oakwoods, there was a lot of chat about childhood experiences in the outdoors, and many questions about other places to visit and how to get there. The group left with a commitment to plan and run another visit with the Bridges programme staff.
Community Introductions is a partnership between SNH, Backbone and
the Forum for Environmental Volunteering Activity. Backbone is a training and personal development organisation that promotes ‘celebrating diversity through adventure’, primarily for women and black and minority ethnic communities. By bringing together Backbone’s contacts in black and minority ethnic communities around Scotland with our knowledge of Scotland’s outdoors, the Community Introductions project has organised a series of 12 visits to some of Scotland’s ‘special places for nature’ between March and July this year. The response from both the natural heritage sector and community groups has been fantastic. No site manager has turned down the opportunity to take part and offer a welcome to visiting groups, and more community groups want to visit the outdoors than we’ve been able to accommodate. The programme of visits has taken in national nature reserves at Tentsmuir,
Loch Leven and the Isle of May, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and Cairngorms National Parks, as well as Clyde Muirshiel and Pentland Hills Regional Parks. For each visit, Backbone and the host organisation work together to plan activities tailored to the visiting group, aimed at giving participants a taste of what Scotland’s outdoors has to offer – whether it’s fun, amazing wildlife, or just a chance to relax in beautiful surroundings. SNH are now working with Backbone to secure further funding to extend the programme. After each visit we ask both participating groups and the host organisation to
tell us what the visit meant to them. And the feedback shows just how important an organised ‘introduction’ can be for groups with limited access to knowledge that many Scots take for granted.
3
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The group all had a go at exploring the woods while blindfolded, including Scott Ferguson from SNH.
4
Ecofusion was a lively and colourful day out.
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The Nature of Scotland
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