Martens on the Move

Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Vincent Wildlife Trust, Martens on the Move aims to engage young people in wildlife conservation via social media.

@rural_media Come with us to look for Pine Martens in the Shropshire Hills! 🦨 This week, The Vincent Wildlife Trust took us deep into the Shropshire Hills to look the habitat of one of our most elusive UK mammals - the Pine Marten! Thank you to Lucy, Julia and Katherine for showing us around. Watch this space to see what we learned 👀 Funded by The Vincent Wildlife Trust and @National Lottery Heritage Fund, MOTM aims to engage young people in wildlife conservation via social media. We're working with a group of 12-16yr olds to create informative content that inspires other young people to engage with #conservation Martens On The Move will focus on the elusive and rare #PineMarten and the reintroduction programmes needed to help this small mammal become re-established in Scotland, Wales & England. Together, we're hoping to engage local communities and young people to ensure their long-term survival and expansion across the UK. #shropshire #shropshirehills #wildlife #ukwildlife #conservationtok #youthengagement ♬ Back On 74 - Jungle

About

Funded by The Vincent Wildlife Trust and National Lottery Heritage Fund, Martens on the Move aims to engage young people in wildlife conservation via social media.

We've worked with groups of 12-16-year-olds across Herefordshire and Powys to create informative content that inspires other young people to engage with conservation.

Martens on the Move focusses on the elusive and rare Pine Marten and the reintroduction programmes needed to help this small mammal become re-established in Scotland, Wales & England.

Together, we hope to engage local communities and young people to ensure their long-term survival and expansion across the UK.

Follow our socials to stay up to date with the project.

Impact

Nick James-Williams, Head of The Aconbury Centre & Deputy Head Herefordshire Pupil Referral Service

“The Pine Marten Project has been an engaging creative opportunity for our pupils. From week to week, they have been able to explore, experiment and think outside the box to use the new skills they have learnt. As a head, it's been incredible to walk into a room and pupils desperate to show me the creative projects they are working on, the pupils have praised the staff that have worked with them and often talk with great pride of the work they have undertaken. For a Pupil referral Unit this is not the norm when working with outside professionals, all credit to you and the team.

The skills learnt on this project will now echo in future work we do as social media and creative applications become part of our norm. Thank you and all the team for an incredible experience for our pupils. I hope we get the opportunity to work with you all again.”

Ms S Mobbs, Aconbury Pupil Referral Unit

“The Martens on The Move project was a fantastic project for our pupils. They looked forward to it each week and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

They learnt a variety of new skills, using social media platforms and editing apps to create content. We were so impressed by their skills! They also developed self awareness and an understanding of their own skill sets and what they enjoy about the outdoors. They all identified the benefits to their mental health of being outdoors, the day trip was a chance for them all to explore our local wildlife and learn a great deal about Pine Martens.

The Rural Media team were incredibly good at engaging and building positive relationships with our pupils. They all took the time to get to know them all as individuals and by the end knew every pupil’s strengths.

The drama work for the videos was as exceptional, pupils really gained a lot of confidence in doing this, they liked to have the opportunity to be heard and their feelings shared on film. They enjoyed reviewing their performances and making improvements. We now have some budding actors! A fantastic opportunity for which we are all grateful.”