North York Moors National Park project allows youngsters to help endangered Turtle Dove, Yellowhammer, Song Thrush, and Redstart

One year into its four-year cycle, the National Lottery Heritage Funded project aims to restore and create natural habitats in the North York Moors National Park to support endangered birds such as the Turtle Dove, Yellowhammer, Song Thrush, and Redstart.

This year participants have been working with landowners to create ponds, drinking pools and wildflower strips.

The project is also engaging with children and adults from a range of backgrounds, allowing them to experience nature and conservation first-hand in the National Park.

ARCADE have led weekly creative sessions engaging 16 students from the Pupil Referral Unit, which is for young people not currently in mainstream school for a variety of reasons.

Drawing on themes of "endangerment, flight, and self-worth” inspired by the plight of the turtle dove, the group have explored their thoughts, feelings and ideas through lyric writing, rap, music, poetry and film-making.

James Metcalfe, director of the North York Moors National Park Trust, says: “Everything we do as a Trust is about nurturing a lifelong love and connection between people and nature, building resilience, and enhancing health and wellbeing.

“To see how much of an impact being immersed in nature has had on the students, their knowledge and confidence, is wonderful. Driving access to our magnificent natural landscapes in the North York Moors and the benefits it provides, especially to those who have experienced barriers to doing so previously, is core to the Birds on the Edge project.

“I am proud to celebrate the contribution the project is having on helping both young people and birds on the edge to thrive collectively.”

The Birds on the Edge creative workshops have been facilitated by musician, composer and photographer, Stewart Baxter, musician and music producer Yssi Wombwell, co-founder of the Beats Bus Hull, Steve Arnott, with regular support from musician Jim Taylor and youth worker James Koppert.

As well as weekly creative sessions the young people have spent time at locations across the North York Moors engaging with wildlife, taking part in conservation tasks and capturing footage to create their own music videos.

Some participants remarked that they had never been in a forest before.

Wendy Chopping, the acting head teacher at Scarborough Pupil Referral Service, says: “Being a part of the Birds on the Edge Project has helped us develop links with other groups within our community and helped our pupils build relationships with a variety of people from different backgrounds.

“Some pupils have found new skills they did not know they possessed, others have overcome anxiety and shown true resilience when having a go at new things, and all have developed their creativity alongside skilled musicians, film makers and songwriters.

“It has been truly delightful to see how the pupils’ confidence has blossomed, how they have found pleasure in new environments and have had the opportunity to just ‘play’.”

Birds on the Edge is developing new ways to engage young people through creativity.

ARCADE assistant producer, Shannon Barker, says: “The group has worked hard to create film and music that really reflects who they are.

“They’ve challenged themselves every week and we’ve seen incredible journeys. It’s really wonderful giving these young people a platform to have their voices heard through the project”.

The group took part in a small showcase earlier this month at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where their creative responses were screened to an invited audience including trustees from the North York Moors National Park Trust and other organisations.