Well, my somewhat leisurely entry into the TCV blogosphere hints at what a busy start it’s been. Greetings to you all, anyway, and allow me a belated introduction: I’m Andy, one of the new (ish) Natural Communities trainees, and I’m working with TCV in their Edinburgh office. Youth Engagement Officer is my job title, and the job has so far been as broad and varied as that title might suggest…
I quite recently finished a Postgrad diploma in Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education (or OESE – just try getting the full name out in one breath) here in Edinburgh, and a very diverse, inspiring and thought-provoking year it was. So many memories stick out: a four-day canoe descent of the River Spey; descending to Corrour bothy in the Cairngorms at sunset as stags roared in the background; sitting by a gnarled old oak tree (sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of a modern larch plantation) in Kingussie telling ghost stories on Hallowe’en; leading groups of teenagers up hills in a very “alpine” Lake District in February (hence the pretty picture below to start us off – happened to be on the USB stick I have with me today!); spending a week on the Isle of Rum tuning in to the minutiae of its diverse ecology; and running environmental education sessions for primary school groups in the salty-aired surrounds of Musselburgh, East Lothian. There were, I’m afraid, also a number of days spent gazing out at the Pentlands from behind my laptop on the top floor of the University library, but I’m slowly phasing that out of my selective memory.
Alongside all of this, I volunteered with Edinburgh-based charity The Green Team, running conservation days out, and week-long residentials, for young people usually aged 16-18. I then worked for three months up in the mighty Cairngorms with their very own National park Authority, working on a report into how they can encourage greater participation in environmental volunteering across the Park.
This traineeship feels like something of a combination of all the above: inspiring days out in fantastic places with young people, researching further opportunities for youth engagement across the organisation, and ongoing learning through the days of Core Training we’ve already been attending. And yes, a small amount of gazing out at the Pentlands from the leafy, tree-lined environs of the office here at Mortonhall.
Highlights so far?: Probably running a “Green Dragon’s Den” activity with a group working towards their Employability Award (pictured below) – involving the design and marketing of a product made from recycled materials. I felt I made a convincing “dragon” despite having only watched the show once before. The groups were from Youth Vision, and were impressively inventive with plastic milk bottles, cardboard boxes, aluminium cans to produce mobile phones, rockets, robots and sheep (don’t ask).
Also spending days out in places like Possil Park in Glasgow, where TCV groups are working to transform an otherwise unused space into a safe haven for biodiversity and community enjoyment.
And then there were the days out with our Coastal Communities groups in East Lothian, interesting and inspiring training events on intergenerational projects and working with BME communities, as well as a whole load of phonecalls and meetings as I continue to familiarise myself with the myriad projects and initiatives run by TCV…
It should be a cracking 11 months.