Poole Town Community Garden isn’t noticeable, or a place people made the effort to visit. It doesn’t have a café, or a garden centre attached. Nor is it large enough to get lost in, although you might happen to stumble past on your way to Poole Quay. But this walled and railed garden, at present a few dormant beds waiting patiently for spring, a neat wooden shed with sides waiting for primary school children to draw on and trees standing ready to shade people sitting amongst wildflowers, is very much noticed, and appreciated by the community it sits within. A community of people from all walks of life, multi-cultural and demographically diverse. A community that could be inspired by nature, connecting with others in green spaces on their doorstep through simple activities of tending a garden, encouraging wildlife, and sharing stories from their own cultural heritage.

Nextdoor Nature has partnered with Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole Homes after their extensive consultation with the community on the fate of the garden. A plan was hatched from this and after a few weeks of hard work the garden was tidied, trees and hedges pruned, and the first community event organised.

The event, held at the end of October encouraged the local community back into the space, to gather more interest in the garden, through conversations, through listening, and gently showing how wildlife could also be encouraged. The ages of people we met ranged from 18 months to 87 years old. Young parents from Poland and Romania living in social housing tower blocks, eager for a space to garden. Elderly people who had lived nearby for 60 years with their children and grandchildren, excited to have a garden on their doorstep once more and a place to watch birds and grow beans. Someone told me they could see the garden from their window and would keep it safe, another has started asking local shops to donate spare plants - from tiny seeds, grow bigger things.

Listening and asking questions is important and the first principle of community organising. From the outset we have adopted a more inclusive approach, where we gently support and suggest activities and projects to the communities, we work in. By joining forces with the organisations who are already listening and motivating support for community action, our hope is to reach more people in a way which is relevant to them. Our remit is always going to be nature’s recovery, but in order to make this happen, we need to inspire those who are not yet inspired to make this happen.

A behaviour change is needed to help nature recover. But this is complex and individual. Empathy is needed for our audience when considering the behaviour change journey we wish to implement. The most effective outcome will reflect the audience’s perspective and process. We can’t change behaviour or reduce negative desire by using negative reasons such as climate emergency and biodiversity depletion.  We must focus on why the person would want to change to the alternative in the first place and use positive emotional triggers, immediate and direct individual benefit and highlight perceived social norms. Providing the alternative in a positive way and removing obstacles to accessing this is important and will enable us to focus our energies to where we can achieve the most acceptance, rather than spreading ourselves too thinly.

However, this doesn’t happen overnight, and we need to be prepared for the long haul. The generous support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to implement Nextdoor Nature across our four Nations, enables us to kickstart a Trust wide approach, empowering communities to take an active interest in their local wildlife.