MEET THE TEAM
Dr Charlotte Dean - Programme Director
​
Charlotte is a JNC professionally qualified youth worker. She is also a qualified teacher, assessor and internal/external quality assurer with almost 30 years experience in working with young people who are disadvantaged or disengaged and who may have had little opportunity to spend time outdoors in the natural world. Charlotte specialises in utilising wild therapy techniques and nature-based arts activities to connect and engage young people with the wild spaces around them.
Charlotte's previous role before setting up Rewilding Youth was as a university lecturer and researcher specialising in environmental and transformative education. Her research focused on engaging marginalised and disadvantaged young people in environmentally focused issues using participatory action research methods. She is really interested in exploring how spending time outdoors has an impact on young people's mental and physical health and well-being. Charlotte is also really keen to find out whether engaging young people in human rewilding processes, particularly those who are disadvantaged or disengaged and whose voices have been less likely to be heard, has an impact on their social, political and environmental agency.
​
Charlotte has worked in many educational settings including schools, colleges, youth projects and universities and her doctoral thesis explored alternative ways of educating young people, particularly those who find the mainstream schooling system difficult to engage with. She found that nature-based education, founded on the principles of self-direction, freedom, creativity and exploration was a direction that she herself wanted to develop further through Rewilding Youth.
​
Contact: Charlotte@rewildingyouth.co.uk
​
Colin Phillips - Youth Environment Education Worker
​
Colin began his journey into nature-based education through training and teaching bushcraft skills on the East Coast of Yorkshire. Working with families to provide hands-on land-based experiences sparked a deep passion for this kind of learning. Since then, he has dedicated himself to understanding how to better connect young people with the natural world — and, through that, with themselves.
​
Colin believes that experiential learning is one of the most powerful ways to support this connection.
"When children and young people are given the freedom to explore, follow their own interests, and take ownership of their experiences, nature becomes not just a place to learn, but a space to grow. Green and blue spaces offer an infinite array of discoveries — not just about the world around them, but about who they are within it."
​
Colin's approach is informed by academic theory but always grounded in hands-on, real-world practice.
"I’m especially interested in moving away from more traditional models of environmental education. Rather than focusing solely on facts or behaviour change, I aim to provide young people with the space to build a personal, meaningful relationship with the natural world — on their own terms. In this work, I see myself less as a teacher and more as a guide, creating opportunities for connection rather than directing outcomes."
​
"While many of the most beautiful and powerful interactions with nature are hard to measure, I’m deeply interested in the long-term impact these experiences can have. Both contact and connection with the natural world are vital — not just for understanding ecosystems, but for fostering wellbeing, identity, and belonging."
​
Colin is also passionate about supporting other educators to feel confident in providing these kinds of opportunities. "By sharing ideas and approaches, I hope to help others create inclusive, open-ended experiences where all young people can feel at home in nature."
​
Stay wild!
​
Contact: Colin@rewildingyouth.co.uk
​
​
​
​
​
​
Neill Reade - Youth Environment Education Worker
​
Neill is passionate about the outdoors and knows the many benefits spending time outdoors can bring to young people.
A qualified Mountain Leader, Neill has worked with, and supported many organisations and charities to provide various outdoor activities for people with mental health issues, as well as being a volunteer warden on Yr Wydffa (Snowdon). These positions enable Neill to work as part of a team caring for people on the activities, or hiking, as well as fostering care for the local environment. Neill has participated in tree planting in the local area, as well as path maintenance in the Lake District and Snowdonia. Always carrying a bag to collect other people’s litter and always with a smile on his face!
Neill joined the team after moving from formal teaching at East Riding College to help us deliver our National Citizenship Service programme which worked with young people disengaged from mainstream education and aimed to reconnect them with their chosen life path. Neill has a passion for the outdoors and when not at work, participates in outdoor activities such as mountain biking, climbing, paddleboarding, long distance hiking and wild camping.
Neill has a Certificate of Higher Education which included modules on childhood studies, working with young people, and an introduction to child psychology. He then went on to complete the Certificate of Education. His role at Rewilding Youth involves the design and delivery of our nature connection and wellbeing qualifications.
