Gaining experience at Heath Hands
While the main focus of our activities at Heath Hands is conserving our green spaces, and connecting people to nature, as part of our ‘Learning’ strategic aim, we also work to provide opportunities for people to build their skills and confidence in the outdoor sector here on Hampstead Heath.
One key cohort we have been working with in this way has been our youth volunteers. They recently completed their final session this term before the summer break and here is some of what they got out of volunteering with us:
‘I thought it was going to be the same every day, but it wasn’t and it helped me physically’
‘I learned how to identify plants’
‘I gained more confidence in talking to people. It has made me a bit less anxious’
‘I gained more confidence around nature - Ivy isn’t so bad!’
We look forward to seeing them (and new volunteers!) in September.
Youth volunteers working in our wild flower meadow…
… and helping out at our Heath Info Hut
Our adult volunteers also develop their skills and experience through our pogrammes. This can be through our conservation or gardening programmes, but also our public engagement and ‘volunteer session leader’ roles. We’re pleased that several of our former volunteers have found jobs in the outdoor sector, including working for Heath Hands and our partner organisations.
While volunteering can be a helpful stepping stone as part of this process, our paid work experience scheme provides opportunities for those who cannot afford to volunteer, or who might want to increase their experience and build their CV.
We’re proud to currently have two work experience trainees working for us, Phoebe, our Outreach Assistant and Robin, our Session Assistant. Phoebe has been building on her interest in working in the environmental sector, and her previous contribution as a Heath Hands conservation volunteer, by supporting our weekend public engagement activities, such as opening our Information Hut and our Dairy Nature Centre, as well as working with visiting youth, schools and community groups. Being able to predominantly work on weekends enables her to build her experience around family commitments, and she is gaining skills in group supervision and public engagement to build on her horticultural skills.
Robin started in July as our Session Assistant, to help support our practical work over the busy summer season and got stuck in to looking after our Savernake Bridge garden on his first day. Robin hopes to work as a wildlife ranger and is excited to be able to build his skills in a conservation charity, leading practical sessions and finding more about group management, health and safety and session delivery. We look forward to working with them both over the summer.
Phoebe
Robin
Busy on day one!
While most of our work is outdoors, lots of work goes on behind the scenes at Heath Hands, coordinating our volunteers, raising funds for our charity, organising events and activities and so on This year, we’re pleased to have been able to take on an office volunteer, Zahra, who is building her office skills and finding out more about running a small charity. She has been making a great contribution, helping with communicating with our partners, writing newsletters, compiling nature resources for the public, adding events to our website and more! She hopes to pivot away from working in retail to working in an office environment and we are pleased to be able to support her on this journey.
Our office volunteer Zahra
An important behind-the-scenes job - making sure all our volunteer sessions have tea supplies!
If you’re keen to start on your green space journey, do check out opportunities on our website. You can dip your toe with drop-in volunteering sessions, register as a regular conservation or garden volunteer, get involved in public engagement activities, build your knowledge by attending nature walks, build your supervision skills as a volunteer session leader and keep an eye out for our paid work experience opportunities!
A good way to keep abreast of all these opportunities is to subscribe to our community newsletter, as well as following us on social media.
