The young people learned about Parliament and worked towards their Take Action theme award by completing a Unit Meeting Activity card, writing to their MP about issues important to them, including sewage pollution. They used research skills to find out about their local MP and their position on environmental issues. During the project, there was an election, and the young women explored why voting with nature in mind was so important.
For their social action project, 8th Folkestone Guides wanted to find out more about fast fashion and plastic pollution. They invited Leah Thorne and textile artists from Folkestone-based art/activism campaigners a:dress to talk to them. Leah shared how their project aims to raise awareness about fast fashion's devastating impact on the planet and to provide alternatives to fast purchasing and fast disposal of clothes.
The girls learned about how, in the UK, clothing has the fourth largest environmental impact after housing, transport, and food, and that ‘the average lifetime for a garment in the UK is just 2.2 years, an estimated £30billion of unused clothing hangs in UK wardrobes and each year 430,000 tonnes of clothing are disposed of in the UK’ [Barnardo’s survey 2019].
a:dress events are open to anyone who wants to come. However, their primary focus is on women and girls as they are disproportionately impacted by climate crisis globally and the main target, and makers, of fast fashion.
Evie - one of the Guides who attended the Wilder Kent Awards to collect the commendation award on behalf of 8th Folkestone Guides - says of the experience: “The thing that I have enjoyed most about getting involved in the Blue Influencer scheme is spending more time by the sea, cleaning up the environment and stopping plastics entering the ocean.
“Working with a:dress has been really fun, I have got to show my creativity in lots of different ways. I loved making my fish tie, I worked on that outside of the session with my dad and I have created a character for my outfit, I’m wearing a suit, I’m a manager of a supermarket chain and I’m now thinking of the impact that plastic has on our marine environment.
“I was happy and surprised we received a commendation in the Wilder Kent Awards, it’s really fun to get an award for the work we’ve started. It was interesting to see the other award winner, very inspiring and we hope to achieve a bronze next year.”
Jenny explains: “Nearing the end of this first stage of our pilot project has been exciting, the young women of 8th Folkestone Guides have developed their own ideas and created an amazing programme of youth-led activities and learning opportunities. 8th Folkestone Guides have chosen the organisations that they wanted to learn more about, inviting RSPB to deliver a talk as well as choosing to work with the a:dress project and to attend a Kent Wildlife Trust rock pooling session.
“The young women have developed knowledge, skills, and confidence that will benefit not just themselves but their wider community and nature. Their enthusiasm is inspiring. Putting your people in the centre of project design and delivery means that their projects are relevant and engaging to them and their peers.
“While this first stage is near completion, there will be more work to do next term to share their learning and influence with their wider community. They will be delivering their catwalk show and working on a nature and wellbeing event with other Guide units and developing content for a webpage for Kent Wildlife Trust’s Blue Influencers Project.”
Blue Influencers Scheme
The mission of the Blue Influencers Scheme is to assist young people to create deep, lasting and meaningful connections with the natural environment. Through this scheme young people will learn and build skills which will help them contribute to the local community through environmental action.
The Scheme was developed by The Ernest Cook Trust as a match-funded project with the #iwill Fund. In total, the #iwill Fund and The Ernest Cook Trust are providing £2.25million over 3 years (from January 2024 to December 2026) to fund youth environmental action.
The Ernest Cook Trust has provided grants to Host Organisations (registered charities and non-profit organisations) across England to employ Blue Mentors to help young people between the ages of 10-14 years (known as Blue Influencers) to create environmental projects in local schools, youth groups and communities.
The full list of Host Organisations to receive a/the grant is
The Ernest Cook Trust offers children and young people, their families and communities, the chance to learn from the land through hands-on outdoor learning activities.
The Ernest Cook Trust is a charity limited by guarantee with the sole charitable objective of education.
The Trust places education at its very heart by offering children and young people a chance to connect with nature and to take action on the environment in a meaningful and positive way.
The Trust awards around £2m per year in grants based on relevance and impact against organisational objectives. Grants are given to schools or charitable organisations for activities in the UK with a particular focus on areas where there are fewer opportunities to experience the outdoors.
For more information about The Ernest Cook Trust visit https://ernestcooktrust.org.uk/ or contact press officer Jo Smyth – email media@ernestcooktrust.org.uk.
#iwill Fund
The #iwill Movement
The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.
We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with government to distribute vital grants and funding from key government programmes and initiatives.
As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4 billion of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
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