Presentation delivered by Vinny Ganley, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as part of the "Engaging the Next Generation" session at Communicate 2012: Breaking Boundaries
3. Grow Wild’s aims
• To engage people with UK wild flowers
• To raise awareness of biodiversity and the fact
we are losing it
• To give them something they can do
about it
• £10.5 million grant from the BIG Lottery Fund.
4. The ambition
• To reach 30 million people, including 4 million young
people
• To get 3 million people to take ‘direct action’
• To achieve 2 million plantings – 200,000 by young
people
5. The audience
• Young people (12-25 years old)
• Members of community and voluntary
organisations
• Adults interested in the environment
7. Only 3% of UK’s species-rich
meadows remain since the1930s 1
Of the1,756 UK native vascular plant
species, 1 in 5 are ‘critically
endangered’, ‘endangered’ or
‘vulnerable to extinction’ 2
1. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/10jul12robinprobert_millenniumseedbank.pdf
2. http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/pub05 speciesstatusvpredlist3_web.pdf
8. Engaging Young People
• Engaging young people
with biodiversity issues
• Understanding that biodiversity
is important to their future
• Giving them something positive
to do to help
15. Making Grow Wild
Fun
• We want Grow Wild to be eye-catching,
fun and engaging
16. Key dates
Spring 2013 Pilot activities
Spring/early summer 2013 Nominations for flagship
sites
Late summer/early autumn 2013 Voting for flagship sites
Spring 2014 Flagship sites unveiled
Kits distributed to
organisations
Community engagement
programme begins
Digital community ramps up
17. We are looking for partners:
•Supported activities
•User panels
We offer:
•Free planting kits
•Access to a suite of assets
•The opportunity to be part of a project with
national profile
18. User Panels
•We are looking for young people to help us
design the Grow Wild experience