Our Volunteers are Amazing

During Volunteers’ Week 2017 we want to take the opportunity to showcase the amazing things that our volunteers do to make Kent a better place for wildlife and for people.

 

If you’ve ever visited any of our reserves, Visitor Centres, entered our Wild About Gardens Awards, attended an event, driven alongside one of our Roadside Nature Reserves, or you or your children have participated in a school day out to our Centres or Forest School camps you have probably met one of our wonderful volunteers, or certainly enjoyed the results of their hard work!

With over 1,000 volunteers across Kent supporting our work, we are incredibly lucky to have so much support, knowledge and commitment from so many incredible people. Our volunteers work in all areas with the majority participating in outdoor activities such as task days on our Reserves, checking the Livestock who help us graze some of our Reserves, carrying out Habitat Surveys or participating in activities along the coast. These volunteers participate in a large range of activities including reserve management, ecological monitoring and ensuring that our Reserves are brilliant places for wildlife, and enjoyable places to visit.

Volunteering has enabled me to meet like-minded people and make new friends to share a laugh and a joke with whilst working.
Practical Conservation Volunteer

We have a large team of volunteers who help us in lots of different ways too. At our Visitor Centres volunteers are helping us greet visitors, providing advice on what’s on offer and helping in our shops, cafes and carrying out work in our nature parks. Our Wild About Garden Advisors are out and about across the county, visiting award entrants and offering advice on creating wildlife-friendly gardens. Volunteers also support in our Membership team helping to engage with our members and to support our appeals

We’re also proud to have a group of volunteers who support the delivery of educational days for schools and youth groups at Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Bough Beech and Canterbury  and who all help to inspire young people with a love of wildlife. In Dover, we have volunteers who assist with our Nature Tots group  encouraging the very young (and their parents!) to get hands on with nature.

All of our volunteers make a phenomenal difference to our work, contributing tens of thousands of hours of their time to Kent Wildlife Trust, and we work hard to ensure that have a fulfilling and enjoyable time throughout their volunteering with us.

If you would like to find out how you can join our team of volunteers in Kent, please visit our website or contact our Volunteer Team.   

Read more about volunteering

St Clement's churchyard volunteers posing with rob smith for the talk on the wild side podcast episode
Tim Horton

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