The healing power of nature
Mission:
Originally founded in South Africa (1956), Wilderness Foundation’s mission remains strong; preserve wild places and change lives through nature. They do this by offering outreach programmes that educate, inspire, and reconnect people who have faced, and continue to face, challenges in their lives. These programmes aim to equip and enable people to acquire skills from within themselves to navigate their futures safely and successfully. Wilderness Foundation works to keep people healthy and our planet wild!
Wilderness Foundation creates opportunities for those wishing to learn more about their relationship with the natural world and what they can do to protect it. The Wilderness Foundation’s education and therapy programmes help young people and adults reconnect with society, and themselves, through outdoor facilitation adventures and mentoring.
Their programmes highlight the positive impact of nature on personal and social wellbeing. Developing stewardship for nature and wild places is imbued through the teaching of Leave No Trace Ethics, alongside volunteering opportunities.
Why It Matters:
LEWIS supports Wilderness Foundation’s TurnAround Project for vulnerable youths. This is an ongoing programme for young people who have been through unimaginable difficulties in their childhood. This programme offers kindness, no judgement, and goes the extra mile to help those involved become independent, eventually enabling them to walk away with strong foundations to move forwards.
The Wilderness Foundation does not only play a vital role in helping these young people overcome huge personal difficulties but does so by finding a common passion through nature and conservation. Research by Essex University shows that the Wilderness Therapy Immersion weeks have the biggest effect on changing young people’s behaviour and aspirations. The TurnAround Project has an 85% success rate in employability and further education for young people who started with no hope and little to live for.
“Volunteering for Wilderness Foundation has enabled me to develop a strong connection with the cause and individuals associated, therefore for LEWIS Global Communications to be donating so generously is not only incredible but also inspirational.” – Jessica Cross, Account Coordinator, LEWIS London.
