07 Jun A Partnership Approach – Words From Our Community Officer

Life on the Edge (LotE) is a product of partnership, it is delivered as a partnership and relies on partnership for its legacy. South Devon National Landscape came together in 2023 with Buglife, National Trust and Doorstep Arts to create the proposal for what has become the far-reaching, 5-year Heritage Lottery project we’re enjoying today.

However, partnership is by no means limited to these strategic partners. We partner with funders and landowners to ensure long-term sustainable change for our species; we rely on a wide range of partnerships with delivery partners – to host our community activities, as experts and allied professionals who support our conservation work, and to help engage audiences who attend our activities; and of course, we partner closely with individuals and community organisations across South Devon.

It is through partnerships that we have a much bigger reach, more resources, a stronger voice, and vitally, a much greater chance of legacy for the project once the initial project reaches the end of its five years.

An example of some of our enduring community partnerships can be seen in our work with Torbay Communities. For two years now, we’ve been working with Jess Slade, their Healthy Aging Participation Lead, to run bespoke programmes of activities that complement the Incredible Live Longer Better courses that she runs. Our activities are of course, bringing messages of nature connection and using nature as a source of health and wellbeing, and doing so through both creativity, and practical opportunities to make real change.

Our winter sessions have used creativity as a medium for learning about, noticing and appreciating some of our rare invert species and their habitats and have been delivered at Jasmyn House, home of Torbay NHS Sensory Team, another fruitful partnership we’ve enjoyed. The summer sessions are much more practical and designed to encourage participants to be outside and making a difference.

These sessions are hosted at the wonderful Parkfield House CIC, a rare nature-focused green space in the heart of Paignton. Our partnership with Parkfield House has stretched well beyond these sessions, not least, they hosted LotE Goes Wild, our annual celebration event last year, but now, as we are about to start a new programme of Live Longer Better sessions at Parkfield, we are again working together, not just to put on activities, but to put on activities that are positive examples of habitat improvement, that fit with the wider environmental and community aims of Parkfield House and that are fun for participants.

Parkfield House is an impressive example of community partnerships in its own right, and we are proud to be a part of their ambitions for landscape improvement on the site. Our new sessions, for those who have been on a Live Longer Better course or who are in touch with Jess about going on one, start on 3rd June.

Bookings via our website and ticketsource pages.

The incredible thing about partnerships, is that there is no end of possibilities. As each new individual or organisation is involved, the ideas, resources and experience, that they bring opens up new doors. Another incredibly rich branch of our relationship with Torbay Communities has been with Helen Ambler, Community Builder for Brixham. Brixham is a key hotspot for the project and we’re worked extensively across the town, many of those bits of work having been supported or even enabled by Helen’s involvement.

As the project speeds past the halfway mark, we are still learning and we are reflecting, we are still improving and we are celebrating, but we already know that we’ve had a huge amount of successes across our land management, volunteering, learning with LotE and people and communities strands, and that each and every one of those successes is the result of strong relationships and wonderful partnerships.

A massive thank you to every one of you!

Here’s to building yet more, as we continue to increase our impact into Year 3 and beyond.

~ Stuart Riddle (LotE Community Officer)

LotE is in its third year of a five-year project. To find out more see: Life on the Edge.