About Connecting Through Nature

What is Connecting Through Nature

Connecting Through Nature is a three-year project, working with Durham Wildlife Trust, to support and encourage residents and community groups to a play an active role in caring for and enjoying the green or blue spaces close to your home. These spaces could be the local park, open grassland, the walkway alongside a burn or a woodland. The Connecting Through Nature Project wants to ensure that everyone can enjoy local green or blue spaces and they are pleasant, safe, accessible, welcoming and rich in wildlife. These green or blue spaces should be where you want to spend time; enjoying nature, exercising, socialising and relaxing. Sadly, some greenspaces or parks feel unloved and could be better.  

The Project's aims include the following:

•       Residents have pride in their greenspaces and recognise the advantages of being outdoors in nature for their health and wellbeing

•       Engaging with communities to encourage activity, involvement and volunteering in natural greenspaces to increase social cohesion and reduce inequalities in access to nature

•       Increasing biodiversity, nature recovery and resilience of the city to climate change

•       Improve the quality of our Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs)

•       Create a pipeline of investable greenspaces improvement projects designed by communities, for their local greenspace with support from the project team

With help from the Connecting Through Nature project team, residents and community groups can get involved in revitalising these places through practical projects and activities. New areas for wildlife can be created by planting new trees and wildflowers or digging a pond. Existing wildlife areas can be cared by picking up litter or cutting back overgrown hedges and scrubby areas to open paths, actions to make them more welcoming and better for wildlife. Residents can work together to encourage more people to use and enjoy them through planning activities like walks, wildlife watching, picnics or outdoor fitness sessions.  Getting involved in outdoor, nature-based projects can be an opportunity to meet new people in your local area. Spending time in nature can make you feel good and help with feelings of well-being and support good health.

Connecting Through Nature is an opportunity to take action with friends and neighbours to improve a local greenspace that you care about and want to see improved. If there is somewhere near you that needs some attention Connecting Through Nature can help. 

There is a dedicated project team based in Sunderland City Council and Durham Wildlife Trust. The team can guide you through the process of bringing people together to come up with ideas and see what is possible for your local park. Using their experience and expertise they can answer wildlife questions, help plan activities to encourage more people to get involved, support with learning new skills,  help with finding funding to bring your ideas to life.

So, if there is a park or green or blue space near by that you want to see become better for wildlife and people get in touch.