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A coastal landscape, with the sea gently lapping at smooth rocks as the sun sets behind scattered clouds

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Blue Influencers Scheme

We're delighted to have successfully bid for funding from The Ernest Cook Trust and the #iwill Fund and to have been awarded £20,000 a year for three years. This has enabled the recruitment of Jenny Luddington to the role of Blue Mentor, who will be responsible for recruiting young people aged 10-14 to become ‘Blue Influencers’. 

Meet your Blue Mentor

These Influencers, guided by their Mentor, will drive social action projects to enhance the environment of their schools, neighbourhoods, and wider communities. Jenny Luddington, appointed as the Blue Mentor, brings experience and passion to this role. Having previously worked as a community organiser for the Trust as part of the Nextdoor Nature project, Jenny is committed to empowering young people to take action for nature.

Meet your Blue Mentor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7J2w5SovS8)

“Many young people experience barriers to engaging with nature and feel anxious about their own future and that of the planet. I am excited to be piloting the Blue Influencers Scheme with 8th Folkestone Guides who have already shared so many exceptional ideas for projects, including community beach cleans and a plastic pollution fashion show.

“In March I attended the first annual Blue Influencers Scheme conference where I had the opportunity to meet with inspiring young people and organisations who are working tirelessly to make a difference to their blue spaces and communities."
Jenny Luddington, Blue Mentor

About the Blue Influencers Scheme

The Blue Influencers Scheme is a groundbreaking project from UK Outdoor Learning charity The Ernest Cook Trust and aims to support young people from underserved communities and those living in deprived coastal, estuary and riverside locations by empowering them to tackle environmental and climate challenges.

The £2.25 million Scheme is being match-funded by The Ernest Cook Trust and the #iwill Fund and will run for three years. Its ambition is to engage more than 4,000 young people as ‘Blue Influencers’, as well as over 15,000 community members across England.

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 Ernest Cook Trust is acting as a match-funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.

Meet the pilot Blue Influencers group

8th Folkestone Guides

An 8th Folkestone Guides badge in a box of thread.

©️ Tim Horton

Blue Mentor Jenny Luddington sat with a Guide working on a project

Blue Mentor Jenny Luddington working on a project with a Guide

With Jenny's support, 8th Folkestone Guides have been developing skills in orienteering, visiting Folkestone's Pent Stream, writing to their MP about issues important to them, learning about fast fashion and plastic pollution, and even upcycling different materials.

The group even received a commendation for their work in the 2024 Wilder Kent Awards!

A:dress is a company that turns rubbish and old plastic things that could have gone into the ocean into fashion... and for the past few weeks or so, we've been working with them to make our own outfits. We were using rubber beach rings that had blown away, we were using onion skins, crisp packets, all that type of stuff! I had a long-sleeve white shirt which I cut both the sleeves off and made them jagged, made the bottom bit jagged as well, and then I made - myself - a fish tie out of metal.
Evie
8th Folkestone Guides

Interview with a Blue Influencer (https://youtu.be/N7q0vm7BOg4)

Get in touch

Do you want to learn more about the Blue Influencers Scheme? Perhaps you are part of a school or youth group and want to get in touch about the possibility of running your own Blue Influencers Projects.

You can email Jenny at [email protected] or call her on 01622 662012.

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 

  1. Canal & River Trust, Gloucester 

  1. Child Dynamic, Hull 

  1. CDEC (Cumbria Development Education Centre) Workington 

  1. Global Link, Lancaster 

  1. Groundwork North East and Cumbria, Sunderland 

  1. Groundwork South, Paignton 

  1. Groundwork Yorkshire, Leeds 

  1. Kent Wildlife Trust, Dover/Folkstone 

  1. Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Preston 

  1. Mersey Rivers Trust, Stockport 

  1. Morecambe Bay Partnership, Kendal 

  1. Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 

  1. Ocean Conservation Trust, Plymouth 

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

  1. Somerset Wildlife Trust, Taunton 

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

  1. Take A Part (TAP) Plymouth 

  1. The Junction Foundation, Redcar 

  1. Wessex Rivers Trust, Southampton/Eastleigh 

  1. Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), London                  

  1. 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 [email protected]. 

#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. 

#iWill, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, Lottery Community Fund, and Ernest Cook Trust logos