Award activities for wildlife and the environment
Ulster Wildlife are inviting young people to take on the Grassroots Challenge. The programme supports young people to complete their Volunteering, Physical, Skills Expedition or Residential sections of their DofE/JAI Award through activities that benefit wildlife, the natural environment and the local community.
Volunteering section – There are several ways that you can get support from the Grassroots challenge staff to fulfil the volunteer aspect of the Award:
– Group volunteer activities – £100 can be requested towards the costs of group volunteering activities. Activities could include building bird boxes, planting trees,creating a wildlife garden, creating community artwork, cleaning up a local beach or linking in with what other organisations are doing locally.
– Individual volunteer plans – If you are not part of a group and want to take part on an individual basis contact the Project Officer at the link below. We will help you create an individual volunteer plan working independently and linking in with organisations and activities in your area.
– Direct volunteer opportunities with the Ulster Wildlife Grassroots Challenge summer volunteer opportunities.
Skills section – Grants for up to £50 are currently available towards skills development activities. Wildlife Skills Packs will be available from September 2017 with themes around birdwatching, insect surveying and building wildlife habitat boxes.
Expedition section – We currently have a number of wildlife recording packs to enable young people to identify and record what they see on their expeditions. Packs include binoculars, magnifying lenses, sampling pots, butterfly sweep net, pond-dipping kit, wildlife identification charts and bat detector.
Residential section – We run a Gold Residential at Ardaluin House in County Down in partnership with Belfast Activity Centre. This will include wildlife and outdoor education activities, including trekking, climbing, woodwork, bushcraft and team-building games.
The Grassroots Challenge will run over 5 years from January 2016 to 2020. The project will bring the great outdoors to life for 5000 young people aged 11-24, through Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Special Schools across Northern Ireland. A range of partner organisations are involved in helping to deliver the project, including Keep NI Beautiful, Northern Ireland Environment Link and Lantra.
This exciting youth empowerment project is one of 31 which make up ‘Our Bright Future’, a UK-wide programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund and run by a consortium of organisations which is led by the Wildlife Trusts.
Download the Grassroots Challenge information leaflet and details of our fantastic residential opportunity.
For more information you can visit the website.
T: 028 9046 3101
