Registered Charity providing Forest School,
Environmental Education and
Practical Nature Conservation sessions, programs, events and community projects.
Company Number 9630457 Registered Charity Number 1177701
Over twenty projects in 4 years of
Expanding Minds & Connecting Communities to Nature
PROJECTS
2015 ~ People Post Code Lottery Environmental Education sessions at 57 The Lodge and Streatham Common.
2016 ~ Greggs Community Project 10 environmental sessions at 57 The Lodge & Streatham Common.
2016 ~ Heritage Lottery Fund Start up project.
2016 ~ Capital Clean up at Knights Hill Wood.
2016 ~ Ernest Cook Trust Forest School 18 sessions for Granton Primary School Year 2.
2015 - 2016
PROJECTS
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2017 ~ 2018 ~ Trust For London Lollard St Adventure Playground's Forest School families sessions.
2017 ~ 2018 ~ Natural Heritage and Community of Tivoli Park & Knights Hill Wood
2018 ~ Western Riverside Environmental Fund building and repairs at Lollard Street Adventure Playground.
2018 ~ Tesco bags 10 weeks funded Forest School After School Club at Fern Lodge Estate.
2018 ~ Healthy Life Skills Summer Camp at Fern Lodge Estate.
2018 ~ Children's Summer Play Scheme at Fern Lodge Estate.
2018 ~ Families Overnight Camp at Tivoli Park
2017 - 2018
PROJECTS
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2017 ~ 2019 ~ Memories, Natural Heritage and Community of Tivoli Park & Knights Hill Wood
2018 ~ 2019 ~ Forest School Families Project with Family Fund
2019 ~ Awards for All Forest School After School Club at Fern Lodge Estate
2019 ~ Forest School for Schools for Immanuel and St Andrews Primary, 12 weeks Program.
2019 ~ Healthy Life Skills Summer Camp at Fern Lodge Estate.
2019 ~ Families Overnight Camp at Tivoli Park
2019 ~ Chapman Charitable Trust Eardley Road Nature Reserve Forest School for Families sessions.
2018 - 2019
PROJECTS
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2020 ~ Outdoor activities at Lairdale Estate
2020 ~ Maintenence of park features and signs
2021
2021 ~ Grow Back Greener with Nature Vibezzz
City Bridge Trust funded projects:
2021~ Saturday family sessions at Loughborough Park
2021 ~ Forest School After Schoool sessions in Rosendale Gardens Housing Estate
2021~ Activities at Lairdale Estate
2021~ Plumstead CommonNature Reserve Sunday sessions
2021~ Foraging Walk at Knight's Hill Woods & Tivoli Park
2021~ First Families Residential Trip Paddington Farm, Somerset. (October)
2020 - 2021
PROJECTS
2021~ 2022 ~ Streatham Common Families Forest School session with Ironmongers
2021~ 2022 ~ Fern Lodge Estate F.S After School sessions
2022
City Bridge Trust funded projects:
2022 ~ Dexters Adventure Playground F.S Families sessions
2022 ~ Glengall Wharf Gardens F.S Families sessions
2022 ~ Tivoli Park & Knight's Hill Wood Spring Clean up day and Tree ID Walk
2022 ~ Fern Lodge Estate Families Gardening sessions
2022 ~ Grow Back Greener After Project maintenance
2022 ~ St. John Primary School After School sessions
2022 ~ 2nd and 3rd Families Residential Trip Padding Farm, Somerset (April)
2022
HLF START-UP PROJECT
Heritage Lottery Fund awarded Nature Vibezzz a £8600 start-up grant for a one-ear project starting May 2016.
This funding enabled Nature Vibezzz to hire a part-time project manager, run 20 free nature-focused activities in South London, train staff / volunteers and develop new community projects.
The grant-funded period helped Nature Vibezzz increase its network and opportunities regarding future heritage-focused community projects, providing us with a platform to reach, inspire and engage with a wider and more diverse range of people in historical / natural heritage.
Nature Vibezzz works with local community groups and other partner organisations developing projects and exploring new potential community projects, enabling us to run future community projects that motivate, preserve and inform people about their local historical / natural heritage.
The start-up grant provided Nature Vibezzz with stronger and more committed governance, better management structures and more skilled staff members to ensure a more secure future for our organisation's work. The newly recruited and trained volunteers provided the organisation with increased capacity and skills to secure and run successful future projects that shall benefit communities and heritage.
Nature Vibezzz would be interested in hearing from community groups, schools and charities interesting in developing partnership projects.
We are also looking for volunteers to help on project activities and with admin / PR. For more details please contact us.
GREGGS COMMUNITY PROJECT
This project ran 10 FREE Forest School / environmental educational / practical nature conservation sessions mainly at Streatham Common with some free project activity sessions ran in local housing estates close to Streatham Common.
Project activities were run by experienced freelance forest school / environmental education / nature conservation tutors. Practical nature conservation activities were open to all and helped maintain the natural biodiversity of Streatham Common. Forest School and environmental educational activities aimed at families build children’s self-esteem and confidence, as well as helping create a future generation interested in the natural environment.
Activities were run in line with Streatham Common management plan and with advice from local partners. Nature conservation activities included woodland management, shrub management & bramble clearance: healthy activities that build community spirit and give participants a sense of pride in their local green space. Environmental education and Forest School activities involve showing children the beauty of natural environments, teaching how to look after wildlife, learning to use tools, and fun activities like building dens.
People’s POSTCODE Lottery: Natural play & education on Streatham Common
Nature Vibezzz received £2000 thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery. The funding boost from Postcode Local Trust which enabled Nature Vibezzz to run a community project at Streatham Common.
