Sophie Wade

Project title:

The Flock

Project Description:

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work in partnership with the Community Engagement Team at the RSPB on my final second year project. After finishing year two, the RSPB were keen to extend our collaboration, and from continuing my work with them over the past year, I have developed my third year final major project - The Flock.

The Flock is a hypothetical rebrand of the current Youth Action Panel for 14-22 year olds, which runs from RSPB Rainham Marshes in Essex. The amazing volunteers give up their time to support the RSPB with practical conservation activities, and are environmental leaders; they encourage other young people to get involved with nature, and join the fight to combat climate change.

After meeting with the group several times across the year, I decided to develop a welcome pack and a selection of accompanying visuals (including a set of posters), which will encourage new volunteers to join The Flock. The welcome pack includes:

• A volunteering handbook, in which you can record aspects of your personal conservation journey, e.g., your sightings of particular birds and minibeasts.
• Your own lanyard and ID card, which is personalised with your favourite bird from The Flock. You also get a special logo pin badge to kickstart your volunteering badge collection! As you reach various milestones, you’ll be rewarded with additional pin badges for completing 25, 50, 75, and 100 hours of volunteering.
• Sticker sheets!
• A Wooden Bird House which you can paint however you wish to, in a group painting session! The concept behind this focuses on enabling the young people to get to know their fellow volunteers within the group, whilst engaging in a fun and relaxing activity.
• RSPB Pins - I redesigned the backing cards for the hugely popular RSPB pin badges in a way which appeals to a younger audience and encourages them to start their own RSPB pin badge collection.