Youth Groups & Mentorship

WILD TIMES – Our mentorship and transition Group for young people aged 11 – 13 years 

Running monthly in  2022 /2023

This is a year- long forest school and bushcraft program, that offers young people an opportunity to grow alongside experienced and qualified Forest School practitioners, to learn bush-craft skills, build confidence, develop a sense of self and discover the outdoors, whilst at the same time exploring interpersonal themes of self-reliance, group dynamics, and creativity. The syllabus will include identifying plants and what their medicinal qualities are and bush craft skills (fire-craft, tracking, blacksmithing, navigation by natural means, rafting, mularking, the use of tools such as knives and axes, foraging, water sourcing, hand-carving wood, container construction from natural materials, and rope and twine-making) camp craft, nature awareness skills and a ‘Rites of passage’ celebration. The project is offering young people opportunities to discover the world around them through their senses and how that resonates with their inner world and wellbeing.

The project will run this term on:

1st of October- Teambuilding

5th of November- Pewter Casting

26th of November-Firecrafts

10th of December-Campfire Cooking

Times: 1-4pm except on the 15th and 16th- tbc

SPRING 2023-Blacksmithing

Next years dates tbc

This is a fully funded program but ask participants to commit to the program as a whole.

The project offers young people opportunities to discover the world around them through their senses and how that resonates with their inner world and wellbeing. Through experiences in nature alone, in pairs and as a group we develop a stronger sense of an integrated relationship to life and build up courage that will lead to inner strength and a commitment to improving the lives of others.

In recent years a large number of studies have been carried out that investigate the significance of contact with nature, for children’s health and for building strong and sustainable relationship with the environment. Edward Owen Wilson calls it: ‘Biophilia’: ‘the humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other form of life’.  There is a nature deficit unraveling in our society, heightened by the current corona virus but also as a general tendency in society. Richard Luv describes it as ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’. “Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.”

In our practice we have seen many times children and families being divorced from their surrounding nature due to a lack of exposure, economic means, mental health and community. By giving young people the opportunity to spend time in nature in a guided but unstructured way, gives them the chance to discover their untapped creativity and grow their self-esteem to set them on a path towards self-actualization. We have worked with many children who may not have been seen to be ‘flourishing’ in a traditional classroom setting, who benefited hugely to unrestricted, self-directed actions and discovery in these natural environments.

 

This program is currently funded by The Emergence Foundation