We are thrilled to announce the award of a grant totalling £248,811 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, made possible by National Lottery players. This funding will support the creation of a network of Nature Buddies across Dorset coordinated by the Dorset National Landscape.
Nature Buddies are trained volunteers that provide one-to-one support that enable a person to enjoy nature by overcoming the barriers that stand in their way.
They are managed by organisations across Dorset that want to extend their volunteering roles to offer more nature focused engagement or want to support more people access their nature based activities. It will be the role of the Dorset National Landscape team to support those organisations to upskill existing, and recruit new, volunteers to offer Nature Buddies and make it an embedded service for people across Dorset to access.
The 22 month project started in September 2024 and will initially be focused on building a pool of skilled volunteers and organisations which can then begin supporting people to enjoy nature.