These young people will be aged 10 to 14 and, with the support of their Blue Mentor, will create and run environmental youth social action schemes to improve the environment of their schools, neighbourhoods, and communities. 

Jenny is nearing the end of the first pilot project with 8th Folkestone Guides who, over the past 12 weeks, have spent time in their local blue spaces. They’ve developed skills in orienteering, with sessions around the Leas Coastal Park. They also undertook a quest to find the hidden river of Folkestone, the Pent stream, which has been built over and concealed over time by increasing urbanisation. The Guides used a trail map from Discover Britain and took in some of the artwork from the 2014 Folkestone Triennial by Diane Dever and Jonathan Wright, Pent Houses - five steel water tower structures that map the course of The Pent Stream. The girls were able to learn about how a water source would have attracted early settlers and how that then led to creating prosperous industries in Folkestone. 

The girls learned about how, in the UK, clothing has the fourth largest environmental impact after housing, transport, and food, and that ‘the average lifetime for a garment in the UK is just 2.2 years, an estimated £30billion of unused clothing hangs in UK wardrobes and each year 430,000 tonnes of clothing are disposed of in the UK’ [Barnardo’s survey 2019]. 

a:dress events are open to anyone who wants to come. However, their primary focus is on women and girls as they are disproportionately impacted by climate crisis globally and the main target, and makers, of fast fashion.   

Evie - one of the Guides who attended the Wilder Kent Awards to collect the commendation award on behalf of 8th Folkestone Guides - says of the experience: “The thing that I have enjoyed most about getting involved in the Blue Influencer scheme is spending more time by the sea, cleaning up the environment and stopping plastics entering the ocean.  

“The young women have developed knowledge, skills, and confidence that will benefit not just themselves but their wider community and nature. Their enthusiasm is inspiring.  Putting your people in the centre of project design and delivery means that their projects are relevant and engaging to them and their peers.   

“While this first stage is near completion, there will be more work to do next term to share their learning and influence with their wider community. They will be delivering their catwalk show and working on a nature and wellbeing event with other Guide units and developing content for a webpage for Kent Wildlife Trust’s Blue Influencers Project.” 

Editor's notes 

Blue Influencers Scheme 

The mission of the Blue Influencers Scheme is to assist young people to create deep, lasting and meaningful connections with the natural environment. Through this scheme young people will learn and build skills which will help them contribute to the local community through environmental action. 

The Scheme was developed by The Ernest Cook Trust as a match-funded project with the #iwill Fund. In total, the #iwill Fund and The Ernest Cook Trust are providing £2.25million over 3 years (from January 2024 to December 2026) to fund youth environmental action. 

The Ernest Cook Trust has provided grants to Host Organisations (registered charities and non-profit organisations) across England to employ Blue Mentors to help young people between the ages of 10-14 years (known as Blue Influencers) to create environmental projects in local schools, youth groups and communities. 

The full list of Host Organisations to receive a/the grant is 

1. Action For Conservation, Brighton 

2. Canal & River Trust, Gloucester 

3. Child Dynamic, Hull 

4. CDEC (Cumbria Development Education Centre) Workington 

5. Global Link, Lancaster 

6. Groundwork North East and Cumbria, Sunderland 

7. Groundwork South, Paignton 

8. Groundwork Yorkshire, Leeds 

9. Kent Wildlife Trust, Dover/Folkstone 

10. Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Preston 

11. Mersey Rivers Trust, Stockport 

12. Morecambe Bay Partnership, Kendal 

13. Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 

14. Ocean Conservation Trust, Plymouth 

15. RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, England) Purfleet 

16. Somerset Wildlife Trust, Taunton 

17. Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) Bristol 

18. Take A Part (TAP) Plymouth 

19. The Junction Foundation, Redcar 

20. Wessex Rivers Trust, Southampton/Eastleigh 

21. Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), London                  

22. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust,  Devizes/Swindon 

The Ernest Cook Trust offers children and young people, their families and communities, the chance to learn from the land through hands-on outdoor learning activities. 

The Ernest Cook Trust is a charity limited by guarantee with the sole charitable objective of education. 

The Trust places education at its very heart by offering children and young people a chance to connect with nature and to take action on the environment in a meaningful and positive way. 

The Trust awards around £2m per year in grants based on relevance and impact against organisational objectives. Grants are given to schools or charitable organisations for activities in the UK with a particular focus on areas where there are fewer opportunities to experience the outdoors. 

For more information about The Ernest Cook Trust visit https://ernestcooktrust.org.uk/ or contact press officer Jo Smyth – email media@ernestcooktrust.org.uk. 

#iwill Fund 

• The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £66 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. 

• The #iwill Fund brings together a group of organisations who all contribute funding to embed meaningful social action into the lives of young people. 

• The #iwill Fund supports the aims of the #iwill Movement - to make involvement in social action a part of life for young people, by recognising the benefit for both young people and their communities. 

• By bringing together funders from across different sectors and by making sure that young people have a say in where the funding goes – the #iwill Fund is taking a collaborative approach. 

The #iwill Movement 

• The #iwill Movement is a collaboration of over 1,000 organisations and 300 young #iwill Ambassadors from across the UK. They are united by a shared belief that all children and young people should be supported and empowered to make a positive difference on the issues that affect their lives, their communities, and broader society. 

• #iwill was launched in November 2013 after an independent review into how different sectors could help more young people to make a positive difference.  

• The #iwill Movement is supported by an independent coordination hub, hosted by Volunteering Matters & UK Youth. 

• Take the lead by signing up to the Power of Youth Charter at www.iwill.org.uk or follow us @iwill_movement on twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

The National Lottery Community Fund 

We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name. 

We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK. 

We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with government to distribute vital grants and funding from key government programmes and initiatives.  

As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to: 

• Come together 

• Be environmentally sustainable 

• Help children and young people thrive 

• Enable people to live healthier lives. 

Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4 billion of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.  

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.