Growing Youth Engagement
Growing Youth Engagement
Broken Hill Landcare creating partnerships with local schools
Reaching Out -
LLCI023-017
The issue
In the Broken Hill area there were limited opportunities for young people to participate in natural resource management and environmental activities. Broken Hill Landcare was also struggling to attract younger people into the group.
The solution
Broken Hill Landcare, with the help of their local Landcare Coordinator, partnered with Alesco Learning Centre to offer students at the school the opportunity to engage with native revegetation and regeneration in a practical, hands on environment.
The Broken Hill Landcare nursery and all of the necessary equipment and resources were made available to the school, teachers from the school were taken through a training session to demonstrate a method for propagating native plants through cuttings so that they would be able to teach the students. This included producing a step by step guide as a learning resource. A variety of native plant species were also identified around the school that could be used to supply cuttings. Students then visited the nursery each day to propagate plants and monitor their growth as part of their school curriculum.
The impact
Students at Alesco Learning Centre have now been offered further opportunities to work on the land in areas like weed management and conservation. Broken Hill Landcare has also developed a model for working with schools in the area to promote meaningful youth engagement in environmental activities which is attracting more and more people to participate in the group's activities as the group has received greater exposure to a previously unengaged population.
Learnings
Starting with one school and developing a method for empowering the school staff to run Landcare based activities has seen that school take full ownership of their engagement without requiring a large amount of time and effort from Broken Hill Landcare members. This has also provided a tangible example to take to other schools and community groups for how they can integrate environmental activities into their regular programs.
Key facts
- Increased exposure to Broken Hill Landcare
- 10 students engaged in ongoing Landcare activities
- Learning guide developed for further engagement