What are the Wild Youth Awards?
Ulster Wildlife has created the Wild Youth Awards to recognise, reward and celebrate the time young people spend connecting with, learning about and helping the natural world.
How it works
The more time you spend on your activities, the higher the Award level you earn, from Bronze right up to Green. The beauty of this Award Scheme is that you get to pick the activities that you want to undertake. As long as they involve connecting with, learning about or helping nature and wildlife in some way, the time you spend doing them all counts towards your Award. The only other thing was ask is that you think about how your activities also contribute to the FIVE WAYS TO WELLBEING.
You take part here via the Ulster Wildlife website where you can get ideas, register your proposed activities, submit pictures and videos of what you've done, request your Award certificates and get recognised. We will publicise your achievements (with your permission of course!)
More information, advice and guidance is given below, followed by a link to the registration form
Who can take part in the Wild Youth Awards?
* The Awards are aimed at young people aged 11-25 years
* You can participate as an Individual or a Group - although we do recommend group-based participation as this ties in better with the connect element of the Five Ways To Wellbeing
What groups would the Awards suit?
Any setting where young people can be supported to connect with, learn about and help nature – So this could be schools, after school groups, youth clubs, uniformed youth organisations, summer schemes, sports clubs, environmental organisations.
What Awards levels are there?
There are 4 consecutive levels based on the number of hours you complete. Participants typically start at Bronze and then work their way through the levels, or you can choose to start at a level of that suits you best e.g. decide to go for Gold straight away!
12 Hours of Activity
* Visit and get to know local green spaces
* Campfire cooking and bush craft skills
* Build bird boxes
25 Hours of Activity
* Nature photography project and exhibition
* Hike in the hills
* Take part in the Ulster Wildlife Hedgehog survey
52 Hours of Activity
* Red squirrel survey and making feeder boxes
* Camping expedition
* Urban nature blog – what’s on your doorstep
100 Hours of Activity
* Create a wildlife friendly garden
* Lead wellbeing in nature walks
* Write & illustrate a guide to local birds
What do participants have to say?
Lots of groups have already completed the awards, check out what they have to say about their experience
“I love my time doing Wild Youth and would recommend it to others. My favourite activity we did was hiking up Black Mountain and being out in the wild and learning about how they helped nature and animals return to the mountain.”
“I really enjoyed being around a campfire with my friends. It was fun to get outdoors. I enjoyed taking Polaroid pictures of the things we thought looked really cool”.
"I liked walking through the Belfast Castle grounds, seeing the nature and learning about the environment".
Activities included nature photography, nature poetry, bug hunt, games, pond dipping, mapping out the soundscape of a woodland as well as playing nature Bingo!
How do we get started?
The link below will take you to a simple online registration form. Following registration we will be in touch to acknowledge your registration and give you the go ahead to get started.
Need more ideas or help?
If you need more information or help registering for the Awards, or would like to make an amendment to an existing registration, please contact Áine, our Wild Youth Officer on aine.sweetnam@ulsterwildlife.org