This project ran 10 FREE Forest School / environmental educational / practical nature conservation sessions mainly run at Streatham Common, Lambeth, London. The project activities was organized and scheduled working with local community organizations.
Project activities were run by experienced freelance forest school / environmental education / nature conservation tutors. Practical nature conservation activities were open to all & helped maintain the natural biodiversity of Streatham Common. Forest School & environmental educational activities were aimed at families; they built children’s self-esteem & confidence and contribute to a future generation interested in the natural environment. Activities were run in line with Streatham Common management plan & with advice from local partners.
Nature conservation activities included woodland management, shrub management & bramble clearance, all healthy activities that build community spirit & give participants a sense of pride in their local green space. Environmental education & Forest school activities involved showing children the beauty of natural environments, teaching how to look after wildlife, learning to use tools, & fun activities like building dens.
Postcode Local Trust exists to fund community groups and charitable organisations through a variety of grant giving programmes. To do so, the Trust relies solely on funding from the proceeds of tickets sales from People’s Postcode Lottery. When you sign up to play People’s Postcode Lottery, your postcode is your ticket. It costs £10 for 10 draws paid monthly in advance with prizes every day. A minimum of 27.5% goes directly to charities across Great Britain and internationally.
Ernest Cook Trust Project
Ernest Cook Trust funded Nature Vibezzz with a grant of £1997 to run 18 forest school activities at Streatham Common. The project focused on literacy and writing curriculum areas including working with Granton Primary School staff to improve student’s creative writing skills stimulated by the project outdoor activities.
The project worked with a year group running 6 weekly sessions with each class with all students attending at least 3 sessions, with each session run for approximately 15 children. Project activities were run by experienced freelance forest school / environmental education / nature conservation tutors working with Granton School staff.
The Forest School & environmental educational activities built children’s self-esteem & confidence and contributed to a future generation interested in the natural environment. Increasing the participant’s self-esteem and confidence is important as low self-esteem can affect a child’s learning and development, children with low self-esteem and confidence can become isolated if they don’t develop social skills to interact with their peers and adults. Children with low self-esteem and confidence can become less engaged and lack motivation when doing academic studies, as the child may not wish to engage in tasks that they believe they cannot complete.
Activities involved showing children the beauty of natural environments, teaching how to look after wildlife, learning to use tools, & fun activities like building dens. Granton Primary School staff took the new knowledge to the classroom literacy and writing sessions with the children writing about their experiences at Forest School.
KNIGHTS HILL WOOD
CLEAN UP VOLUNTEER DAYS
Saturday 18th June 2016
10am to 12pm
Monday 20th June 2016 (postponed to 27th June due to bad weather)
10:30am to 2pm
Knights Hill Wood, Knights Hill, West Norwood,
Lambeth, London, SE27 0QA
Nature Vibezzz worked with two local community groups and a local Primary School and Children's Centre to encourage participation in the clean up days at Knights Hill Wood. This was the start of greater use of the site by the local community, including the two local community groups involved to use the site on future activities.
Through cleaning up the woods and involving volunteers in range of practical activities, we hope more people will connect with and use the site and we will help achieve Knights Hill Wood becoming a Local Nature Reserve.
These events are part of Capital Clean-up which is a partnership campaign led by the Mayor of London to help Londoners work together to spruce up their city. It is supported by McDonald’s and is part of the Mayor’s wider Team London volunteering programme.
Free refreshments were provided to participants helping on the days.
Nature Vibezzz counted with volunteers to help on both days and they were paid local travel expenses.
Tools and equipment were provided by Nature Vibezzz, but volunteers were encouraged to bring their own gardening gloves.
Tasks on the day included:
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Removing rubbish at the site to make the site more clean and pleasant for local people to use.
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Clearing some areas of ivy to encourage increased biodiversity at the site through creating the environment for wild flowers to grown.
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Removing Ivy from some trees to help the trees live for longer and encourage light into the woods, providing the conditions and encouraging more diverse plant life to grow.
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Clearing some low hanging tree branches to encourage more light into the woods and remove any potential hazards for users.
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Cutting back bramble / shrubs to create habitats in the wood that encourage a range of plant species to grow and increase biodiversity of the woods.
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Creating stage beetle habitat to encourage the growth of the population of this endangered species in the local area.
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Repairing wooden fence around wood to improve the appearance of the woodland and encourage more users.
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Planting native plant species that will thrive in the wood and increase biodiversity.
CLICK THE PDF SIMBOL TO READ THE END OF PROJECT NEWSLETTER
THE REGENERATION OF KNIGHTS HILL WOOD
This year project funded by a Awards For All grant ran 40 activities engaging with a wide range of people from the local community. The aim of the project was to improve an underused local woodland, increasing local community cohesion and teaching participants new skills, increasing their confidence and social networks (new friends).
38 Forest School / natural play / environmental educational / practical nature conservation sessions were run mainly at Knights Hill Wood in the London Borough of Lambeth. Some of the project sessions were run in local housing estates enabling the project to reach urban children and families from deprived areas that otherwise would not participate in such activities.
These mostly weekly activities (with seasonal adjustments) were run partly as after school clubs or school holiday schemes. Many of our project activities involved children & young people up to 15 years old. Other activities were practical nature conservation, which will help maintain / increase the natural biodiversity of Knights Hill Wood and these activities were open to all.
2 coach trips to countryside locations were run for local families participating in the project; this trip connected members of all the generations living in the local area. There were a total of 50 places available on these coach trips for members of the local community. Helping to connect old and young members in order to foster a stronger community.