Community People always encourage partnership working and collaboration. We encourage local groups and people to share ideas, resources, projects and events. We run a bi-annual Eco-Forum for all groups who are interested in the Climate and Nature Crisis – this could apply to any group or partner as we are all touched by this. All Community People events are listed here. If you want to talk to other groups about working together you will be able to find contact details for our member groups here. You can search through the list according to interest – you can refine your search to Environment and Conservation to find the network of grassroots organisations working hard across Sussex and beyond.
Here are some larger partners working across the area who you might like to connect with. If you are running a local event Weald to Waves can provide you with ‘Biobox’ on loan with everything you need to run a wildlife survey. Sussex Wildlife Trust may be able to support you by coming and looking at land to see how it could be improved for wildlife, and Sussex Green Living are keen to connect if you would like to put up a Pollination Education Station. And stay up to date with Sussex’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy. A great way to stay in touch with local events and is to sign up to the South Downs National Park Climate hub.
There are also charities working nationally on almost every type of environmental project you could think of. They often have resources that can be helpful for local projects too. For example, Hedgehog Street is a national campaign that you can tailor to your local town or village. Friends of the Earth provides a whole host of resources and training for local groups to help with local campaigning around Climate. If you want support to help develop your programme of Climate work and ways to engage local people you might want to use the Rural Climathon toolkit.
There are a whole host of Citizen Science programmes that local groups can promote to local people to help engagement and education around nature. There is also a huge amount of volunteering opportunities – from very light touch to in-depth, long term monitoring that wildlife enthusiasts might want to engage with. Everyone has their own particular interests, but easy ways to help the national picture of wildlife include:
There are a huge amount and variety of national and international days that groups can advertise and take part in. Here is a comprehensive list. Some are national campaigns that provide a platform for groups to increase who might hear about their event including the Big Green Week or the Climate Coalition’s Show the Love campaign.