Charity sets out to change adults’ attitude to London’s nature

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A charity is on a mission to educate adults on London’s local wildlife and nature through its new environmental project.

City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charitable arm, has awarded Lambeth charity Roots and Shoots £120,000 to help Londoner’s make the best of the city’s greenery.

The money will fund an environmental education programme to teach families about the importance of inner city nature and growing local produce. A food growing programme will be on offer which will identify how to grow food and herbs in tight City spaces.

The organisation’s programme to date has been focused on sessions for primary schools through its wildlife garden, ‘wild’ orchard with local varieties of apples, and a half acre of buildings and gardens but seeks to expand the work and direct it more towards adults.

The grant will now be used to go beyond this school audience to bring adults in to Roots and Shoots for stimulating and enlightening evening classes and weekend workshops. It will also offer learning opportunities for the family to take part in together.

Themes that the new adult and family learning programmes will explore include bees, biodiversity, evolution, food growing, the seasons in the wildlife garden and will include creative work with visiting artists, storytellers and other performers. Professional scientists will also be invited to participate.