London Wildlife Trust

About the work

London Wildlife Trust deliver large Heritage Fund projects on their own nature reserves as well as sites owned and managed by partners. The projects aim to enhance management and biodiversity of the sites, improve the visitor experience, reach new audiences and create new volunteering opportunities. They also deliver projects specifically aimed at engaging more young people in nature and wildlife.

What we did

We have carried out evaluations on 5 of London Wildlife Trust’s National Lottery Heritage Fund projects, as well as two projects aimed at engaging more young people in nature, including their flagship project Keeping it Wild.

Keeping it Wild was originally part of the Heritage Fund’s national programme Kick the Dust, which aimed to address the lack of diversity in the heritage sector, by engaging more young people from ethnic minority and disadvantaged communities.  Keeping it Wild aims to engage young people living in London with nature and wildlife.  We were commissioned to carry out a formative evaluation over the life of the project, initially from 2018 to 2021, and subsequently for a further three years following additional funding. Our work focused on visiting sessions and speaking to young people, youth workers, staff and partners about the experience, helping to understand the barriers that young Londoners face when engaging with nature, how the project has sought to overcome them, and the difference this is making to the young people and the organisations that support them.

The difference we made

Through our evaluation reports and Learning to Action workshops we have helped the project team understand what is working well and what could be improved. Through our wider evaluation support, we have helped the Trust create a robust suite of tools and processes which help the organisation as a whole understand who they are reaching and what outcomes they are achieving, which is now being embedded in their organisation-wide strategy and performance management processes.