What does the future look like for Intrepid Landcare?
Each year, the Intrepid Landcare Board comes together at a retreat in person to catch up, reconnect, re-energise and set out our intentions for the coming year and the future of Intrepid Landcare.
This year, after rescheduling due to the bushfires, COVID-19 called our bluff and we had to move online.
But, this actually offered us with the opportunity to open the invitation up to anyone with a passion for the environment, interested in contributing to the work of Intrepid Landcare – to come together, to strengthen our community, explore new possibilities and co-create the future of Intrepid Landcare. And the online retreat was full of conversations that matter!
To share those conversations, we will be posting a series of blogs over the coming weeks.
We hosted a series of breakout sessions to explore the future of Intrepid Landcare. While many unanswered questions emerged, those who shared their considered, thoughtful insights informed actions Intrepid Landcare, as a national organisation, can do and help facilitate.
One of the questions that was explored:
What Intrepid Landcare can do to enable you/young people/communities to do stuff that matters?
Six key themes emerged from this conversation – People, Sense, Community, Judgement, Involvement and Stories.
The central theme that emerged was ‘people’, which directly relates to our mission as an organisation to empower young people to lead on stuff that matters. This confirmed our direction to keep focusing on enabling you/young people!
A theme that was highly relational to ‘people’ was ‘sense’ – being aware of the space we create for people to ‘learn and share’. This speaks to the need to keep creating safe spaces for you/young people to network, connect and thrive as a community and in local communities. Someone mentioned the need to connect ‘human to human, community to community (not about experts)’. This related to an ongoing need to let go of ‘judgement’, as ‘it doesn’t matter who you are, what knowledge or experience you have had, we are all here to learn from each other, that sparks conversations’.
The need to create authentic connections without judgement was also relational to participation and employability pathways Intrepid Landcare opens. There are many young people who have connected with Intrepid Landcare and have since entered an environmental/agriculture career! Understanding participation and employability pathways is an ongoing interest of Intrepid Landcare.
Community, community, community! ‘The power of ‘community’ and working together’ is what Intrepid Landcare is, and will continue to be, all about. The importance of community highlights ‘the how we enable you/young people’ to get ‘involved’ in stuff that matters.
- ‘Leverage the skills that already exist’
- ‘Host space for more conversations – online, Zoom, travelling roadshow (when we can!)’
- ‘Invite people, have simple conversations, it is relationship building’
- ‘Peer-to-peer mentorship between groups and regionally-close groups’
- ‘Explain what we are and who we are is a conversation starter’
‘Intrepid Landcare is welcoming and open to [creating spaces for young people]… to express [themselves]. It doesn’t matter who you are (e.g. those who may not be as experienced or knowledgable, there is no judgement!)’
Some unanswered questions that emerged from this conversation included:
- What makes people feel invited?
- How do we maintain culture when we scale?
- How to empower people to offer support where and when it’s needed?
But some actions also emerged:
Action 1: ‘Figure out how to breakdown confidence barriers for young people to see themselves as being part of Intrepid Landcare’
This will fall into our ongoing research that monitors and evaluates our projects and programs. In due course (when we can), we will publish more recent knowledge. We have previously shared our insights into understanding the importance of pre-engagement, the power of invitation in our resource titled, Tips and ideas to support young people to create change.
Action 2: ‘Be more visible and post opportunities that are easy to find and to get involved’
We are seeking to create a comms group of about three-to-five people to create content for our blog, socials and newsletter. This might involve 1-5hrs a week depending on your availability. We are the process of filling this position and if you are interested please give us a hoy!
