our work with young people
Growing creative, ecological and connected young people for a just world
Our work focuses on children and young people so that they can reach their full potential, thrive in their own lives, and become agents of social and environmental change.
Our youth leadership and social action programmes are developed in response to local and global contexts of young people’s lives, aiming to bring positive and nature-led experiences in a world of division, climate emergency, social injustices, eco-anxiety and the ever increasing presence of phones and social media.
Our framework of ‘I, We and the Planet’ underpins all our work, highlighting the interconnection between self, others and the earth:
‘I’ - Developing a deeper sense of ‘I’
‘We’ - Creating opportunities for an inclusive and diverse sense of ‘We’ amongst different types of people and the wider natural world
‘Planet’ - Delivering practical hands on projects that make a tangible difference to the ‘Planet’, in the present and for the future
OUR PROJECTS
Across our different projects, we aim to help young people who grow up in urban environments develop deep, embodied relationships with nature - relationships that shape who they become, how they see the world, and the values they carry into adulthood. This is not about one-off environmental education or exposure. It is about experience, stewardship and belonging. By nurturing relationships between young people and place, we help to seed a generation who care about nature not as an abstract issue, but as something personal and relational, shaping their values, identities and long-term behaviour.
SCHOOLS
We work with all educational settings, from nurseries, primary and secondary schools to colleges and specialist schools, providing ‘out of the classroom’ experiential learning in our gardens for school groups. In these sessions, students develop their creativity, learn new skills and improve their wellbeing through activities such as outdoor nature connection, cooking, ceramics, woodworking, gardening, weaving and more. We can also support schools to set up and maintain gardens in their school grounds, through engaging the students in the learning. For the past six years we have partnered with Bertha Earth Programmes and engaged over 300 students across London.
Generators
The Generator programme our after-school youth leadership and nature inspired programme — and it’s where everything began. Running weekly for over 20 years, up to 60 young people aged 10–18 come together to learn, share ideas, and take action on the things they care about. It’s a space to build confidence and awareness, make new friends and grow. Through hands-on activities, conversations, and time spent in our urban gardens, we explore social and environmental issues and think about how we can make a difference. Along the way, young people develop the skills and resilience to care for the Earth, support its communities, and help shape a more just and greener future.
Fellows
The Fellows programme is a progression opportunity from the Generator Programme and it is a paid opportunity for young people aged 18–25. In the programme, Fellows learn how to use action research to help creatively document and evaluate our projects. They also receive training in co-facilitation through hands-on experience in supporting workshops and activities. They’re also offered extra freelance opportunities that help them build new skills, such as public speaking opportunities representing Global Generation at events, public consultations and in media.
Trainees
The traineeship is a paid practical learning programme focused on sustainable design and building, heritage crafts, landscaping and gardening skills, aimed at 18 - 25 year olds. Through a four month programme, trainees work as a team, develop their social and emotional capacities and learn green skills for the future on a live construction site. The final phase is completing in 2026 and we are looking to redesign it based on our learnings and relaunch it.
“Dear future garden, I hope that for 1000 years this will be great and green for all the generations that have not yet come. ”
impact & Outputs
Creativity with nature at its core
We invite young people to engage with nature in a multidisciplinary way, through different ways of knowing. We delve deeply into topical themes that young people respond to creatively through a variety of practices, such as woodwork, crafts, event hosting, storytelling, art, creative writing and photography. Recently, our Paper Garden Generators designed The Big Book of Birds, Bugs, a Bridge and Beyond. This activity book explored the Canada Water Dock and surrounding area and the wildlife that thrived there. Read the digital version
sHARING THEIR VOICES
Reflection is built into all our programmes, from individual freefall writing to theatre performances. We have collaborated with partners like Complicité and Chickenshed to develop theatrical interpretations focused on themes of water and earth. In 2020, young people took a journey into the healing power of plants and responded to their experiences with movements, songs, illustrations and stories. The project, called Voices of the Earth, was born linking arms with international touring company Complicité empowering young people with theatre workshops in parks, designing sounds and singing circles in our urban gardens. Listen to our recordings . Listen to our recordings
shaping their physical environment
We call our spaces ‘Gardens of a thousand hands’ because 1,000s of people are involved in the making of them. Our Generators in particular are given even more scope to design physical elements of the built environment. Many have been involved in the community builds of our sites and can point to the brick or piece of wood that they helped to put in place. Recently, Generators in Kings Cross explored the British Library Archives and helped to design, create and build an outdoor planter for the Piazza. Our South London Generators have worked with YesMake! to build a bridge from reclaimed and renewably sourced timber to be installed above the re-designed pond.
Progression and skills Building
We aim to build young people’s skills to support them in accessing future opportunities. Many of our staff members and our Chair of Trustees started their journey with us as Generators, and have progressed to become fellows, trainees, paid members of staff and trustees. Their first hand experiences of our programmes and insights are invaluable in shaping the work we do.
“It was such an incredibly rich and wonderful experience working with you....you planned every session so meticulously and with such care to take our students’ needs into account.”
Grow within our gardens
From generator to fellow to action researcher to employed facilitator, Cassie is just one member of our staff team who has come up through our programmes. Learn about her journey as well as the range of confidence and skills building activities we organise in and outside of our gardens.
Support our work
To collaborate on future programming, speak to the team or to support our continued youth work and programming you can donate or become a monthly supporter.
“Eleven years after first joining Global Generation, I can proudly say that while I still can’t handle insects for the life of me, a lot of key components of my identity are grounded to my relationship with nature and I can’t imagine me without being in this space”
