A guide to creating a guide to creating a guide!

Caretakers Project was initiated by the team at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve to a) pool the collective knowledge and experience of people to take care of green spaces b) create a helpful resource that could be used to train, skill up, inspire others working and volunteering in similar roles.

We got together with a group at Bethnal Green to work out what type of guides were missing. You can see examples of these guides here: xxxx

We are now seeking submissions from other caretakers of London’s green and blue spaces. We are looking for:

• Guides around wetland ecosystems, woodland ecosystems and meadow ecosystems for now

• These could share an insight, practical tips, hidden stories, learnings from personal experience

• Write in whatever style and language feels comfortable for you - we can always Google Translate! If writing is not your thing we can arrange to transcribe spoken word instead - just get in touch.

Tips! What these guides are

- Short: Keep your guide about something specific rather than taking on a huge subject. For example, “How to create a mushroom log” rather than “How to identify every mushroom in the UK!” The guide should take up no more than 2 A4 pages (see the published guides for reference).

- Tools for others to use: There must be learnings or guidance people can apply to their own site or volunteering. It must be useful and understandable by others.

- Urban ecology and grass roots focused: For now, we are focusing on sites that are looked after by groups and individuals in London’s extensive urban ecologies. Community garden’s, plots, friends-of groups, allotments, urban growing projects, tiny forests etc. For now, a guide on the Peak District or the Royal Parks isn’t quite right.

- Personal: Share your own personal anecdotes, experiences, revelations and failures. This is about sharing the human side and untold reality of doing this work.

- Adaptable: These guides are also not about being an expert! 100’s of those exist already, these are about missing knowledge, or the bits of learning that get overlooked. They can also be adapted, revised and a later date.

Next steps?

Let’s get you on the right track before you spend a long time writing! Kindly complete this quick Google Form and we’ll be in touch asap!

​​https://forms.gle/wcubJfwdNMA9...

Kindly note that this project is currently unfunded and run by volunteers so there may be some delay in our response.

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Written by Becky Lyon