Environmental charity Hubbub has today (August 8) launched its first ever ‘Community Nature Network’ to help community-led green spaces thrive and bring nature closer to people and people closer to nature.
The Community Nature Network, supported by funding from the Wates Family Enterprise Trust and the Bentley Environmental Foundation, will offer funding opportunities, free resources, guidance and peer to peer support to community groups who wish to establish new green spaces or improve existing ones. The network is free to join from today and is open to any publicly-accessible community-led green space.
The announcement comes as research shows that engaging with nature projects not only has health and social benefits but can also be a catalyst for individual environmental action. A recent study by Chrysalis Research revealed a clear link between participation in community-based nature projects and the adoption of more environmentally friendly behaviours in general.
Gavin Ellis, Co-founder at Hubbub said: “We’re on a mission to bring people closer to nature and nature closer to people. Research shows that spending time in nature not only improves our health, wellbeing and social connectedness, but that engaging with nature projects and community gardening initiatives also encourages people to make more environmentally friendly lifestyle choices overall.
“The ‘Community Nature Network’ aims to connect the dots to give like-minded community groups the resources and guidance they need to be able to respond to and fulfil local environmental and social needs. It will also allow them to share their success stories and how they’ve overcome barriers. The incredible people involved in setting up and running these kinds of initiatives often lack funding, time and headspace. We want to help shine a light on the amazing work they do and build a supportive and effective network to allow these projects to really thrive and flourish.”
