Community outreach
We all depend on the natural environment for our health and wellbeing and thanks to protected landscapes like our National Trails, we have access to truly special places.
We help over 9 million people every year access the coast as a place to be active, relax or spend quality time with family and friends, and all part of a happy, healthy lifestyle. We also reach out to those in the community who may not have had opportunities to get out exploring the Coast Path, making sure they have the support they need to go walking.
To find out more about our current Coast Path Connectors Project click here.
Or read below about our previous work.
Connecting Actively to Nature
As part of our charitable mission to ensure everyone has access to the Coast Path, we’re working to inspire and support people to get active and stay active, so they can reap the health benefits of walking. Working in partnership with Active Devon as part of the Connecting Actively to Nature (CAN) programme, we ran projects for people aged over 55 in Devon aimed at getting them more active. These projects not only have a good social aspect to them but they also connect people to our world-famous walking trail right on their doorstep. One such project was called Couch to Coast. It follows the popular model of ‘Couch to 5k’, but instead of getting people running, we take them from sitting on the sofa to cruising along the Coast Path! Read our 2021 blog which highlights ways in which this project helps mental wellbeing.
Connecting Actively to Nature Report
Between 2019 and 2023 we successfully completed 10 projects across Devon with over 250 people taking part. Read our summary of the the first 8 projects and discover more about how the CAN programme has encouraged participants to continue their active journey with the coast and nature.
Read the report
A Walking Welcome
Walking the Coast Path is one of the ways we connect to the country we live in and is hugely beneficial to our physical and mental wellbeing. However, for people who have come to the country as a refugee or asylum seeker, exploring the countryside can be a daunting prospect. That’s why we’re working in partnership with Devon & Cornwall Refugee Support (DCRS) and Fotonow CIC to introduce asylum seekers from around the world to the South West Coast Path.
We continue to work with DCRS in our Coast Path Connectors Project.
Read our 2020 blog
For the walks that were completed during Summer 2021, the participants put together a Photo Guidebook which can be viewed here.
Or watch the video below to learn more about the project
Young people on the Path
We love getting people of all ages out exploring the Coast Path. So in the Summer 2022, it was great to work in collaboration with CEET (Community Environmental Educational Therapy) CIC, and with expert tuition from Fotonow, in leading some exploration sessions with young people from 2 local schools on the Coast Path in North Devon. Read more about it in our news article here.
Below are the videos and photographs they took during the sessions.
The two new motion cameras are available for other groups in North Devon to borrow – get in touch to find out more.
This project has been supported by the North Devon Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’s (AONB) Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) which is funded by Defra. The SDF supports projects such as this one which brings environmental, social or economic benefit to the North Devon Coast AONB.