He is very keen to use all of his experience to deliver outdoor activities which will support young people in various ways such as building confidence and self esteem, as well as guiding them onto a positive outcome, using nature and the outdoors to inspire young people.
​
Contact: Neill@rewildingyouth.co.uk
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Jaz Hancox - Youth Environment Education Worker
Jaz has a degree in Primary Teaching Studies and is currently studying for a Masters in Education. She also holds a TEFL qualification and has extensive experience working with young people in a variety of settings, including coaching football teams, leading youth bands, and supporting children and young people with SEND.
Jaz is extremely passionate about helping and encouraging children to thrive and find the right path for them, supporting them to become the best version of themselves. She follows the belief that not every child can thrive within the four walls of a classroom and that education extends far beyond academic achievement — it is about educating the whole child and supporting mental health and wellbeing. She believes the outdoors offers unique opportunities for young people to build confidence, resilience, self-belief, and self-esteem, as well as encouraging them to try new things and explore their potential through hands-on, experiential learning.
Jaz recently joined the Rewilding Youth team after completing her university placement here during the summer of 2024. She now runs the Wild Child, Wild School, and Wild College sessions, where she focuses on connecting young people with nature through natural crafts, woodwork, campfire cooking, and other outdoor activities. She is particularly passionate about helping children develop everyday life skills, encouraging independence, and fostering a strong sense of care and respect for the environment.
Outside of work, Jaz loves spending time outdoors and exploring nature, and she has a huge love for wildlife. She enjoys woodwork and sport, and her main creative outlet is music — she is a musician in a band and enjoys songwriting. Most importantly, she enjoys spending time with her family, whether at home or out in nature.
Jaz is committed to inspiring young people to explore, play, and use their imagination in the natural world. She believes these experiences are essential for growth, wellbeing, and self-discovery, and she aims to create opportunities where every young person can feel supported, empowered, and excited to engage with the outdoors and their learning.
​
​
Contact: Jaz@rewildingyouth.co.uk
Les Moss - Programme Manager
​
Les is a JNC professionally qualified youth worker with a degree in Youth and Community Studies. He is also a qualified Level 3 Forest School Leader and accredited ASDAN assessor. Before working at Rewilding Youth, he was a Youth Work Practitioner in Hull for over 10 years. He graduated from university in 2015 after completing his Youth and Community Work Practice degree.
Les' background was originally in sports development and he was responsible for coaching a number of youth rugby league teams as well as delivering the first Street Games and Doorstep Sports across the city of Hull to a wide range of different groups of young people from 2002 onwards.
Since 2011 Les was the lead Youth Worker and alternative education worker at Longhill Link Up Trust on Longhill Estate in Hull and then at Child Dynamix until 2016 when he moved into the Lead Youth Worker role in a 5 year National Lottery funded project called Youth In Nature which engaged hard to reach, marginalised and isolated young people in activities that focused on the environment, wildlife and conservation.
It was during this period that he realised the power that working with young people in the natural world had on their mental and physical health and wellbeing. He then worked to gain his Level 3 Forest School Practitioner qualification as well as gaining new skills in foraging, bushcraft and green wood work.
​
Les is committed to providing inspirational outdoor activities and educational opportunities for young people, especially those young people who may not normally access the outdoors due to living in an urban environment.
​
Contact: Les@rewildingyouth.co.uk
​
​
Ruby East - Youth Environment Education Worker
​
Ruby cultivated her love for the outdoors through her ‘Wild Child’ spirit in a childhood spent outdoors and decided to pursue this calling after participating in a Wild Rite of Passage experience on Dartmoor, Devon when she was just 16. She now continues to extend and deepen this work at Rewilding Youth as a young adult. She has a passion for working with young people and is committed to developing and delivering projects which connect and invest young people and surrounding communities in the natural world.
Ruby began her work with Rewilding Youth as a volunteer whilst finishing her college education, she then joined the team in the summer of 2023 as a Trainee Outdoor Educator and is now employed full time through the National Lottery Climate Action Fund as a Youth Environment Education Worker. During this time, she has delivered, in partnership, many successful projects and transformative work.
Her passion lies in developing and setting up projects which will provide young people, who otherwise don't have the chance, to connect and spend time in the wild.
