
Members of the Amble Youth Project painting car tyres for the garden. Image by: Demmi Robinson.
The group members are aged 14 - 19 and have a variety of support needs, but the wonderful news is they are now experienced enough to be taking the lead in environmental social action projects.
As an added bonus, the group has just been given an extra special boost in the form of £500 from the Reece Foundation to purchase materials for their ongoing projects.
Since taking part in the Eco Influencers Scheme, members have designed and planned to create a wildlife garden at the Dilston Terrace based youth club focusing on planting flowers for bees and pollinators and growing their own fruit, herbs and vegetables for the local community. They have also been busy creating new habitats for local wildlife such as making hedgehog homes, insect hotels and bird boxes to plant in the local area.
Recently they’ve been learning about birds as they were involved in creating a bird themed display for the recent Amble Light Parade and during the cold weather last week were busy collecting old car tyres to decorate and use as planters to display outside the youth club to make it more inviting and wildlife friendly.
The young people have really enjoyed giving back to the community by clearing up litter in and around Amble and next year plan to run local litter picking events with local residents.
Litter collected will be turned into a sculpture of a dolphin to raise awareness of the impact waste pollution has on the environment, wildlife and the seas. This will eventually take pride of place outside the youth club