Last Updated - 8th Jan 2023
*"We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we've lost our connection to ourselves."
In Western societies, the prevailing worldview has led to humans seeing themselves as increasingly separate from nature. This ‘othering’ of nature is what permits it’s oppression; nature becomes nothing more than a resource to be extracted for short-term human gains. When we other nature, we disconnect from it emotionally and become more able to cause it harm. This is the same mentality that has resulted in terrible impacts on the lives of women, men, people of colour, LGBTQ people, migrants, workers, and the environment.
The UK is also one of the most nature depleted countries in the world and we are overshooting 6 of 9 planetary boundaries - Nature’s health is depleted. Young people’s health is depleted, especially those facing complex transitions. The two are connected. As long as we fail to support young people to see themselves as part of nature we will continue to fuel a Sixth Mass Extinction, perpetuate oppressive forces and put our own species’ survival at risk.
The Visionaries is an impact network and learning platform for educational visionaries - educators and young people helping people and planet to flourish through the power of nature-connected education.
We are a member-owned charity and we use the principles of decentralised organising to empower members in our community to lead nature-based change with young people across the UK.
Our work combines systems change projects in the mainstream education with community-oriented nature-based learning.
<aside> 🌳 Regenerative /definition/
Put simply, something is regenerative when it helps all life to thrive, people and planet, now and in the future.
Regeneration in education means evolving the learning and culture to rehabilitate and enhance the health of the entire ecosystem of a community, society or place.
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We support our community members to guide and strengthen nature connection in young people across the UK, through facilitating workshops, building peer communities, delivering nature immersion camps, and developing open source educational resources for other facilitators, educators and activists to freely use.
We train Visionary Guides to provide young people with ongoing opportunities to connect with nature and be part of a healthy intergenerational community. We are setting up regional community hubs led by our community that facilitate this across the UK.
We also support educators & education institutions (schools, universities, colleges and youth organisations) to lead regenerative change in education. We help to unlock the leadership and agency of everyone within an educational community to play their part in evolving these places of learning to the big social and ecological challenges of our time.
Through our Education work we invite educators and young people to work and learn alongside one another, in their setting and in nature, how to live and learn in ways that promote greater health for all. We currently offer workshops in schools, leadership coaching, educational leadership residentials and culture development work through our Visionary Schools Lab consultancy.
Whilst we are open to all, however we target and prioritise working with visionary young people and visionary educators who have experience of, and are eager to tackle, the intersection of social, racial and environmental injustices.
See more on how we identify and target our key target audience here.