Black2nature was set up by young British-Bangladeshi birder, environmentalist, and activist, Mya-Rose Craig AKA Birdgirl. She started her campaign ten years ago and promotes its work as President. She spent her childhood birding with her family, but never saw anyone who looked like them. The injustices we are trying to address Black2Nature fights for free access to nature, focussing on Visible Minority Ethnic families and young people who are impacted by racism and poverty and who are taken out into green spaces 20% less each week less compared to White middle-class children.

Visible Minority Ethnic communities often suffer from higher rates of mental illness and have a large educational attainment gap. We also educate young people to fight to stop biodiversity loss and climate change by making it relevant to them e.g. by talking about the impact on their countries of ethnicity. What Black2Nature hopes to achieve Achieve a society where everyone but especially Visible Minority Ethnic children from the 10% most deprived wards) have free access to nature and are engaged and educated to understand Achieve an environmental sector that engages with Visible Minority Ethnic people, by cultivating a sentiment of equality and diversity, eliminating discrimination and focussing on improving ethnic diversity within their work forces. Impact The young people attending the camps and events are from the most vulnerable and deprived communities in the UK (living in the 10% poorest wards).

The positive impact will extend to parents, families, teachers, school friends and their wider communities. We see the children and teenagers return home uplifted and sharing their fantastic experiences, which will ripple out to the whole community who will learn the value of nature and the importance of environmental issues such as climate change in their countries of ethnicity. The teenagers will learn about using nature for mental health resilience, which will have significant long-term positive impact on their mental and physical health. We have run many camps since 2015, learning and adapting over the years. We have had a 100% success rate in getting young people engaged and connected with nature, by making it relevant.

We also have two minibuses that we can rent to local community groups and schools for £120 per day plus £15 per hour for a driver.