Inspiring Young People

The Prince's Trust participants and supervisors at New Ferry Butterfly Park

Around one in five young people in the UK are not in work, education or training. The Prince’s Trust runs a 12 week Team Programme where 16-25 year olds get involved in several personal development activities to help them achieve one of these goals. For the 'contribution to the local community' part of the programme, New Ferry Butterfly Park was fortunate to be selected. There were eight eager participants and two supervisors who came for seven workdays despite the heavy rain every time they came.

They cleared areas of bramble patches which slowly take over rough grassland and these cleared patches will allow cocksfoot grass to flourish and help our most faithful butterfly the speckled wood. They trimmed a willow at the entrance to make it easier to get in and removed the reed mace from the brick pit so you can now see the pond.  

Thank you very much to The Prince’s Trust Team 124 and their supervisors, Jodie and Susie, for inspiring the team. At the end of all this hard work the participants demonstrated team work by hosting a celebratory event at the park with the principal of Wirral Metropolitan College, Sue Higginson, attending. Primroses were ceremoniously planted, and certificates presented. One inspirational moment was the ownership these students had evidently taken of their projects as they gave a tour to family and friends to view what they had achieved.

The aim of the programme is to uncover hidden talents, encourage responsibility for tasks, gain awareness of their local community and how they can contribute to it and develop team-working and communication skills. All of these aspects were covered at the project at the park.

We hope some of them catch the conservation bug so they can join in again to be involved in further workdays, or come back to enjoy the park in the summer with the inspiring grasslands full of flowers bees and butterflies.