Vision
Trees for Cities
Inspiring people to plant and love trees in cities worldwide.
We work with communities to plant trees in parts of cities that need it most. We grow stronger neighbourhoods, enhance urban landscapes and improve health and happiness.
Trees for Food
‘Trees for Food’ is about reintroducing trees grown for fruit or nuts back into the local landscape. Food is travelling further than ever before, often thousands of miles from where it was produced. This means a loss of traditional varieties and local character. There is also significant damage to the environment and contribution to climate change.
Fruit and nut trees are being eradicated from schools and public spaces in response to a variety of fears and an ever-increasing sterilisation of our environment.
'Trees for Food' is about bringing local people together to ignite a culture of growing trees for food in schools and public spaces.
'Trees for Food' is undertaking activities and workshops, which look at food miles and explore ideas of what food could be grown locally within the community. It is about learning how to grow fruit and nuts and setting up systems to look after, harvest and use them so that they are part of a fully functioning, sustainable space, cherished for many years to come.
Trees for Learning
Trees provide an ideal focus for learning in the classroom, where every subject covered in the National Curriculum can be illuminated by looking at trees: from geography to history to citizenship to mathematics.
Trees are also an excellent subject for further education be it vocational training or just gaining a new practical skill.
‘Trees for Learning’ is about more than academic and vocational learning. Trees and the natural environment can also provide a catalyst for learning about yourself and others through testing your own abilities both physical and emotional, building confidence, self-esteem and self-motivation.
‘Trees for Learning’ is about providing opportunities for learning across the spectrum.
- We go into primary and secondary schools to set up classroom and outdoor-based workshops
- We run training programmes in horticulture and arboriculture for long term unemployed people
- We coordinate Unit Awards available for volunteers to undertake in a day at Community Planting Days
- We hold a range of community gardening workshops.
Trees for Play
‘Trees for Play’ is about getting people of all ages back in touch with trees and plants. Scare stories and crime statistics have made us fearful of the natural environment, seeing trees as hazards and woodlands as places where danger lurks.
We have all become disconnected from the natural environment, kept away from trees and plants by fences, railings and ‘keep off’ signs. Lower limbs of trees are removed making them impossible to climb.
'Trees for Play' means challenging our perceptions of how our public spaces should look. Out with the manicured lawns and sterile bedding plants and in with beautiful but messy, well used and well loved spaces.
'Trees for Play' takes children out into woodlands and open spaces to teach them survival skills like making fires and shelters; woodland arts and crafts; group challenges and story telling.
Allowing children to play in more natural environments gives them freedom and allows them to experience risk, challenge and excitement. Something a purpose-built, safety-surfaced playground cannot offer.
Trees for Streets
'Trees for Streets' is about raising awareness of the importance of street trees. Often our footways are so congested with signs, lampposts and CCTV cameras that there is no room left for trees.
A street is more than just a thoroughfare; it's a vital community space. All residents should demand the right to a tree-lined street the way they demand other services such as lighting or rubbish collection.
'Trees for Streets' is about championing large, majestic trees, space and architecture allowing, that will grace our streets for hundreds of years to come.
It is also about making sure trees planted are suited to the hostile and polluted surroundings and provide a positive impact on the local environment, through carbon absorption and filtering of dust and pollutants.
The 'Trees for Streets' programme engages local residents and businesses in discussion about street trees, providing opportunities to discuss likes, dislikes, aspirations and concerns in order to find a solution that works for everyone.
Trees for Volunteering
‘Trees for Volunteering’ is about finding new ways to open up access to volunteering.
In our current climate of financial doom and gloom, people are looking for more altruistic outlets for their energy. Many people experience barriers to accessing volunteering opportunities geographically, socially or culturally.
'Trees for Volunteering’ is about breaking down those barriers and giving everyone from all sectors of our community the chance to get out, meet new friends and do something worthwhile for the local community.
‘Trees for Volunteering’ offers a variety of different ways in which people can volunteer. It brings the opportunities to them in a format that they can relate to which fits in with their lives.
Trees and tree planting have long been seen as a symbolic way of doing something good for the environment. From weekend fun days to resident gardening projects, from corporate challenges to volunteering skills in our office. Planting a tree is not only great environmentally; it is also a very rewarding experience.
