What is the Blue Influencers scheme?
The Blue Influencers Scheme is a ground-breaking project from UK outdoor education charity The Ernest Cook Trust and the #iwill fund. The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £66 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. The Ernest Cook Trust is acting as a match funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.
Facilitated by 22 ‘Blue Mentors’ hosted by 22 ‘Host’ organisations, the project’s ambition is to engage more than 4,000 young people as Blue Influencers over the next three years, as well as over 15,000 community members across England. We will help support young people aged 10 – 20 from diverse backgrounds and those living in deprived coastal, estuary and riverside locations, by empowering them to tackle environmental and climate issues.
What is a Blue Mentor?
The role of the Blue Mentor is to recruit young people to become Blue Influencers. These young people, with the support of their Blue Mentor, will create and run social action schemes to improve the environment of their schools, neighbourhoods, and communities.
The Blue mentor will guide them through each stage. Beginning with art, games, storytelling, theatre, and discussion we will explore our relationships with blue space; do we feel safe? welcome? excited? Without a childhood spent swimming, skimming, sliding, splashing, paddling, plunging, pond gazing, rafting and rock pooling, this might not be true.
We therefore will address any common themes which surface, prompting nature walks in our local blue space, spotting and identifying various wetland, freshwater, and marine flora and fauna, and perhaps watching a little ‘blue planet’ for good measure. From here, we will springboard our inquiry into what we can do to protect these species which are home in our precious blue.
Who is our Blue Mentor?
“I’m Jack, I am thrilled to be working with under-served young people to facilitate their inspired creation of conservation projects for their local blue spaces.
I grew up in Somerset, with a youth rich in river and rockpool critter hunting and snorkelled inspections of seabed scenery. I now love to wild swim, surf, and go sea-cliff climbing.
I studied Biology in Manchester and Cardiff, helping with my local youth group when I wasn’t inspecting horse poo. Youthwork is great. To see shifts in how a young person perceives the world, and help foster lifelong attitudes of care, connection and openness continually reaffirms I am on the right path.”
Why are we running this project?
The mission of the Blue influencers Scheme is to assist young people to create deep, lasting, and meaningful connections with their natural environment. There is a particular need to engage young people from a range of backgrounds to encourage greater and more diverse connection with where they live. Three facts are key drivers of this project:
- Communities from river, coastal, and estuarine communities suffer the greatest effects of climate change (flooding, coastal erosion, loss of fishing industry etc.)
- Blue spaces have the largest positive impact on our mental and physical wellbeing out of all our natural spaces.
- Young people feel most disconnected to nature when they leave primary education and enter secondary.
Considering the importance of the youth voice, we must impassion and empower them at this crucial stage, on this critical issue.
“Young people are often the most passionate about the environment and are very aware of the issues we face with climate change. The Blue Influencers Scheme will give them the funding, platform, and tools they need to make positive changes to benefit their entire community”. -Ed Ikin. Chief Executive of The Ernest Cook Trust
What will the Blue influencers gain?
- Budget management skills (financial literacy)
- Project delivery skills and engagement techniques,
- Specific conservation knowledge and practical skills,
- An acute sense of community and the power it holds,
- Profound social connections from shared experience and goal getting.
- Volunteering hours (e.g., for DofE)
- Enhanced employability prospects
Most of all, they will find and nurture their voice, and learn that it is their most powerful tool.
We encourage them to dream big and not think any project too ambitious. Young people have lots of amazing ideas, and we want them to see and understand that these ideas can come true if you believe and work hard.
How does the Project work?
- The Blue Mentor visits the school, youth, or community group to run extra-curricular sessions, helping young people develop skills and lead an environmental or community project of their own design.
- Sessions can fit around the group’s timetable and can be part of an existing club or a newly set-up group; we just ask that a member of staff is present.
- This is fully funded, so there is no cost to the group. Rather, £360 is immediately available for every group. In fact, we help the group to apply for and secure further funding to deliver their project idea.
Up to £5000 funding is available per project and is allocated and approved by the scheme’s Youth Advisory Board, itself comprised of young people aged 14-21.
What kind of projects?
The beauty of the Blue influencers scheme is the creative license afforded to everyone involved. If a reasonable idea is conceived and agreed upon, we will do everything to bring it to life. Here are a few ideas but remember! Ideas of all shapes and colours, quite different to these, will be welcome and encouraged.
- Designing, landscaping, and planting a wildlife pond
- Assembling a pop-up shop/stall selling art created from plastic pollution.
- Writing an awareness raising newspaper (anyone for a ‘Blue influencer’ hot off the press?!)
- Seagrass planting and check-ups – part of the ‘Blue carbon’ initiative
- Wetland restoration: planting trees and hard landscaping, returning straightened streams to their natural curves and meanders.
- Making a well-placed bench in a blue space and painting it with cautionary/celebratory conservation facts & images.
- Biodiversity surveying and reporting on a local river or stream: any signs of otters, water-voles, or great crested newts?
- Making a film, dance, or piece of theatre or music to broadcast a message.
The preceding green influencer scheme even saw the construction of an eco-classroom big enough for 20 students, constructed largely from eco-bricks (plastic bottles filled with soft plastic waste).
We encourage our young people to truly believe that the sky is the limit with their projects; if £5000 isn’t enough, let’s find more through crowdfunding! If they need more volunteers, let’s find more from their community! If they feel like their point isn’t being heard, let’s shout louder!
What happens after?
Following their project, the blue influencer groups will be self-sufficient to maintain momentum and, should they wish, continue advocating for and protecting their local blue spaces without their mentor. Their fresh skills in raising awareness, funding, and action may be put to good use for years to come.
If the project was a success, then why not keep developing and growing the idea? Who knows what enterprising endeavours might start right here, right now.
The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £66 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. The Ernest Cook Trust is acting as a match funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund
We are looking for schools and youth groups to sign up to the scheme.
