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| Bio blitz Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig |
Youth Worker at nature camp for teenagers from disadvantaged, VME or rural backgrounds.
We desperately need volunteers from 20-23 June 2019 at Compton Martin & Chew Valley near Bristol.
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| Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig Photocopyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig |
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| Camp Avalon 2017 Photography copyright young environmentalist Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig |
Volunteer tasks
By 17 June 2019 - split between volunteers
- to prepare an Eventbrite report with contacts for children/volunteers;
- to finalise the camp programme and e-mail to parents/volunteers;
- to finalise a breakdown of tasks with who is responsible for what;
- to prepare and print parent consent forms;
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| Camp Avalon 2017 Photocopyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig |
On 20 June 2019 Campsite 10 am and 6 pm
- to help move camping equipment from storage to the campsite;
- to help put up 6 large tents;
- to help set up all equipment needed for the campsite; and
- to help do food shopping.
21 June 2019 1.00 pm to 3.30 pm
- to finishing setting up at the campsite.
21 June 2019 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm
- to travel back to Bristol with our driver;
- to pick up the minibus before picking up children;
- to ensure parents sign consent forms;
- to remind parents that they need to both come to pick up their children for a camp feedback session and so the children can have their free gift.
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21 June 2019 5.00 pm to 22 June 4.00 pm
- to be nature volunteers engaging teens in nature activities; or
- to work as a youth worker engaging with VME children age 7-11 year olds at our nature camp;
- to talk to children about nature;
- to talk to children about how going outside helps with mental health;
- to talk to children about the need to protect the environment
- to talk to children about what they can do to help the environment and wildlife
- to support nature volunteers who are providing expertise;
- to supervise football games
- to help with camp cooking, supervising toasting marshmallows, washing up and tidying up, serving meals;
- to ensure children have equipment needed for sessions;
- to ensure children pack up all their belonging.
To working on our camps will leave you feeling incredibly positive about the future.
Media - to take photographs and video footage, interviewing the children about their experiences at the camp, how they have benefited and about how it made them feel from a wellbeing/mental health point of view.
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| Camp Chew 2017 Photocopyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig |
22 June - 4 pm to 6.30 pm
- to travel back in the minibus with the children;
- to help set up a table and Gazebo outisde St Pauls' Resource Centre with literature from Time to Talk, a mental health charity;
- to talk to parents with their children about the camp, how the children enjoyed getting outside, how it was good for their mental health and academic achievement, what the parents can do to carry on with that in terms as continuing to take their children outside and enjoy nature.
- to then talk to the parents about mental health in order to raise awareness of the issue;
- to let the children have their free water bottle after these discussions have taken place;
- to if possible, video the parents about what they feel the benefits for their children have been.
23 July 10 am to 5 pm
to taking down tents, pack up campsite and put into storage
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By 28 June 2019
- to prepare a 700-word blog post about the camp with images;
- to prepare a 500-word reports for Time to Change about the discussions on mental health that took place, after getting volunteer feedback.
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Philosophy
We believe that children learn best when they are leading and when outdoors. We do not organise play for them throughout. We are looking for volunteers who encourage children to take part without telling them off or leading them. We can pay travel expenses and provide lifts, but volunteers need to lift share as part of our commitment to reducing our environmental impact. We aim to have zero waste, zero plastic and so volunteers will need to collect plastic, sort rubbish, sort into recycling and discuss with children.
Qualifications needed
We do not need any specific qualifications although having a DBS Certificate would be very useful. We are ideally looking for VME volunteers who can act as role models to the VME children attending otherwise a knowledge of VME communities would be useful. However, we are happy to consider applicants who are not VME especially if they have experience of any of the following, but this is not essential and we would encourage anybody interested to apply;
Experience that is helpful:
- Experience and knowledge of nature activities
- Camping eg putting up/taking down tents or camp cooking
- Nature or conservation
- Nature education, forest school, outdoor play or working with children
- Photography or film-making especially in nature or wildlife
- Mental health
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| Camp Chew 2017 Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig |
About the Author
Young environmentalist and birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig
Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig
Camp Avalon and Camp Chew are the ideas of Mya-Rose Craig, who also organised the first events in 2015. She is organising the 2017 camp with the organisation she has formed Black2Nature and hopes to attract more young birders and inner-city teenagers.
Mya-Rose Craig is a 16-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes posts about birding, conservation and environmental issues from around the world.
She has been involved in the UK organisation of the Youth Strikes encouraging young people from around the world to not go to school once a month and protest instead demanding immediate action to prevent climate breakdown. This is an interview in New Statesman.
She was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people.
She organised four nature camps for children and teenagers since 2015 and is helping to run four more in 2019. She also organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans two more in 2019. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Visible Minority Ethnic people and is President. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change.
She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She is a Minister in Chris Packham's Manifesto for Nature in 2018 and spoke in front of 10,000 people at the Walk for Nature. She has also appeared on TV and radio and is particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film which was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online.
She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. She was also listed as one of Bristol's BME top 100 powerlist.
She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. She became the youngest person to see 5000 birds in 2019 age 16 and is looking forward to visiting Brazil birding in 2019 and hopes to see half the birds in the world there. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter. If you would like to contact Mya-Rose about her work, please e-mail helenabcraig@hotmail.co.uk.
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