Outdoor experiences for young people and families navigating the impacts of trauma
Outdoor experiences for young people and families navigating the impacts of trauma
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A pathway into local outdoor experiences that are easier to access and worthwhile to return to.
A pathway into local outdoor experiences that are easier to access and worthwhile to return to.
Wild+Kind works with skilled outdoor practitioners and the organisations already alongside young people and families, strengthening and connecting what is already there.
We help create thoughtful ways to begin, take part and return over time, shaped around how people participate and what outdoor places and experiences can make possible.
Not a one-off. Something worthwhile to return to.
Not a one-off. Something worthwhile to return to.
Why this matters
Why this matters
Many young people and families face long waits, changing thresholds, and support that starts and stops.
In between, everyday life continues. Energy depletes. Caution grows. Relationships strain.
What people value is continuity. People and places they can return to.
Yet this can be difficult to find and sustain.
Continuity isn't just a principle. It shapes whether participation can continue over time.
Why outdoors
Why outdoors
Being outdoors isn't automatically restorative. What matters is how people, place and experience come together.
Outdoor places and activities can offer distinctive possibilities: movement and sensory experience, play and exploration, curiosity and discovery, meaningful things to do, appropriate challenge, and ways of being alongside other people without conversation needing to be the focus.
Wild+Kind helps practitioners work intentionally with these possibilities, while responding to the people, place and experience in front of them.
Nature is not the intervention. It is part of the conditions we work with.
The access gap
The access gap
Valuable outdoor provision already exists, but availability alone doesn't make participation equally accessible.
Cost, transport and equipment matter. So do less visible things: knowing what to expect, feeling welcome, having different ways to take part, and trusting that an opportunity will still be there if you need time.
Wild+Kind works on the conditions around access as well as the experience itself.
The Wild+Kind approach
The Wild+Kind approach
Wild+Kind brings together skilled outdoor practitioners, organisations already alongside young people and families, and local places.
We add another layer to existing outdoor practice, helping practitioners understand how early trauma and adversity may shape participation, and think differently about what they design for and pay attention to.
Practitioners use their existing skills and knowledge of people, activities and place to create thoughtful ways to begin, take part and return, responding to what they notice along the way.
Outdoor practitioners remain outdoor practitioners. They are not being asked to assess trauma, diagnose or take on specialist roles.
What we seek to make possible
What we seek to make possible
Wild+Kind is interested in ordinary, meaningful opportunities that can be difficult to access consistently for young people and families navigating the impacts of trauma.
Through thoughtfully designed outdoor experiences, practitioners shape the conditions in which different opportunities may become possible through people, place and experience.
Begin
Begin
Opportunities to feel welcome, know there is a place for you and find your own way into participation.
Be
Be
Opportunities to be present and take part as you are, through curiosity, play, shared attention, absorption and simply being alongside others.
Grow
Grow
Opportunities to discover capability through movement, meaningful challenge, problem-solving, cooperation and contribution.
Contine
Contine
Opportunities to return, build familiarity and belonging over time, develop relationships with particular natural places, and carry meaningful experiences into everyday life.
These aren't stages people are expected to move through or outcomes practitioners are expected to produce. Different opportunities may become possible at different times and in different ways.
How the approach has been shaped
How the approach has been shaped
Wild+Kind is new. The thinking behind it has been built through lived experience, research, practice and external challenge.
Wild+Kind is new. The thinking behind it has been built through lived experience, research, practice and external challenge.
It draws on more than a decade of nature-based programme and partnership development, alongside lived experience of navigating support systems as an adoptive parent.
It draws on more than a decade of nature-based programme and partnership development, alongside lived experience of navigating support systems as an adoptive parent.
Since Wild+Kind began, its development has involved young people, families and caregivers, outdoor practitioners, specialist contributors and more than 30 organisations across social care, youth, family support, education and the voluntary sector.
Since Wild+Kind began, its development has involved young people, families and caregivers, outdoor practitioners, specialist contributors and more than 30 organisations across social care, youth, family support, education and the voluntary sector.
That work has shaped how we think about access, participation, outdoor experience, practitioner practice and continuity, and helped turn the original idea into a defined approach ready to be tested through real delivery.
That work has shaped how we think about access, participation, outdoor experience, practitioner practice and continuity, and helped turn the original idea into a defined approach ready to be tested through real delivery.
What happens next
What happens next
Wild+Kind has moved from exploring the idea to preparing to test it in practice.
We have developed the foundations of the approach and are now building the partnerships and investment needed for our first sustained pilot.
Through repeated outdoor experiences, we want to learn what helps young people and families begin and continue, how Wild+Kind can usefully strengthen existing outdoor practice, what practitioners need before and through delivery, and how learning can be gathered proportionately without turning participation into assessment.
What we learn will determine what Wild+Kind retains, changes or develops next.
We're currently interested in conversations with funders, outdoor practitioners, specialist contributors and organisations working alongside young people and families.
We're currently interested in conversations with funders, outdoor practitioners, specialist contributors and organisations working alongside young people and families.
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