Thanks to match funding from Aviva and British Airways YOUR DONATION CAN NOW BE TRIPLED.
Since 2018 Operation Future Hope has been educating young people in schools about ecological and environmental challenges, enabling students to recognise that urgent action is needed, and inspiring the next generation to get involved with the restoration, regeneration, and rewilding of the natural world.
Now, in our fifth year, we are ready to take our education programme nationwide. We want to rewild Britain's schools and inspire, equip and support more young people to care for the natural world.
Our crowdfunding campaign will enable us to expand what we're doing, and further develop our education programme so we can reach out to schools across the country.
Our education programme gives students and teachers an essential understanding of the state of nature today, and equips them with the skills and support they need to start rewilding their own schools grounds.
What have we achieved so far?
Over the past four years we have successfully worked with a diverse mix of nineteen independent and state schools, and built up a vast body of knowledge and experience of teaching about nature, ecology and rewilding in schools.
We know what works, we also understand the challenges that schools, teachers and students face and how to overcome them. This knowledge is now deliverable to schools and students through the following pathways.
How we work with schools
Our Rewilding Apprenticeship Course is a year long, self-paced, online course that helps young people to become ‘Earth Stewards’ and protectors of the natural world.
Our Rewilding Schools initiative gives guidance, advice and support to students and staff on how to rewild their school grounds.
Our Rewilding Manual explores solutions to the current ecological crises and gives practical guidance for starting rewilding at school.
The difference we are making
Why is our education programme important?
The current school curriculum does not equip young people for the future environment they're going to live in - its focus is on a world that's disappearing fast.
Furthermore, the majority of school grounds are managed in a way that creates monoculture landscapes - ecological deserts with little to inspire young people to connect with and care for the natural world.
How then can we expect the next generation to become a regenerative force in the world if we don't provide them with the keys to unlock the innovative thinking that will be required to solve the problems they are going to face?
And, how can we expect young people to care about biodiversity without up-to-date, relevant ecological education and a nature rich school environment that enables them to learn how to restore nature and become protectors of the Earth?
The state of nature today
Operation Future Hope's groundbreaking education programme is changing this. We are teaching children about how our living world actually works, explaining natural laws and alerting them to the threat of breaking planetary boundaries.
Our Rewilding course provides a solid foundation for understanding the interconnectedness of all life on Earth and will ensure that ALL children will receive essential key learning about the planet, nature and regenerative culture.
And, our new teacher training programme will put nature at the heart and centre of all subjects, cross curricular, as it should be.
What have we discovered about school grounds?
Over the past four years, our initiative has shown that all schools have the potential to become important biodiversity hubs for British native wildlife. However, most school grounds are managed in a way that creates monoculture landscapes - desolate places for both nature and students.
With widespread use of toxic chemicals, intensively managed hedgerows and grasslands, non-native planting and the spread of concrete, there is little to inspire young people to connect with and care for the natural world.
Empowering young people to be the driving force of change
Our education program empowers students to be the force for change in their schools and the wider community. Rewilding is student led, and roots the education and skills they have received into practical land based action in their schools.
With the publication of The Rewilding Manual for Schools, and the pilot of our Rewilding Apprenticeship Course, any school can now rewild their grounds and receive up-to-date, relevant ecological and environmental education that will help them play a part in tackling the catastrophic decline of nature today.
For us to roll out our education programme to schools across the country and make a real difference, we need to grow our team and further develop our education platform.
How we will use the money we raise
How you can support us
There are three main ways to help us reach our target and make this project a success:
1. Make a donation. Please don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success! And with match funding from Aviva and British Airways your donation will now be tripled!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Choose a reward. We are offering some great rewards in return for your donation.
Our campaign runs to the17th July 2023, please help us by donating today!
Find out more about us:
www.operationfuturehope.org
Our team and advisors
Our sponsors and supporters
“Working with nature brings first-hand understanding of our connection with and dependence on ecosystem services and the need for us to care for the natural world; a message which is at the heart of Operation Future Hope.
We hope that this project really does sow the seeds of conservation and inspires the girls to take action – instilling a belief that stays with them always. I firmly believe it will bring huge physical and mental wellbeing benefits for us all on so many levels.”
Dr Ruth Sullivan, Head of Sherborne Girls
“Participation in this project presents a wonderful opportunity for our schools to work together to help address, on a local level, environmental issues about which we should all be concerned.
The rewilding aspect of the project is important in itself, allowing us to restore and protect the biodiversity of our school grounds. Even more important than that, however, is the educative aspect of the programme, allowing our pupils to learn more about the environmental challenges that the world faces and, we hope, to be inspired to do something about them not just today but in the future.”
Dr. Dominic Luckett, Head of Sherborne School
“It is a real privilege to be involved in this project which not only has the potential to change our environment for the better but also to create a greater understanding of how we co-exist with nature.”
Nicki Edwards, Head of The Gryphon School, Sherborne
"Over the past two years, we have proudly supported Operation Future Hope on the delivery of several projects, from an online Rewilding Apprenticeship course, to helping a Secondary School and two Primary Schools in the Brighton area embark on rewilding projects in their school grounds with guidance from OFH.
OFH’S determination to inspire, inform and mobilise the next generation to become the guardians and protectors of our planet is exactly the kind of leadership the world needs and we fully support them in their rewilding mission."
The Enjoolata Foundation