Act natural

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning for this activity

• Find a local nature reserve site to visit. It could be a nature charity site. There are lots to choose from. You could look at the RSPB, Canals and Rivers Trust, or Wildlife Trust. You could also get in touch with your local authority and ask for their help.
• This activity will cover at least three meetings. The first being the starting conversations, next being the first visit to plan the projects and the final being the volunteering. Make sure you agree this with your location, and send out the dates, timings and address to the parents or carers.

Getting ready to go

1. Hold a planning meeting at your normal meeting space, before you visit your local nature site.
2. Gather everyone in a circle. Have a discussion with everyone about the location you're going to.
3. Ask and chat about why conservation and environmental impact is important to the location.
4. Explain to everyone that they'll be visiting a location to plan a conservation volunteering project. It'll help you all to give back to the local area.
5. Chat about how you can prepare for the visit to the location. Is there anything everyone needs to bring with them? How should everyone prepare for the weather? You could have a go at the A change in the weather activity to help everyone prepare.
6. Ask everyone to get into small groups. Give each group some pens and paper.
7. Aske each group to think of some questions they should ask or think about when visiting the location to help them decide what their project should be. We've included some example questions at the bottom of this page.
8. When the groups are ready, come back together and ask each group to share some of their questions to everyone else.

Planning your project

1. Meet at your location.
2. The person leading the activity should remind everyone about how to stay safe. The location may have some additional rules. Everyone should listen carefully to any safety guidance they’re given during the trip.
3. Have a walk around the location as a group. Make sure each team has a copy of the questions they wanted to answer. They could find the answers themselves, or ask anyone who works or volunteers there.
4. Whilst you are walking around, have a think about your project. Is there something which has stood out to you that you'd like to work on? Or is there something that has already been started at the location that you'd like to help with?
5. When each team has decided on a project, write it down and start making a list of any equipment you might need to bring with you.
6. It could be a physical project, such as maintaining an area. It could be a promotional project, such as making posters to raise awareness, or it might be a creative project, such as making habitats or feeding devices.
7. After you've finished walking around the location, gather everyone together and share your project ideas.
8. As a group decide on which project you'd like to take part in and check with your location that this project is OK to do.
9. Depending on the needs of the group and the location you've visited, you might need to tailor your project so it works for everyone.

Make a difference

1. Start your project. Make sure you've all the equipment you need with you, remember to risk assess the project and stay safe, follow the location's safety guidelines, wear and use protective equipment, and have fun while doing it.
2. Once your project has been completed, tidy up all the equipment you've used and make sure you take any waste or rubbish with you.