As the summer draws to a close and schools gear up for the new academic year, we wanted to highlight the activities and the ways in which young people can get involved with Heath Hands on Hampstead Heath.
Over the past few years, Heath Hands has been working hard to increase opportunities for children and young people to connect to nature on our green spaces.
Contact with nature is proven to be beneficial for mental and physical health and research shows that young people, particularly from urban areas, are increasingly disconnected from nature, with the term ‘nature deficit disorder’ being coined to highlight the problem.
The starting point for our youth programmes has been our regular weekend ‘Wild about Hampstead Heath’ volunteer-led wildlife interpretation sessions, which are open to all, young and old, but particularly popular with children!
We have increased our work with local schools over the past couple of years and now have over 20 Heath Friendly Schools, who in 2023-24 brought more than 1,000 young people to the Heath to volunteer, discover nature, learn about habitats and support our work.
Our thanks go to the students from UCS and the Village School for their fundraising efforts earlier this year, jointly raising over £2,000 to support our conservation efforts on the Heath, and to all the young people from our local schools who have worked hard on hedgerow conservation, meadow creation, wildlife-friendly gardening, litter-picking and more.
Seeing the next generation get involved in conservation work is extremely rewarding for our team.
In 2024-25, we’re pleased to be continuing our fantastic partnership with Swiss Cottage School, welcoming young people with special educational needs for weekly sessions on the Heath, where they learn gardening and practical skills and build their confidence navigating open spaces in their local area in the future.
The City of London Learning Team also runs a schools programme on the Heath – for more information on how to book a visit, head over to their website.
Beyond school, we also have opportunities for children and young people to get involved on the weekend: our regular Saturday youth volunteering sessions will be restarting on September 21. These are open to any young person aged 13 to 17 who would like to get involved in conservation work.
More information on all our youth programmes can be found on: heath-hands.org.uk/youth - and for those who want to get involved on a more ad hoc basis, do check out our ‘what’s on’ page for our nature walks and drop-in volunteering opportunities for all ages.
- Karin Oleinikova is programme manager for Heath Hands.
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