We want to make it easy for people in Sheffield and Rotherham to access and enjoy green spaces and wildlife in urban areas. 

Spending time in green spaces and connecting with nature is hugely beneficial to our mental health. However our busy lives and lack of access in urban areas can mean we don't take that opportunity. 

What your donation could do:

• £8 pays for a school child to go on a wild visit to a nature reserve for the first time.
• £10 pays for a tree or wildflower seed to create new habitat.
• £20 pays for a nest box for birds of the highest concervation concern, such as willow tit, marsh warbler or swift.
• £80 pays for an owl box.
• £100 supports us to remove 100m² of bracken or himalayan balsam to support a diverse habitat before it's too late.
• £150 buys one acoustic monitor to help identify birds at our reserves.
• £350 supports our Wild at Heart team to deliver a nature wellbeing session supporting the isolated and vulnerable to boost mental health.
• £700 builds 3 leaky dams as part of our Natural Flood Management to hold water in the uplands, keeping peat in good condition and reduce flooding in the urban areas downstream.
• £1000 pays for 50 metres of fencing to ensure our grazing animals can be safely moved around to sustainably maintain habitat.

By 2030, we want: 

• 30% of land and water to be great for nature
• 1 in 4 people to be taking action for nature 
• Everyone to be within 5 minutes of nature 

Everything that we do contributes to one or more of these outcomes. Current projects include: 

-Managing 15 nature reserves and one nature friendly farm, ensuring that they are accessible to members of the public so that everyone has access to nature to benefit mental and physical health, as well as ensuring that wildlife can thrive during a time of biodiversity crisis. 

-Engaging with schools and young people is particularly important, especially those in deprived areas where we know access to nature is more difficult. We want to inspire young people to become the future of nature's recovery. 

-Our Wild at Heart green social prescribing programme supports the isolated and those experiencing mental ill health in our communities. 

-Our Connecting Steps project is helping to empower and enable minority groups throughout the city to enjoy and care for their local green spaces through nature connection activities. 

-Nature Recovery Sheffield & Rotherham encourages individuals and groups to take action for nature through community organising. 

-We use Nature Based Solutions to solve societal problems, like flooding , air quality and mental health, by using natural processes.

Our Impact

Here's an overview of how our worked benefited people and nature last year:

• 17,723 volunteer hours. 
• Developing the grounds at 8 schools to for young people to engage with nature. 
• Over 150 people were involved with planning and enhancing their local green space in Rotherham. 
• Spoke to over 2000 adults and 800 young people from ethnic minorities, from 18 nationalities. And took 164 adults and 90 young people, from 7 ethnicities, on their first ever walk around a nature reserve. 
• Supported 270 older people experiencing mental ill health to connect with nature through our Wild at Heart programme. 
• Connected 3500 children and young people with nature through events and groups. 
• Over 70 teachers and 425 HE students attended a training session in outdoor activity provision. 
• Over 350 healthcare professionals attended training or wellbeing sessions increasing awareness of nature on mental health. 
• Implemented over 100 nature based solutions, such as leaky dams, to reduce the impact of flooding for thousands of people living locally. 
• Supported habitat creation, species recovery plans and feasibility studies, including for water voles and beavers; helping wildlife to thrive and allowing people to connect with it.