Communities and nature

Bringing nature into communities with projects, useful resources and support in order to enable more people to connect with nature.

We want more people to feel empowered to take action for nature across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin. Small attitude changes within our communities can lead to big behaviour changes across society, and that means more people enjoying and protecting our natural world.

At Shropshire Wildlife Trust our ambition is to work using Community Organising Principles. This means we reach out and listen, connect and inspire, motivate and enable people to build their collective power.

The way we empower our communities is through:

Projects that focus on specific communities such as children and young people, older isolated adults and diverse ethnic communities.
Our long-established relationships; giving advice and support for businesses, farmers, landowners, schools, local leaders and more.
Our local branches and other affiliated groups, who extend our reach by engaging local people, surveying local wildlife and with our support helping to manage land for nature.

Our aspiration is to evolve as an organisation by learning from our communities. We will continue to improve the way in which we meet their needs and support them with what matters to them, so that we can all feel more able to protect the places where we live.

Free online community resources

The Nextdoor Nature Hub provides free advice for groups who want to start nature recovery projects at a grassroots level, including written guides and videos covering a range of topics from encouraging people, project ideas, obtaining funding to publicity. People can also upload stories about what they are doing to help wildlife in their gardens, workplaces, and communities.

Work together

Community Listening Workshops - FREE events open to all

We are committed to listening openly to the communities we serve. That’s why we want to support people across the county to be proactive listeners, sharing skills to allow us all to better understand the people we connect with.

In the workshops we will:

Explore why listening is important and why we want to listen to the Shropshire communities.
Discover positive listening techniques.
Practice listening skills and take these away from to use in your own communities.
Understand our Community Listeners Network, with the option to stay involved and collaborate with others.

Future workshop dates are being scheduled, so please email rebeccas@shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk if you are interested in joining a workshop or would like more information.