At Pedal Progression, we have a history of working on fun and progressive projects with Trash Free Trails. So when Leigh dropped me a line to chat about a new Community Hub project that invited engagement from Hardly Reached communities to use mountain biking as a vehicle for nature connection, I was excited to hear more.
(C) Abbie Merritt
Through funding realised by The North Face x European Outdoor Conservation Association & the Hydroflask Parks for All Foundation we’ve been able to proactively engage a group of young people in outdoor activities and foster a sense of stewardship for our wild places.
After putting out the offer to several schools, PRU’s and specialist education providers, we landed on a partnership with Nature Youth Connection Education and Learning Partnership West who would join us with a group of young people aged 12-15 who were on the fringes of mainstream education.
TFT provided us with a 4 week program to work with. The sessions were split between mountain biking, nature connection and trail cleans - the latter two referred to as pause points in the syllabus. These were designed to be simple moments that would encourage the participants to think about the fun they were having, further connect them to the natural world and think about how small actions they could take would help to protect the wild places they were immersed in.
(C) Abbie Merritt
The sessions flew by, we had some really strong ones, where everything flowed super nicely, there were some fantastic aha moments, some we’d planned, some that came completely out of the blue, and the riding was always fantastic. On the flip side, we had some tough ones too. Young people refusing to wear helmets, unwilling to cooperate in the exercises and not wanting to come back. However, regardless of the initial outcome it was always good to have a post session debrief and focus on challenges, wins! And learning…can’t forget those too! Here’s a few from over the four weeks.
Buy-in is key:
For those of us who love mountain biking it’s easy to forget some of the basic hurdles others come up against. We just crack on because we know the end result; riding our bikes is amazing. But for those who haven’t ridden much before, the bikes can feel hard to handle, the safety equipment can be uncomfortable, the weather can cause discomfort and the trails can be scary!
We spent a good chunk of each session talking about riding bikes and coaching the young people to feel comfortable in the safety gear and of course, riding bikes! This probably took up more time than we had initially anticipated but it was time well spent, as the next steps of nature connection and stewardship could only be achieved once we had buy-in and trust from the young people.
For some of the kids mountain biking just wasn't their thing, and that’s a useful thing to learn in itself. They still challenged themselves, tried something new and got out on the trails. Perhaps one day they will come back to it, or discover another activity that gets them into wild places with all the benefits this brings.
(C) Abbie Merritt
Consistency (or lack of) is hard:
The young people in our cohort were currently attending a pupil referral unit. These are education providers for young people who have struggled with mainstream education. There are normally a multitude of different reasons for this. These could include having been excluded or at risk of permanent exclusion, experiencing high levels of anxiety, bullying, school refusal or having special educational needs and / or disabilities.
We unfortunately never got the full number of students signed up in a session, with most young people missing a session or two. This made planning difficult, not knowing who was coming each time meant that we had to very much plan on the go. Not all of the participants were able to fully benefit from the progressive nature of the mountain biking skills or all of the educational content we were delivering. Although this was a real shame, it provided some key learning points for us, and the young people.
We came to terms with the fact that it’s not always bad news if they don’t turn up! We had one young person who engaged well in the first two sessions but was unable to continue to attend due to her finding a place at a more appropriate school. It was certainly sad for us but potentially very good for her and her future.
This is one of the main reasons why groups of young people in this situation are Hardly Reached, why projects are hard to fund, plan and execute. This leads to less of these programmes being available and in turn less opportunities for participation and that’s exactly why we were so keen to make this happen. We wanted to see it out regardless of who could, or couldn’t attend. However much they came, the value was there for everyone to make the most of.
(C) Abbie Merritt
Flexibility is essential to successful outcomes:
We had some fantastic educational resources provided by TFT that gave us the knowledge, process and confidence to take this on. Without these as the foundation, we would not have been able to get across the educational content, key messages and ultimately achieve the desired outcomes.
It became very clear on week 1 that we were going to have to be flexible to get any kind of participation and buy in from the young people. The first nature connection pause point was greeted with a sense of bemusement by the young people who had never been introduced to the idea before. So instead of planning a formal 1 min nature connection exercise, we stopped when it felt natural and worked with the flow of the trail. We discovered this was often best at the top of a hill, or at a random point when the participants wanted to pause riding. Or in some cases when it came from them. In one instance we were riding up through an amazing patch of bluebells - one of the young people asked if he could take some photos. We leaned into this opportunity and once the photos were done, we stopped for a little longer, and encouraged the young people to slow down their breathing, be silent and listen to the sounds of the forest.
With the single-use pollution (SUP) collection, we began by simplifying the tasks and asking the participants to pick up just one piece of SUP, this increased throughout the weeks, and by week 4 they were proactively spotting and picking up SUP, identifying the source, what it was made of and how it was best disposed of once removed. This for us was a clear sign that what we were delivering and engaging these young people with was working. They were now being active stewards of our wild places, totally under their own steam.
What’s next:
As with all projects like this, it would be amazing if we could have more time and it could have gone on longer. One thing is for sure, as a Community Hub we’ll continue to engage with TFT and their mission, we’ll continue working with school groups of all kinds and developing mountain biking here in Bristol. The stoke from this project is still there, and we’ll be sharing it for a long while yet.
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