I am a new BTCV Natural Communities trainee placed with Froglife and my position is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund. During the next year I will get lots of training through BTCV and the knowledge and skills I gain will be used to assist Froglife with their community engagement work.
Based in Cumbernauld in North Lanarkshire, I am working with Froglife on their Living Waters Project which has expanded from Glasgow into North Lanarkshire. It is an exciting venture which is creating and restoring ponds in urban areas and involving local communities. Froglife is a charity which has three main priorities of education, communication and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. It has a strong element of social inclusion and runs a variety of inspiring projects in Peterborough, London and Glasgow. For more information see the website www.froglife.org
On my first day with Froglife, I was lucky enough to be involved with their project ‘My Wild Life’ which was in action for the first time in Glasgow. It is a successful reminiscence project which runs sessions in Peterborough and London. Ten children from a Primary school in Glasgow arrived at their local library to find picnic baskets laid out, brimming with all sorts of exciting treasures. These included items such as shells, skulls and antlers, marbles, old photographs, compasses and pictures of animals. Five adults, including some members of the Glasgow Natural History Society, then joined in and spoke to the children, using the objects as a way of sparking memories from their own childhood. The children were fascinated by the stories told and learned a lot about natural history during the session.
How to use a compass
The children were then filmed interviewing the adults about their childhood experiences. It was inspiring to see the two generations talking about their natural history encounters and find that although the world and environment has changed, so many experiences are similar. One child was passionate about snakes and it was his dream to study zoology at University. He enjoyed talking to one of the adults who is a University Professor of Zoology! To find out more about this project please see www.froglife.org/mywildlife
My Wild Life session
My personal experiences with nature as a child included going out for walks and exploring nature and wildlife. I went on to volunteer and work in conservation and environmental education. Now I am really keen to learn new ways of engaging with communities and encourage more people to get involved with nature and conservation.