About Rewilding Youth.

Rewilding Youth is a Community Interest Company working in Kingston Upon Hull

and the coastal towns of the East Riding of Yorkshire in the UK north, whose mission

is to facilitate transformative nature connection activities, wild adventures, wild

therapy and local environmental activism opportunities for young people living in

disadvantaged urban communities.

Rewilding Youth was set up towards the end of 2021 as the world emerged blinking

and vulnerable from the effects of being confined during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Young people’s ever decreasing exposure to the outdoors was clearly presenting

itself through depression, social isolation, loneliness and a lack of decision making

and problem solving skills, all areas which we know we can tackle through

encouraging young people to spend more time outside connecting with the natural

spaces around them.

The writer Richard Louv (2016) coined the expression “nature

deficit disorder” to name the disconnect from nature that is affecting young people so

deeply, and it is this disconnect that Rewilding Youth aimed to tackle and repair.

This disconnect is clearly evident in Hull where there are many areas of widespread

socio-economic deprivation, often compounded by a lack of access to outdoor

space. Hull is also one of the least wooded spaces in the UK.

Together, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Kingston upon Hull area has only approximately 2.6% woodland cover: significantly less than the national average of approximately 8.4%

(Heywoods, 2021). Because of this, young people who live in Hull have much less

opportunity to engage freely with ‘wild’ spaces such as woods, forests, ponds, lakes,

beaches and grasslands. This is often due to lack of access to these spaces and

also a lack of awareness of the opportunities provided by some of the wild spaces

that do exist on these young people’s doorsteps. Wild outdoor spaces in Hull are

often victim to fly tipping, drug-use and illicit activity and as such, can be seen as

dangerous, forbidden environments that children and young people are taught to

avoid from an early age and this is a perception that we aim, through our work, to

dispel.

Our project engages young people in activities which will connect them with nature

and the natural environment. We have a small, dedicated team of outdoor educators

and youth workers who are all passionate about facilitating opportunities for young

people to get outside and connect with the natural world around them. We do this

through running outdoor activities, workshops, programmes and projects which

interweave youth work, bushcraft, conservation, tree-planting, earth building, green

woodwork, traditional ‘natural’ crafts and environmental action all serving to connect

young people with the local ‘wild’ landscapes/wildscapes.

We do not negate the benefits of taking young people out of Hull to experience other

landscapes such as the Lake District, Peak District and the wilds of Scotland but we

are primarily committed to creating the opportunities for young people to connect to

the pockets and spaces of nature around them rather than to feel that they have to

travel to experience nature connection. It is this feeling of connection, to be a part of

their own urban ‘wildscapes’, that we feel really can effect change in the attitude,

behaviours and motivation of young people to be an active part of the decision

making and positive action needed to improve and preserve the natural spaces

surrounding where they live and ultimately the world around them.