News
14 July 2009
A Friend in the Wilderness
Pioneering an understanding of wilderness and wild lands as a positive force for social change and environmental sustainability, the Wilderness Foundation has introduced a programme around trails, social projects and education for vulnerable youths. The aim is for the individuals participating to directly experience the irreplaceable qualities of wilderness which can help to stimulate and discover identity, perspective, environmental awareness and leadership skills. Maintaining these outreach programmes does however place a huge day to day demand on the Essex based team of 5 who are also responsible for all the associated fundraising to support the individual projects.
It was the result of a happy coincidence when the paths of the Wilderness Foundation and Alexandra Rose Charities (ARC) crossed – Paul, a taxi driver and Wilderness Foundation mentor was driving Margaret Stock, ARC National Director to a meeting when the casual conversation touched upon lines of business.
“I guess you could call it a great example of opportunistic social networking,” said Edward Charles a Project Manager for ‘Turn Around’ at the Wilderness Foundation. “We were aware of Alexandra Rose as a charity, but had not realised how it works to support other charities within its network. This was quite a revelation at the time and, as we learnt more, we were keen to further explore the opportunity of working together.”
As a result of the enthusiastic conversations that followed, The Wilderness Foundation worked to quickly become an ARC charity partner and has already reaped the benefits of doing so. In order to help boost fundraising efforts this year, the Wilderness Foundation team were one of the many charities that took part in the Rose Day Collections, launched officially each year by the UK Prime Minister buying the first rose in June.
Facing the common resourcing issues that a small and focused team has, the Wilderness Foundation was very grateful to ARC for taking away the typical administration demands that organising a street collection has.
“ARC not only took over the responsibility of securing the necessary licences and identification cards but the team also provided us with the collection tools. All we had to do was turn up on the right day, at the right place – it couldn’t have been easier,” added Charles. “As we’re based in Essex, most of our collections to that point had been in and around the Chelmsford area but this time our team of collectors had pride of place at Liverpool Street station, which was a tremendous location and one that we hadn’t considered targeting before. With friends and colleagues helping out we raised £330 on the day which we were delighted with.”
The money raised will now be driven directly into the Wilderness Foundation’s ‘Turn Around’ project which funds activity involving vulnerable teenagers aged 15 to 17 and who have suffered from an often violent or chaotic upbringing in Essex. “We work with great kids,” continued Charles, “but they lack the necessary social skills and are therefore tagged as underachievers or difficult to work with. All they need is a little personal support which we provide through activities that improve self esteem, promote the development of new skills, create team building opportunities and encourage communications.”
Specifically, the Liverpool Street Station collection will fund an allotment project on the Melbourne Estate in Chelmsford, where the youths will get involved in rebuilding, planting and harvesting their own crops in an ongoing project that will educate them on issues of climate change, environment and a healthier lifestyle.
“Working with ARC has been a very positive experience,” concluded Charles. “The team was well organised and extremely helpful which made life easier and let us get on with the day to day running of our programmes. We are already looking forward to our next combined collection day which will involve the young people we work with. To work with us as a team, to help themselves… now that is really something.”
For more information on the Wilderness Foundation please visit: http://www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk/