Director, Toni Pettitt, was fortunate to help co-direct a pivotal river reconnection project through Nature Resource’s Wales Resilient Community Fund. The project consisted of monthly community events that celebrated our local River Teme through arts, traditional crafts, educational talks, family sessions and school sessions. We held refular litter picks, and also bought together a volunteer group of citizen scientists who have been critical in river bacteria and phosphate/nitrate testing as part of the new nationwide CaTSCO project. The legacy of the project has been extensive, drawing people in Knighton back to the blue space that runs parallel to the town, tapping into those memories of the river ‘once was’ - and can be again. It is a project about positivity: We believe that is what drives positive change.

Head to www.celebratingtheteme.co.uk for more information.

A huge thank you to an incredibly warm and wonderful community for inviting us to deliver sessions at what has to be one of the most specatcularly beautiful sites to work at! And what a successful trial year it has been for these sessions, where a strong and regular group of children and their parents have come to join us on the hill for a couple of hours each month (it speaks volumes when the adults want to linger-on and hang-out with us for the session too!) We were fortunate to offer out some extremely affordable summer holiday sessions too, ensuring that a hot campfire lunch was provided for every child too - our part in helping out local families at a time when food prices are soaring and every little counts.

A big thank you to Shropshire Hills AONB for supporting and funding our ‘Into The Woods’ holiday club, that ensured our sessions remained accessible and open to everyone by providing a generous grant of £1,500. This allowed us to provide sessions at a reduced rate, with two free places on each day for low income families - a critical help to many families at a time when costs are escalating and parents are feeling the strain to have to work more. During these days, we celebrated anicent woodlands, celebrating the traditions, the crafts, the species - well, generally ALL things ancient woodland related! We benefitted from local artists, chairities and wildlife specialists who shared their skills and expertise too, offering the kids an incredibly rounded woodland experience oozing with creativity, natural wonders and friendships.

To read the full report head Click Here.