Take Action for Nature: Free Wilder Community Champions Training

admin
, 03 September 2025
Take Action for Nature: Free Wilder Community Champions Training
Frog © Dale Sutton / 2020vision

By Polly Kitson

Head of Wilder Communities 

Do you want to care for a local outdoor space with others in your community? Or are you keen to support or organise a campaign for nature? 

Wilder Community Champions training could be for you. 

Our Wilder Communities team at Sussex Wildlife Trust supports and advises local groups. We know there's a huge appetite for taking more action for nature, all across Sussex. That's why we're about to start providing free training programmes, designed to support more adults and community groups to take meaningful steps for wildlife and wild places.

We aim to build confidence, share practical skills, and connect like-minded people who are ready to make a difference. You don’t need any prior experience - just a love for nature and a desire to help it thrive.

Want to find out more?

Join us for our launch webinar - a relaxed and informative session where you can find out more about the training, ask questions, and meet the team.

Weds 24 September 2025
6.30 - 7.15pm
Online (Zoom)

Sign up for the introduction to Wilder Community Champions

There’s no obligation to sign up for the training programme; it’s simply a chance to explore whether this opportunity is right for you.

Please note: the Wilder Community Champions training is currently suitable for over-18s. If you are under 18 you may be interested in our Youth Action opportunities. 

Leave a comment

Comments

  • David Field:

    I run a local Nature Recovery Network group. We have successfully raised funds to install barn owl and little owl nesting boxes in a 5 mile corridor. We are now campaigning for dark skies, with the aim of being certified as an international dark sky community

    04 Sep 2025 10:42:00

  • Chris Burt:

    I have been maintaining the churchyard at South Malling, Lewes for 18 years. I took part in the Down Town, Lewes project back in 2012/2013 with Michael Blencowe. Following advice given, I continue to work with nature (wild flowers & wildlife). I now have a small group of volunteers who assist. Our churchyard is now a beautiful wildlife haven & much admired by the local community.

    04 Sep 2025 10:51:00

  • MaryParkerHi:

    Hi, I am now old and disabled but very much in contact with East Chiltington, Plumption and St. John Without residents. A couple of years ago I managed to get the verge opposite my house designated as a wildlife verge. So your wilder community champions training might be of use to me.

    04 Sep 2025 12:25:00

  • Gabrielle argent:

    I would like to do this but cannot make 6.30pm. Will it be recorded please?

    04 Sep 2025 16:52:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    If you sign up, we will send out the recording after the event

  • Belinda Webb-Blofeld:

    Intro to Wilder Community Champions

    04 Sep 2025 18:24:00

  • Tina Harris-Ross:

    I am part of a local group Seaford Action For Nature so this looks right up my street!

    05 Sep 2025 06:29:00

  • Tina Harris-Ross:

    I am part of a local nature conservation group

    05 Sep 2025 06:30:00

  • Kristina Anne Banner:

    I am on holiday on 24th so may not be able to attend, I have signed up though! Will you be running more sessions as I would love to get more involved in restoring the natural world. Thank you Kristina 🙏

    05 Sep 2025 08:22:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    If you sign up, we will send out the recording after the event

  • Samantha Smithson:

    we are a Friends group aimed at recovery of our local river SSSI protecting saltmarsh and intertidal mud for migratory birds – it is designated unfavourable and in decline. I am keen to grow my knowledge and skills for this work

    06 Sep 2025 08:26:00

  • Jack Broadley:

    Interested in joining this.

    07 Sep 2025 15:50:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    Great. Please do sign up for the zoom  https://us02web.zoom.us/webina...

  • Virginia Pullan:

    I am away for the webinar but would like to learn more about this opportunity

    08 Sep 2025 08:39:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    Hi Virginia, you can find out more and register interest in the training via these pages:

    Become a Wilder Community Champion


  • James Long:

    Very fortunate to own an 11 acre patch of unimproved grassland in the wider ‘National Character Area’ of the High Weald.

    Since buying the land, have unintentionally become obsessed with creating/restoring species rich grassland.. Weald Meadows Partnership, and Colin Reader have helped point us further in the right direction.. Lots of seed collected and some good species added to the site already. Have even managed to source some UK field cow wheat seed. Currently in a pot with grass host, awaiting spring..

    Would be interested in the wilder community champion training, assisting with it, or in any opportunity to learn more and make further progress with grassland enhancement. Would be great to pass the ‘bug’ onto others.

    (We have our own ryetec flail mower collector, hoping to get hay making kit sorted too – so we can manage our own grassland to improve species diversity, + assist others with their sites.)

    08 Sep 2025 19:55:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    Thanks James. Please do sign up for the course. 

  • Anna Muten:

    Hi, I’m keen to attend this training, but am not available on 24th September for this intro session. Will there be other opportunities and whe will the training be? Thanks

    15 Sep 2025 20:00:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    Hi Anna. Yes, the training itself will be ongoing, so plenty of opportunity to get involved with any of the champions roles that we are showcasing at the intro session/launch webinar. The initial webinar will be recorded, so you can watch back if you can't make the date. Keep an eye on this page from 26th Sept: Become a Wilder Community Champion | Sussex Wildlife Trust



Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782554962.75590 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782554962.78680.0309Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782554962.7870.0002Server address: 216.73.216.31
1782554962.78710.0001Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782554962.78710Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/take-action-for-nature-free-wilder-community-champions-training
    [s] => take-action-for-nature-free-wilder-community-champions-training
    [1] => take-action-for-nature-free-wilder-community-champions-training
)
1782554962.78740.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.78820.0008 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782554962.79020.002 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782554962.79070.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782554962.79270.002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22344588
1782554962.79330.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22344588
1782554962.79390.0007 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-06-27 10:09:00' AND saleTo>'2026-06-27 10:09:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782554962.79520.0013 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='take-action-for-nature-free-wilder-community-champions-training')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 10:09:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782554962.79820.003 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782554962.79880.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3769 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 10:09:00'
1782554962.79970.0009 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782554962.80040.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782554962.80120.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=278 LIMIT 1
1782554962.80190.0007Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782554962.80210.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782554962.8030.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 10:09:00' AND postSlug='take-action-for-nature-free-wilder-community-champions-training'
1782554962.82440.0214Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782554962.8250.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782554962.82650.0015Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782554962.82670.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782554962.82760.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782554962.82910.0015 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782554962.83210.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.83270.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782554962.83470.002Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782554962.83470 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782554962.83550.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782554962.83590.0004 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782554962.83760.0016 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782554962.83810.0006 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782554962.83850.0004 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782554962.84040.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.84120.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782554962.84320.002 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782554962.84360.0004Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782554962.84390.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1782554962.84450.0006Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782554962.84480.0003 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='take-action-for-nature-free-wilder-community-champions-training')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 10:09:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782554962.84670.0019 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782554962.84730.0006 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782554962.84930.0021Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782554962.850.0006 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3769 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782554962.90140.0514 [13] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782554962.90410.0027Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782554962.90420.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1782554962.90520.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782554962.9060.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782554962.90660.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782554962.90870.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.90920.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782554962.9110.0018 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782554962.91210.0011 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782554962.91260.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782554962.9130.0004 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782554962.91520.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.91570.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782554962.91750.0018 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782554962.92070.0032 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782554962.92140.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782554962.92210.0006 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782554962.92430.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.92480.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782554962.92680.0019 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782554962.92880.0021 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782554962.92940.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782554962.930.0005 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782554962.93210.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782554962.93260.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782554962.93450.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782554962.93620.0017Request time: 0.1835
1782554962.93620Process time: 0.1833
1782554962.93620Memory: 1.6224