Funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council, the BEYOND project connected young people from MK Academy, St. Paul’s Catholic School and MK College with the natural environment in Milton Keynes.
Focused on Woughton Community Parish, the project created ‘stepping stones’ for young people to connect with nature with a view to further engagement, e.g. through positive behaviour change, volunteering options, educational opportunities, or professional careers. In this post, we outline the stepping stones, represented in the form of five events.
Celebrating BEYOND with some of the young people that attended, and members of the project team.
Event 1 – Landscaping your parish
We held the first of our five events in October, based at the Woughton Community Council Hub. Thirty young people attended. We visited the Woughton Community Garden, learned about growing food, landscaping and machinery. We used leaf blowers and jet washers in team games, and Laura Beechey from the Outdoor Learning team at The Parks Trust came along to tell the young people about their Youth Rangers Scheme. We met members of the landscaping team and learned about their jobs during our dinner, then fed back our findings to the group.
Landscaping your parish, a visual summary by Vicky Bowskill. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Event 2 – Food and Environment
Our second event was also held at the Woughton Community Council Hub, this time in December 2025, with twenty-seven young people attending. A volunteer from Sustainable MK told us about food waste, food distribution and composting. We prepared food, used the smoothie bike to make smoothies and juiced apples using the apple pressing equipment. We learned about environmental science communication and created “zines” about environmental issues with Vicky Bowskill from Inklusive Nature.
Food and Environment, a visual summary by Vicky Bowskill. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Event 3 – Environmental Careers Fair
Our third event was an environmental careers fair held at the Milton Keynes Academy in January 2026, with more than 240 young people attending including 20 from our core group. Thirteen local organisations showcased their work, and offered advice and guidance on a range of environmental careers. We met scientists from the Open University, created visual representations of environmental careers and interviewed a panel of professionals to learn about their roles. We also produced a short film about this event, which is available from this post: Careering BEYOND jobs in the environment.
Environmental Careers, a visual summary by Vicky Bowskill. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Event 4 – Environmental Citizen Science
We returned to the Woughton Community Council Hub for our fourth event, which was held in February 2026 with seventeen young people attending. We learned about citizen science and floodplain meadows research. Some of the group designed a survey using the nQuire platform to find out what would encourage young people to spend more time in nature, whilst others explored how to put together ideas for a research proposal. The young people shared the nQuire survey with friends and students, with thanks to their teachers too, and had 160 responses. The findings will be passed on to local partners.
Citizen science, a visual summary by Vicky Bowskill. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Event 5 – Celebrating BEYOND
We visited the Open University for the final event of the BEYOND Project, in March 2026. Twenty-seven young people attended, including ten that had attended all five of the events. We had a tour of the Living Lab and the eXtended Reality Studios. We met scientists, used scientific equipment to check the chlorophyll in leaves we collected from the Living Lab, and learned about microplastics and microbial bacteria. We also had a whistlestop tour of the findings from the nQuire survey from Event 4.
Celebrating BEYOND, a visual summary by Vicky Bowskill. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
The young people received a certificate, a slice of the BEYOND cake, and a goody bag for participating in the project.
Celebrating the BEYOND Project with some of the young people that had attended all five of the events, and members of the team.
We would like to thank the amazing young people who participated in the project, the wonderful partners and volunteers who have made each event inspiring, and our local education providers who have empowered the young people to connect with their environment and explore environmental career options.
The BEYOND Team
The BEYOND Team were Yoseph Araya, Steve McNay, Shonil Bhagwat, Suze Miller, Richard Holliman, and Tash Darling, featuring Vicky Bowskill on inclusive artwork, and Gerard Giorgi-Coll on filming.
Funding
The BEYOND Project was funded by NERC, The Natural Environment Research Council.