We believe in a world where people are connected to nature with all finding a sense of belonging and freedom in wild places. Our dream is that we are led by those with lived experience of exclusion so together we can overcome barriers to people connecting with nature and allow more people to gain the health and wellbeing benefits of nature. We want to ensure we are representative of those we serve and restructure the orgnaisation so that our governance and operations reflect those who engage with our service. Our plan is to develop a strategy that allows us to achieve our vision, train staff/volunteers and develop policies and procedures that makes us inclusive and allows us to target the hardest to reach groups. We intend to work with other organisations that have the experience of being lived experience led and want to become part of the solution to mental health and wellbeing challenges in the north east by developing an offer that allows all to benefit from nature connection.

What we'll deliver:

• Develop a complete strategy and roadmap for inclusion, including roles, timeframes and costs
• Train all 40 staff and volunteers in inclusion and representation
• Develop targets for those with lived experience at the governance and operational levels

Why it's a great idea:

We want to reach those with the least access and this means being representative of those we serve. Our work has begun on inclusion but we want to embed it at the core of everything that we do as our mission has always been (since 2017) so that all can belong in wild places. We can only achieve this vision by building capacity in the organisation at all levels and then actioning this work by developing a plan for inclusion that allows us to embed lived experience at all levels of the organisation. Inclusion is a broad theme and we want to ensure we fully understand what this means to us and our stakeholders by developing training and resources to set us on the journey. It will not always be easy or comfortable but to make an impact on the lives of those with the least access to nature we need to be innovative and think differently, being willing to share power and allow those with lived experience to take the lead.

Steps to get it done:

• Creation of an inclusion and representation strategy
• All staff and volunteers trained in inclusion
• Development of policies and procedures
• Completion of Job descriptions and road map for inclusivity

Improve nature connectedness and the value communities place on natural capital assets