Trash Free Trails have launched the TrashMob Academy, their first educational programme to help reconnect kids with their environment.
Starting as a conversation about using the Trash Free Trails logo by a teacher in Wakefield, the TrashMob Academy has grown to a point where it’s being rolled out as TFT’s first educational offering.
Photos by Rich Baybutt.
Trash Free Trails (TFT) are kick starting their first educational offering for young people this Autumn, in a bid to revitalise the potential of outdoor education to support wellbeing and nature connection in young people.
The TrashMob Academy is a unique youth engagement project offering young people the opportunity to learn mountain biking, running and hiking skills whilst developing positive environmental attitudes, connections to nature and understanding of litter.
Using outdoor education as a catalyst for behaviour change, the TrashMob Academy employs a combination of classroom content, outdoor physical activity and local trail cleaning to improve self esteem, confidence and wellbeing for both students and their local environment.
Designed to address increasing disconnection from nature felt by children and the ongoing rise in mental health difficulties across the youth population, the TrashMob Academy draws from a breadth of established research advocating for the benefit of outdoor education on mental and psychological well being. (Hartig, 2007 and Natural England, 2016)
The programme advocates for the necessity of kinesthetic and outdoor learning opportunities for children and adolescents, most especially those with additional needs, with limited access to green space, and for those facing the adverse effects of social inequality. (Wells & Evans, 2003)
Delivered as a pilot programme in Wakefield in 2020, the TrashMob Academy has already had incredible successes. Students who completed the pilot displayed a renewed sense of responsibility and confidence by the end of the course, with profound development seen in their interpersonal skills and self-expression. (Trash Free Trails, 2020) Now in its final form, the programme is available as an integrated curriculum item or as a bolt-on activity in schools and educational settings.
To kick start the programme’s official launch, TFT will take the TrashMob Academy ‘on tour’, delivering the course to three schools in North West England. A remote version of the programme’s content is available via the release of TFT’s first E-Learning course with online learning provider Udamon, called ‘Contribution for Connections’.
Speaking to the value of the TrashMob Academy, Trash Free Trails Programmes Manager Rich Breedon shares:
“Giving young people the opportunity to experience the world around them in a way they might never have previously is something really special. We believe this opportunity is a stepping stone to developing the generation of happy, healthy environmental stewards our world desperately needs.”
Schools and educational professionals are encouraged to engage with the programme in whatever way suits them. Whether it be incorporating the E-Learning course into an established curriculum, to embedding the six-week fully-fledged TrashMob Academy programme into the academic year, Trash Free Trails have created an adaptive education offering with young people and planet at its heart.
To join TrashMob Academy LIVE on October 21st, head here to book your free place!