjoy in schools or at home.