We’re currently planning our summer Outdoor Family Camping and Hackney Wild Walk adventures – and we need volunteers! Why? To help the camping run smoothly, cook over the fire, put up a few tents, and help out with games and activities.
The camping trips are planned for August 2018 and the Wild Walks will start as soon as we've enough volunteers to organise a programme...
If you would like to get involved you'll get to take part in our induction programme in June or July, where you’ll learn all you need to know about Outdoor People Family Camping programme and wild walks, as well as the basic skills you’ll need to participate. That includes lighting fires!
What is Outdoor Family Camping?
The idea of Outdoor Family Camping sits at the very heart of what we do at Outdoor People – our aim is to make the outdoors accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Over the past three years, we’ve talked with many parents in and around East London who say they love the idea of taking their kids camping, but they don’t have access to the right kit, don’t have transport, or they haven’t been camping before and wouldn’t know how to start.
Outdoor Family Camping aims to give parents who have no experience of camping, or can’t afford to go, a taster of what is possible. We take families for a four-day, three-night camping experience at Green Farm Kent, our super-friendly and utterly brilliant Outdoor Family Camping partners, where they learn how to pitch a tent, cook a meal over a fire, explore the woods and help out on the farm.
We subsidise the whole venture through the profits from our consultancy and shop, offering free places to families who couldn’t otherwise afford to go. We also work with local Children’s Services so they can refer families who they think would benefit from the experience. However, as a small (but growing) social enterprise our budget for these ventures is limited, so we need your help to make this happen!
What do you get out of it?
Family Camping is great fun – and we hope you’ll have an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
However, you’ll also be helping to create a community that values the outdoors, and, in particular, recognises the value of outdoor play. If you want to read up some of the statistics about how much time children in the city get to play outdoors (not enough), and the benefits of outdoor play (many) have a quick read of the project page.
We’re also hoping that, through taking part in the Family Camping trips, or by attending our induction activities, you’ll be inspired to act as an advocate for outdoor play. You can help us to defend the precious green spaces in our communities and make sure that everyone – parents, neighbours, politicians and professionals – values a child’s right to play; not as an afterthought in a policy, a planning application, or the organisation of the school day, but as a fundamental part of childhood.
I’m in! What do I do next?
If you’re interested in volunteering for the Outdoor People Family Camping programme, email us now
I have a question…
Get in touch if you have any questions.
Cath Prisk
Hi Joanne, No not at all – open to all! Cath
Joanne linton
Do we have to live in hackney to be part of this scheme