A YORK school has secured £5,000 funding for a new outdoor classroom thanks to work with the 'Green Heart of York'.
Danesgate School in the city has received the funding thanks to a grant from educational charity, The Ernest Cook Trust, through the trust’s Green Influencers Project Grant.
The team from St Nicks Environment Centre in York, known as the 'Green Heart of York' have been running a Green Influencers Scheme with Danesgate - and have worked with students at the school, mentoring them to create environmental projects, as well as improving their connection to nature.
The money will be used to improve the 2.2 acre wildlife area next to Danesgate, including building an outdoor classroom structure to provide shelter all year round.
Danesgate already has existing links with local community groups and schools across York and this wildlife area will also be accessed by them to provide a wider community benefit.
Freya Lovett, green mentor at St Nicks, has been recruiting and supporting the green influencers at the school.
Freya said: "It is really exciting working with young people to improve their connection to nature through organising environmental projects and seeing how they have benefited from this.
"Danesgate have been really enthusiastic about continuing to share these benefits as wide as possible into the local community and ensuring as many people as possible have access to nature."
Under its Green Influencers Scheme, The Ernest Cook Trust is helping 36 host organisations to fund the employment of 44 green mentors.
The role of each green mentor role is to enable young people to lead the way as green influencers on environmental social action projects - and the aim is to recruit 5,000 across the country.
The scheme is match-funded through the 'Iwill Fund' - a £66 million joint investment between The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to support young people to access high-quality social action opportunities.
So far, around more than 70 Green Influencers Project Grants, each in in the region of £5,000, have been awarded to host organisations across the country.
The Ernest Cook Trust’s chief executive, Dr Victoria Edwards OBE, said: "The Green Influencers Scheme is having a big impact across the country and the additional grants of around £5,000 for specific projects are helping to underpin the excellent work being done by our green mentors and the green influencers.
"These young people really are making a difference in their communities."
The team at St Nick’s in York aim to educate the public, volunteers and young people on environmental and conservation issues and sustainability, including recycling and waste reduction.
St Nicks also provides nature-connectedness programmes to improve mental health and wellbeing, as well as energy advice.
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