Some of the projects delivered by members of our team
Current Projects:
Working with Young Devon, we are delivering a six-week programme for young people from the Empowering Enterprise programme to deliver a youth-led project around sustainability and enterprise.
Our current group has chosen to deliver a project on waste awareness and are creating a range of Christmas decorations from waste and recycling materials. The public display of these decorations will be used to raise awareness of waste, littering and recycling.
Supported by funding from Devon Mammal Group, Wild Ideas is recruiting households across the area to take on a week’s survey. This will involve placing a tunnel in a fairly secure (from human tampering) space and load with cat/dog food each evening and check and replace the track paper. More…
Bat Walk Leaders
Design, marketing, facilitation and evaluation of a training programme to skill communities to lead bat walks, raising public awareness of these amazing protected species.
Delivered for Back from the Brink, Torbay Green Spaces, Paignton Zoo, Devon Wildlife Trust and The Mare and Foal Sanctuary, we have supported over 40 members of the community to develop skills to discover and monitor the species of bats across Torbay.
Our sessions will be running again from May. Check out our Events and Training page and book your place on this popular training session.
Past Projects:
Dulux Let’s Colour, Okehampton
A community art project delivered with funding from Dulux. Debs worked with partners in the local community to design and create a stunning mural here in the beautiful gateway to Dartmoor. This mural was painted on a gable end in Okehampton, Dartmoor, using 70 litres of paint donated by Dulux, as part of the the Let’s Colour community project.
Consultation and Evaluation
During her long career in the voluntary sector, Debs has carried out a range of consultation and evaluation work. You can see some of them, here.
Clennon Lakes
Situated in the Goodrington area of Paignton, Clennon Lakes is a Local Wildlife Site, which has been host to countless species of wildfowl, diptera, mammals and reptiles. It has also provided a number of rare bird species, over the years.
Debs worked with the Friends group at Clennon Lakes to:
* Fund and oversee the development of access on site, including pathways, viewing screens and interpretation boards. £10,0000 was raised through Debs’ funding bid to pay for goods and labour.
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* Carry out silt sampling and water quality testing to inform the Environmental Impact Assessment (EAI) for a larger desilting project
* Facilitate a BioBlitz to support members of the community to engage with and record species on site. The BioBlitz records are available on request.
PURIST Natural Beauty Ltd
Purist Natural Beauty:
Jackie identified, developed and managed the start-up social enterprise offering training and employment opportunities to long term unemployed via a natural soap and beauty product company.
Developing work with communities
Both Debs and Jackie have successfully developed, funded and delivered community development programmes within South West communities (including ERDF and Big Lottery Funded).
These projects supported residents to identify their needs and issues to bring about improvements; build capacity and develop effective partnerships.
The work included formation of action groups, governance, policy & procedure creation, fundraising, development and delivery of a range of community projects: green space/natural heritage, youth projects and play projects.
Friends of Warberry Copse
Community engagement (in partnership with Torbay Community Development Trust’s local Community Builder) and project development and management for the forming of, and a programme of support for, The Friends of Warberry Copse to carry out improvements to the local woodland site.
£15,000 secured to achieve the local community’s vision for this important local woodland area.
Following intensive litter picks, the site’s pathways were repaired and improved, with extra handrails.
An education area was created and interpretation for site designed for visitors and local community.
HLF Projects
BIG Lottery Community Spaces Facilitator: successfully facilitated over 20 community spaces projects across South West. Including grant applications, match funding generation, partnership development and project delivery.
Kingskerswell Slowworm Translocation project
Reptile survey, Phase 1 Habitat Survey and Preliminary Ecological Assessment for site identified for Slowworm translocation project and wildlife site.
Debs delivered habitat management plans for site to ensure the ongoing suitability for a range of co-existing species and the success of site flora.
Torbay Nature Networks
Design, funding and management of the Torbay Nature Networks project.
Working with local communities to increase habitat for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Provision of seed packs to local households and mapping of pledges.
Sharing the ❤
And, alongside all of this, we find the time to be friends with all of our local community members
