Young people creating a brighter future

We know that many young people care strongly about environmental issues. In this article, we share four ways that Our Bright Future (OBF), a £33 million National Lottery funded programme led by The Wildlife Trusts, successfully recognised and harnessed that passion.

After getting the right opportunities and support to get started, young people made real, practical improvements, from reducing CO₂ emissions and diverting waste from landfill to contributing to a greener economy. They developed conservation skills, built green businesses, and spoke to decision-makers about their desire to learn more about nature.

Where some had felt discouraged, or doubted that they could make a difference, the programme boosted their confidence and motivation to lead environmental change.

“Before I had a mentality of ‘power isn’t for people like me’ and I came out with a mentality of ‘I can build and be part of that future if I want’.” Project participant

Between 2016 to 2021, OBF ran 31 diverse environmental projects for 11-24 year olds across the UK. From beekeeping to farm maintenance, there was something for everyone.

For example, young people in Cornwall’s Your Shore Beach Rangers salvaged plastic from beaches, which they used to make jewellery.

Building Sustainable Communities in Swansea trained young people in environmentally friendly construction, using natural materials to create zero carbon buildings.

Meanwhile, Vision England ran residential trips where young people with vision impairment connected with nature through wildlife walks and conservation work.

And the Environmental Leadership Programme trained young people to take the lead on improving and maintaining natural spaces in their communities.

Though there was huge variety, a thread ran through all the work: supporting young people to develop their skills and wellbeing, and to act as catalysts for change.

More than 128,000 young people took part. They planted trees, created and maintained allotments and community gardens, and cleared and protected wetlands and woodlands.

Overall, they worked on eight miles of coastline and 400 hectares of land – an area almost the size of 1,000 football fields.

Their work made a real difference for the environment, saving an estimated 30,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions and diverting 1,343 tonnes of waste from landfill – roughly equivalent to the annual waste of over 3,000 households.

But OBF didn’t stop at practical improvements. It also encouraged young people to speak out and engage with decision-makers, aiming to influence change right from the top.

With support from OBF, young people visited the Scottish Youth Parliament and presented to Members of Parliament in Westminster. Young people in Northern Ireland met with the Minister for Education as part of their social media campaign #LearnMoreOutdoors, and Finn Jones from Wales was inspired to write to his local MP.

And 19 partner organisations, like Friends of the Earth and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, now have young trustees or youth governance structures, thereby amplifying youth voice in the environmental sector.

OBF achieved this by putting young people at the heart of environmental action, showing not just how they could make a difference individually, but also how they could mobilise others to have an even bigger impact.

Here are four lessons we learned about inspiring young people to join and lead environmental action.

1. Embrace and support different motivations

Young people join environmental activities for different reasons – they aren’t all immediately interested in the environment.

Many took part in OBF because of the other benefits it offered them - young people with special educational needs and disabilities were particularly motivated by chances to socialise. Young people of employment age were interested in gaining work experience and qualifications.

Some wanted to contribute, knowing their work could improve the lives of other young people. Young Green Academy participants redeveloped a neglected outdoor seating area at a local café run by disability charity Smile for Life. The charity now uses the space to serve customers, raise money and train young people with learning difficulties in hospitality.

Taking the time to learn about young people’s needs and interests made it more likely that they would stay engaged. For example, opportunities for young ex-offenders to learn bushcraft, fire-lighting or knife use in a safe and supervised environment allowed them to explore their interests productively.

And the programme created ongoing motivation and engagement with green issues. Even if it wasn’t their initial focus, 40% of young people said that OBF had influenced them to pursue a career in the environment.

2. Show how environmental work can jumpstart careers

The programme ended in the middle of Covid, at a time when many young people felt that their futures were “foggy” and uncertain. OBF helped young people explore different career options and get work experience.

Some developed a new interest in the area their project covered, others simply hadn’t been aware of the opportunities that were available.

For example, Rachel tried beekeeping for the first time as part of Liverpool’s BEE You project. She now teaches others as a qualified tutor and is developing her own business as a full-time beekeeper.

Others wanted to boost their employment chances with new qualifications. Over 37,000 young people took part in different environmental learning programmes, including 2,400 going onto obtain Duke of Edinburgh or John Muir awards.

“I applied and secured an internship with the RSPB, and a year later, secured a full-time job with Natural England. I would not have had the confidence or motivation to apply for either, without the renewed energy for environmental change that I got from UpRising.” Project participant​​​​​​​

3. To empower young leaders, support them properly

OBF wanted to see more young people leading environmental change, whether it was through running their own projects or steering existing work. But we learned that the journey to leadership is just as important as the destination.

“You can empower young people to be leaders,” one Youth Forum member explained, “but you need support and guidance to get there”. A demanding role without proper support risks setting young people up to fail.

Building relationships in an organisation makes young people feel more confident to go into governance roles. One young trustee explained, “it helped that I had already met the chair of trustees, and a couple of the other trustees, and so felt comfortable in talking to them”.

Plenty of information and training can also help. For example, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust put together an internal guidebook to support their young trustees. For organisations, OBF partners produced a best practice guide for youth governance structures.

Young leaders may need support to develop their ideas. Sometimes that means having open, honest conversations about how their ambitions could be realised.

“I think there can be an unrealistic expectation that youth-led means the young people have to come up with everything, rather than being inspired and then having support from others to consider how that might be taken forward.” Youth Forum member

All this support for new young leaders paid off. 81% left the programme feeling that they could make a difference in the environment, up from 37% beforehand.

4. Good for the planet, great for mental health

We know that mental health is a priority for many young people. The Covid pandemic was really challenging for many, but especially so for young people who were at the same time learning to manage the stresses and challenges of adolescence.

OBF showed that environmental action can be one of the many ways to support young people’s wellbeing. Of the 258 participants interviewed, 86% said taking part had a positive impact on their mental wellbeing, with one in four also reporting an improved ability to manage their feelings.

OBF helped many young people to thrive: some enjoyed learning about nature, while others just loved time away from the classroom, turning “young people with highest detention records” into hard working, passionate individuals who excelled at “fence building, wood work and maintenance”.

Many were motivated by tangible environmental outcomes, like creating a new green space or planting a row of trees, because it enabled them to see and celebrate their achievements. Developing new skills along the way was empowering, particularly when it was something participants may not have thought they could learn.

Loren’s time at Putting Down Roots for Young People made her realise that her organisation skills were a perfect fit for taking minutes at their weekly team meetings, and the project gave her “reasons to get out of bed and to keep going”. She went on to run sessions about youth voice and mental health, as well as writing an article about how youth voice can help mental health.

"I have become more confident, less anxious within groups and teams and have become so much more resilient knowing that I can do things I never thought I would have even had the opportunity to do." Project participant

Read more about how OBF supported young people to lead environmental action, but also to develop their own strengths, in the programme’s evaluation and learning reports.

Thanks to Cath Hare, The Wildlife Trusts.