Wates Family Enterprise Trust
Wates Family Enterprise Trust are a charity set up by the Wates Family. Through their awards they support programmes that promote the public engagement of climate change and increase access and engagement to local green spaces.
Wates Family Enterprise Trust have supported the In Our Nature programme over the past 4 years, funding projects and grants that improve local green spaces and connect communities with the many benefits of nature. Together with Hubbub, they’ve been collaborating to bring projects together and tell stories to create a campaign that is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Through a range of urban greening activities, we’ve utilised inter-generational learning, skill-sharing and intersecting topics like food, cooking, and mental health to help build environmental awareness and help areas adapt to the climate crisis.
Making nature relevant and accessible
Many people don’t believe that nature is for them, and the way in which its communicated is a big part of that. We wanted people to rethink the stereotype of mud and wellies when it comes to nature, and use art, music and creativity to make it something that’s relevant and accessible. Using creative communications, events and installations, we created a buzz about nature in Manchester and beyond.
This included our In Our Nature pop-up shop - where we transformed a shop in St Ann’s Arcade into an immersive oasis of nature in the heart of Manchester. For ten days passers-by were invited to step in and tune out of their busy day-to-day lives whilst being surrounded by plants, the smells of nature and projections of green spaces from around the city.
The shop included an augmented reality sound installation - a set of musical recordings created in collaboration with local composer Jason Singh and the performance art charity Young Identity. The tracks were made using technology that translated ‘biodata’ generated from the plants and trees in Alexandra Park into musical notes, alongside stories and spoken word captured in a workshop with local young people. Visitors were invited to vote on their favourite song, that you can listen to here.
Our impact to date:
Delivered 62 community-led green initiatives
Reinvigorated 17 urban nature areas
Engaged 3,000 community members in nature activities, and 51,000 people more broadly through our content and events
Supported 9 community nature projects with £40,000 of grant funding
+85,000 visits to the In Our Nature Garden at the Castlefield Viaduct
Supported 10 households in Newton Heath by connecting them with local growing experts and transforming their outdoor (and indoor) spaces
Bringing nature to the heart of communities
Building on existing research and insights, we’ve worked hand-in-hand with local communities to introduce a range of innovative, practical ways for residents to engage with nature and not only improve their health and wellbeing, but also create a stronger sense of community, build environmental awareness, and help areas adapt to the climate crisis.
Working alongside community groups in Manchester we quickly learnt that communities had the ideas and knowledge to bring nature closer to their community but lacked the support and adequate funding to bring them to life. To change this, WFET awarded 9 community groups with £40,000 in grants to support nature projects that respond to needs and priorities of local people. Read more about the latest round of winners here.
In Newton Heath, we paired ten residents with gardening experts in their community to transform their outdoor space in a project called Greener Wilder Homes. The home-growing challenge brought people together to share skills, learn about the environment and make their neighbourhood a greener, healthier place to live.
“I love being in the garden - and I’m very excited. I'm a builder but never planted before. This has taught me skills and given me an interest. I'd love to help create a community garden locally with my skills.” Novice gardener James and Kelly.
With support from Sow the City, we’ve also worked directly with community groups, including the creation of a new and innovative agroforestry project, helping transform a community courtyard into a nature haven and creating a community allotment with weekly gardening sessions to help residents learn how to grow.
Nature as a hook for climate action
Throughout the In Our Nature programme, we’ve explored the role of nature as an engaging hook and springboard to inspire people to take climate action. Research shows that the more connected we feel to nature, the more likely we are to take part in everyday behaviours that are good for the environment. This connection has been explored using short-term interventions and activity, but the role that community nature projects play in climate action and our nature connection has yet to be fully understood.
We wanted to dig a bit deeper, so we partnered with Chrysalis Research to help answer the question - If having a deeper connection to nature can influence our behaviours, can we use it to help build a movement of people taking climate action?
As part of our innovative research project, we consulted 182 participants involved in 19 community nature projects across Greater Manchester. Our findings show that there is a clear correlation between taking part in community nature projects and pro-environmental behaviours. Whilst connection to nature plays an important role in community nature projects, it seems that community and feeling part of something bigger is the most important factor when it comes to developing a sense of agency when it comes to taking climate action.
Bringing nature to new heights
The In Our Nature Community Garden - Using our learnings from our research project, we partnered with Sow the City to create an In Our Nature community garden on the historical landmark Castlefield Viaduct, recently renovated by the National Trust. The garden utilises the five pathways of nature connectedness and invites people to spend time alongside the reflection pond to connect to nature at the heart of the city.
The Printworks Roof - This was another partnership with Sow the City to create a green roof on top of the Printworks, a Manchester landmark, to showcase what’s possible inspire other business to follow suit.
The roof has been designed to thrive in this challenging sky-high environment whilst supporting the local biodiversity (and bees!), improve the climate resilience of the building, from reducing heat stress, improving air quality and improving energy efficiency.
