November has been a busy month with all our programmes running regularly and getting involved in a wide variety of activities in greenspaces across Edinburgh – child led play (lots of mud kitchen fun!) at Bawsinch, relaxing in hammocks in the woods at Capielaw, tree planting at Craiglockhart, making natural Christmas crafts with Pilrig Park school, orienteering at Hermitage of Braid, removing invasive species at Hopetoun house and so much more! Amongst all that, and with the days getting colder, there was lots of time to connect around the fire with hot chocolates and toasted marshmallows.
Away from our projects with young people it has been all about our volunteers. We ran two child protection training sessions and a tools maintenance training session to make sure that we reduce waste by increasing the life span of our equipment. We even squeezed in an induction weekend for new volunteers to meet each other and learn lots of skills and games that will help them to support young people on projects. It was lovely to welcome back an old Green Team face as a new volunteer:
“I am incredibly gratefully for the skills, knowledge and experience I gained whilst on placement with the Green Team in 2014. This was where I did most my learning that set me up for a career in Youth Work. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here, so much so that’s years later I am returning a volunteer and looking forward to being a part of the green team once more!”