She is also learning the art of funding bid writing and also working towards putting together a Rewilding Youth Blog, writing articles and finding ways of sharing the importance of outdoor connection with people. Another of her roles is working in partnership with our Youth Researchers on our Ideas Fund Research project as a Youth Environment Activist.
She is currently doing a year long course in Devon, with a focus on outdoor leadership (Call Of The Wild 2024 - WildWise) in which she is exploring the different pathways to nature connection in hopes to bring this knowledge back to share with Rewilding Youth and the people of Hull.
​
​
Contact: Ruby@rewildingyouth.co.uk
​
​
​
​
​
​
Graham Johnson - Natural Builder, Craftsman & Educator
​
Graham is a hands-on natural builder and craft educator with a deep commitment to sustainability and traditional skills. He completed a year-long Practical Sustainability course with Shift Bristol, covering natural building, forestry, food growing, and low-impact living. Since then, he’s been involved in building several roundhouses using reciprocal roofs and traditional techniques, and took specialist training in A-frame timber construction using traditional joints with the Dangstein Conservancy in Surrey.
Graham’s practical experience includes working on a Grand Designs house, as well as on the grounds of Ben Law’s iconic woodland home in Prickly Nut Wood. He has also contributed to community and public art through large-scale willow sculptures at Normanby Hall Country Park near Scunthorpe. He regularly runs green woodworking sessions—making and using shave horses, building pole lathes, and leading willow weaving classes for individuals and groups.
Passionate about inspiring others, especially young people, Graham runs workshops that reconnect people with hand skills and the natural world. He brings a blend of deep practical experience, traditional knowledge, and a warm, down-to-earth teaching style to every project.
​
Contact: Graham@rewildingyouth.co.uk
Ben Harris -​ Research and Project Development Coordinator
My role began as a youth researcher, employed through The Ideas Fund to explore the barriers that prevent young people from forming meaningful connections with the natural world, work that led to a research film, the creation of a Youth Participatory Action Research Toolkit, a Rewilding Research report and an academic paper now accepted for publication.
​
Since then, my role has grown into developing nature-based projects with schools, bringing Rewilding Youth sessions into schools, and creating outdoor education spaces. I also work on the Rewilding Youth Collective, a group aimed at empowering young people in Hull to take climate action and have their voices heard in shaping a more hopeful, sustainable future. I am an active member of the YPIP (Yorkshire Policy Innovation Partnership) Community Panel –a diverse mix of community representatives exploring collaboration which is inclusive of all and enables the voice of underrepresented groups to be heard in decisions which affect them.
I am also responsible for the coordination of the youth-led Youth Environment Conference which we run each year in Hull as a vehicle for amplifying the voices of young people in relation to their environmental concerns and campaigns.
​
​
Contact: Ben@rewildingyouth.co.uk
Jon Pearson - Youth Environment Education Worker and Postcode Gardener
​
Jon was initially employed through Friends of the Earth and Cooperative Bank funding to deliver our Postcode Gardener project based in Bransholme, Hull. In 2025 he was recognised for his fabulous work at the Astra Youth Centre in Bransholme when he was awarded the Earthmovers Award at the
Friends of the Earth’s Yorkshire Summer
​
Jon also works with young people through our Rewilding Schools Programme where he delivers weekly nature connection and wellbeing sessions for young people who are at risk of becoming disengaged from school.
He is also currently working with Hull Sisters, a local group that supports women facing violence, abuse, discrimination, oppression and poverty related issues through supporting them to convert an unused space into a thriving vegetable and fruit garden. He also works with many groups across the city planning workshops, community health events and planter installations.
​
Jon is a talented and creative chef and has transformed our food offer through whipping up fantastic wild food feasts from plant-based, foraged and fermented ingredients, all cooked over open fire, to share with the young people and communities we work with.
​
When he is not working outdoors, Jon is a whizz with a spreadsheet and manages the ordering, forecasting and accounts for our Humber Forest tree-planting programme. He is part of our tree planting team who were last year responsible for planting over 30,000 trees across Hull, North Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Jon says: "Gardening to me is an escape into another world...it brings everyone together with what's around us."
​
​​Contact: Jon@rewildingyouth.co.uk