Green Spaces Issue
Informal learning and pathways to
employment
Guidance Paper No.12
Green spaces are settings that can
purposefully offer a range of
opportunities to encourage and enable
informal learning leading to lifelong
interests, a return to education or
aspiration to work towards a career.
Interpretation and associated
activities
Lively interpretation can stimulate
new interests, especially if they are
designed to link into a range of
activities that build on the themes
raised. Interpretation can be seen as a
dynamic element of the space, not
necessarily a permanent expensive high
quality feature. During a visit to
Australia I came across nature reserves
in which there were numbered
weather-proof boxes for different areas,
with attractive cheaply produced
information sheets on plants, wildlife,
plant history or local history. A
facility like this allows you to change
interpretation themes, when appropriate
in consultation with community groups.
e.g. for Black History Month. It also
allows people to take something away. The
information sheet will work for you in
the community.
Ways forward
• Purposefully stimulate new
interests through dynamic interpretation
• Consult communities to
identify themes and work with them
• Link interpretation to
activities to develop interests
Guided walks, talks, training
Guided walks and talks directly
connects you with members of the
community. Work with local groups to
develop themes. As more people become
interested, get volunteers from different
communities trained up to do guided walks
and talks in different languages.
Organising a programme, media work,
photographing and documenting activities,
evaluating outcomes - there is a whole
raft of skills for which training can be
provided to build people's capacity to
contribute. There are funders
specifically interested in strengthening
communities and the voluntary sector. Be
integrational in your approach. Benefit
members of ethnic groups and other
disadvantaged groups alongside each
other.
Ways forward
• Research local community
groups who can work with you
• Train new volunteers
• Build the capacity of ethnic
groups to make a full contribution
Local knowledge and skills
Unlock the dormant knowledge and
skills with ethnic community groups. Many
groups hail from the countryside of their
countries of origin and come from
communities that use plants in everyday
life and for medicine. Many of them have
knowledge and practical skills in
cultivation and care of the natural
environment, which they can share with
the mainstream community.
Research local ecologists,
archaelogists or wildlife enthusiasts to
work with you. Walks and talks and take
people beyond your green space, but
create a deepened interest in what is
there in your space. Go to zoos, local
nature reserves, museums, or urban
studies centres.
Again, spot the bright sparks. We all
have an overwhelming workload. Once
people are interested, purposefully let
them take over and do the organising for
you!
Ways forward
• Unlock knowledge and skills
within ethnic communities
• Research other local people
and organisations that can work with you
• Consider a programme with
elements beyond your space
Volunteering
As you work with individuals and
community groups, let them know what it
is that you need help with. Volunteering
is still a formal sounding work. Closer
to the community it is basically about a
sense of the willingness and joy of
helping each other out. For example, see
your green space as a meeting place where
people can sit and talk
outdoors.pending... good weather! Isn't
it much nicer for a mother's group to be
able to sit on the grass or benches to
share information than in a meeting room?
You may make the effort of letting them
come in and make tea to take out. These
are the small actions that build up a
relationship and set the context for you
to ask them to do things for you.
Many members of ethnic communities do
not have the experienced of focussed
volunteering activities and there is a
need to introduce how these work.
Organisations such as BTCV or Groundwork
will be happy to work with you to
introduce what they do to the community
groups you are in touch with.
Ways forward
• Build up a give and take
relationship with the local community
• Work with others to increase
different forms of volunteering in and
beyond your space
Reward volunteers and involve local
organisations and businesses
Organise activities and events to
reward those who work with you. Thank
them and give them credit and status. The
Country Parks in Hong Kong give
volunteers who give substantial time
uniforms, badges, beautifully designed
T-shirts.
Get local businesses or organisations
to sponsor events, barbecues or picnics,
e.g. you local Wildlife Trust may wish to
use the occasion to get their messages
across. Get a local personality, your MP,
your local bank or business to present
certificates or badges. They want to
build relationships with the local
communities too.
Ways forward
• Engage local businesses,
organisation, politicians and
personalities
• Give concrete recognition to
work done and knowledge and skills gained
Linking into community education
and lifelong learning
Lifelong learning and community
education is a priority at the moment.
Research local institutes and see if some
of your activities will bring them new
students for evening classes or other
courses. Inform your community on your
community information board.
Local educational institutes may be
interested in linking into your
activities and the community groups you
are working with in order to expand what
they have to offer to their students.
Hammersmith and West London College was
so inspired by the range of environmental
activities undertaken by ethnic
communities that it decided to stimulate
activities within the college around
sustainability. The real life experience
alongside academic activity put their
students into a different league. The
rate of acceptance into further education
and university was so significantly
enhanced that they have now put into
place a full time co-ordinator for this
aspect of student life.
Ways forward
• Link with local educational
institutions
Opening up opportunities for
employment
Ethnic communities are known to go
into a relatively narrow band of
employment. The lack of role models
within small communities and the
subsequent lack of knowledge of the wide
range of careers available means that
often, environmental careers are not on
their agenda.
At the moment there is a real lack of
gardening and horticultural skills within
the green space sector. Make this and
other employment opportunities known.
Allow interested youngsters to shadow
your employees. Refer people to other
organisations that are willing to do the
same.
Any emerging interest in knowledge and
skills is a basis for a return to
education and the consideration of a
range of employment. It may start from
the work you do in your green space and
end up anywhere. Opening out
opportunities is about not having a
narrow view.
Ways forward
• Introduce the employment
opportunities available
• Be explicit about how the
activities you run link into employment
possibilities
• Work with local educational
institutions to promote knowledge about
educational opportunities and the
qualifications needed for particular jobs
• Offer experiences such as
job shadowing
Download
Guidance Paper 12
Green Spaces |
Features
|
