At the end of June I began my role as Green Mentor for Shropshire Wildlife Trust in the People and Wildlife team. This post was created and funded by the Ernest Cook Trust’s Green Influencers scheme, as a way to help young people realise their potential to positively impact the environment, and create lasting connections with the natural world.
I am joining more than 40 other Green Mentors from other host organisations including Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.
Beth Lacey
I grew up in Telford and after studying in London for three years, I found that I much prefer living away from cities. I moved back to Telford in 2020 and got a job with Telford and Wrekin Council as part of the team whose role it is to protect, manage and develop our outdoor spaces for the enjoyment of Telford and Wrekin residents.
During this time, my appreciation for my local area grew even more. I have worked with children and young people in various volunteer roles, and so being a Green Mentor ties together several things that I want to do: improve the lives of members of my community, work with young people and appreciate nature and our environment.
For a lot of us, our formative years can be tough, but going through the recent pandemic at the same time must have been almost too much for many young people to handle. To realise the full extent of the damage that this has caused on young peoples’ mental health may take years, but if there is any way that I can help reduce this impact, it’s worth a try!
Perhaps one of the best ways to improve our mental health is to work on our connection with the natural world by being outside, observing wildlife, escaping to a place of peace and quiet and getting lost in nature.
Another way that I hope to help the young people that I work with in this role is in their employability, by showing them the wide range of jobs involved in the conservation sector and helping them to identify some of their interests.
It’s so important for new, passionate and creative people to be entering this industry with the right skills and enough confidence to make a difference and fight the climate crisis.
Since beginning this post, I have worked with a group from Madeley Academy who learnt about the role of bees in our ecosystem and planted a wildflower area in their school grounds, and a group from in and around Shrewsbury who have carried out a litter pick, been pond dipping, den building and explored a few of our nature reserves.
Over the coming months I will be working with many more young people in Shropshire and I can’t wait to hear their ideas!
If you would like to learn any more about the Green Influencers Scheme, please be in touch with me at bethl@shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk
The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) are each investing £25 million seed funding to create the #iwill Fund. The Ernest Cook Trust is acting as a match funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.
