THANK YOU!

Our Funders in 2016 The Banister Charitable Trust, Bank of Foundation, Berry Burn Community Fund, Big Lottery Fund - Awards for All Scotland, Big Lottery Fund - Young Start, Coastal Communities Fund, Crerar Hotels Trust, The Dischma Charitable www.wild-things.org.uk Trust, Ernest Cook Trust, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Our Other Partners and Partners in 2016 Hinterland Trust, The Gannochy Trust, The Primary Schools – Andersons, Cluny, Culbokie, East Gordon & Ena Baxter Foundation, Gordon Fraser End, Grantown, Greenwards, Hopeman, Hythehill, Charitable Trust, Hamamelis Trust, Heritage Lottery , , Macduff, Merkinch, Milne’s, Fund, The Hugh Fraser Foundation, Inchrye Trust, & Pilmuir. Martin Connell Charitable Trust, Miss ME Swinton Secondary Schools – High School, Culloden 2016 Paterson’s Charitable Trust, The Nineveh Charitable Annual Review Academy, Academy & Keith Grammar. Trust, The Robertson Trust, Santander Discovery Foundation, Scottish Natural Heritage, Sir James Miller Others – S. Jackson of Birkenhill Woods, Business Edinburgh Trust and The Susan H Guy Charitable Trust. Gateway, Cornerstones, Findhorn & Nairn River Fisheries, Forestry Commission Scotland, Forres Conservation Bespoke Course for Community Woodland Trust, Just Enterprise, Highland Visitors from Dubai and Islands Enterprise, Hinterland Trust, HISEZ, Hopeman 1st Cubs and Beaver Scouts, Innes Estate, Kilravock Castle Trust, Kinloss Crafty Cool Kids Club, Laings of Logie Estate, Council, Moray Way Association, National Marine Aquarium, Quarriers, SAMH, Seafield Estate, SU Scotland, The Ecology Centre, Trees for Life, UHI Moray College, UHI Scottish Coastal Classroom School of Forestry, WEA Reach Out, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, and Woodsmoke.

Woodland and Activity Health and Wellbeing Leader Training

Findhorn Village Centre, Church Place, Findhorn, Forres, Moray IV36 3YR Tel/Fax 01309 690450 Email: [email protected] www.wild-things.org.uk the Scottish Charity No: SC034873 Gordon & Ena Baxter “It was a really great week, probably one of the best weeks of my life.” Foundation Registered in Scotland as a Limited Company No: SC251691 Leader Training Student 2016 IN 2016 WE DELIVERED VOLUNTEERING TRAINING THE TRAINERS 460 ACTIVITY DAYS! AND WORKED WITH Young Leaders (15- 23 year old volunteers) – 4 Woodland Activity Leader Training courses and National Marine Aquarium, in Devon, and with The We had over 40 ‘young leaders’ working with us in 3 Coastal Activity Leader Training courses delivered Ecology Centre, in Fife. DIFFERENT 1,054 2016, helping out on a variety of our courses as well – Successful pilot of NCFE Level 3 Animal Tracks “A great week. I’m exhausted but excited and inspired PARTICIPANTS! as taking part in our skills training such as Outdoor and Signs course delivered at the same moment.” Coastal Activity Leader Training First Aid, Understanding and Managing Challenging – 3 new partners hosting or delivering our courses Participant, 2016 Behavior, and Animal Tracks and Signs. Altogether, – 57 new graduates Executive Directors REPORT our young volunteers contributed 161 days of volunteering. A survey completed in 2016, shows that 20 New Accredited Course – Animal Tracks & Signs respondents from our recent graduates are now In 2016 we were delighted to work in partnership with 2016 – Wonderful adventures, places and people! sharing their skills with 1,842 beneficiaries. renowned Bushcraft School Woodsmoke, based in It was a year of new partnerships with Plymouth Cumbria, to develop a highly successful Level 3 Animal National Aquarium, the Ecology Centre in Fife, and the “Extremely well designed and structured course. Good Tracks and Signs course. This will now become a renowned bushcraft school Woodsmoke in Cumbria. content- well taught. Certainly met highest expectations!” regular programme that we run at Wild things! We launched our new Level 3 Animal Tracks and Woodland Activity Leader Training Participant, 2016 Signs course, with my personal highlight of getting toad tracks! I also enjoyed working with my friend National Partnerships for Activity Leader Training and colleague, Dr Lisa Fenton, ethnobotanist and 2016 has seen Wild things! further expand the delivery bushcrafter extraordinaire on our Wild Woman weekend. of our accredited Training the Trainer programme. We were delighted to deliver our NCFE Level 2 Coastal Minecraft, a popular computer game, entered into Activity Leader Training in partnership with both the our Wild things! world in 2016. Much fun and laughter was created as the tablet was swapped for the trees Blue Gym– Conservation Project by Rivers and Sea and children ran around the woods avoiding ‘creepers’ 105 volunteers worked over 78 sessions on 37 whilst looking for ‘red stones’… Other highlights were hectares of invasive plant removal of which nine CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMES the Giant Basking Sharks and Squirrel collages hectares were treated and 28 surveyed. We also produced in collaboration with fabulous community Summit to Sea Holiday Clubs and Residentials launched an innovative herbicide free approach to artist Celia Smith as part of our Nature Interpretation From Dingwall to Macduff, 331 SCHOOL PUPILS, 47 Our holiday camps this year were designed to removing Giant Hogweed by digging roots and burning Project, which came to a grand finale at the end of the young people and 24 vulnerable adults took part in encourage participants to swap the tablet for the seed heads. Opportunities for our volunteers to year. Further afield, our Training the Trainer courses our ’Summit to Sea’ programme, exploring the diverse trees. ‘Minecraft Comes to Moray’ and ‘Hogwarts at become skilled up resulted in 69 training places being filled up fast in 2016 with students coming from as far habitats of Scotland from mountain summits, to rivers, Halloween’, were hugely popular, taking 8–12 year olds filled, thanks to the generous support of the Coastal as Italy to attend. wetlands and sand dunes, sparking their enthusiasm and families into a world of imagination and outdoor Communities Fund. to return with friends and family to share their adventures during the school holidays. Closer to home, our Health and Wellbeing programme newfound knowledge. supporting those struggling with mental health challenges and isolation, has gone from strength “[I liked most] the enthusiasm of the leaders who to strength with new participants joining us weekly. engaged the children very well and ensured the learning Meanwhile, conservation efforts have been marching was accurate and appropriate for the children’s age. forward with our dedicated Blue Gym volunteers caring It was excellent.” Teacher on Coastal Classroom, 2016 for local riparian habitats by carrying out Invasive Plant Control. We’re delighted to report that we have Nature Interpretation Project surveyed 21 and treated 16 hectares of land, with Summit To Sea – Health and Wellbeing Project In year two of the Nature sightings of native flora already returning. During 2016, our participants joined us on 26 days Interpretation Project, A huge thank you to all our friends, participants, exploring some of Scotland’s most stunning and children from 13 local camp crafters and supporters who helped make this diverse habitats from the summit of Cairngorm primary schools worked a wonderful year to remember! Mountain to the coastline of the . with designers, sculptors and filmmakers to create ”[What I got out of today was] exercise and knowledge, some wonderful artwork “I really enjoyed the experience and had a great time!” enjoyment of being out in the fresh air learning. reflecting the natural spaces Family Camp Participant, 2016 Time for me.” Summit to Sea participant, 2016 they visited.