Connecting young people and their families with the restorative power of nature
Connecting young people and their families with the restorative power of nature
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Wild+Kind is a new initiative shaped through lived experience. It helps young people and their families access restorative, nature-based experiences led by outdoor practitioners trained to support a sense of safety and belonging. These experiences aim to rebuild confidence, connection and steadiness for all who need them.
Wild+Kind is a new initiative shaped through lived experience. It helps young people and their families access restorative, nature-based experiences led by outdoor practitioners trained to support a sense of safety and belonging. These experiences aim to rebuild confidence, connection and steadiness for all who need them.
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What is Wild+Kind?
What is Wild+Kind?
Wild+Kind is a digital platform that connects young people and their families with local outdoor experiences led by recognised trauma-sensitive practitioners.
Across the UK, millions of young people and their families face long waits for help that may never arrive. Wild+Kind provides practical, trauma-informed access to restorative experiences in nature when other forms of support are out of reach.
What makes it different?
What makes it different?
Built with lived experience and trauma expertise, ensuring everything is grounded in real-world understanding and inclusive design.
Centred on the needs of young people and their families, recognising that strong relationships are the foundation of recovery and wellbeing.
Connects the brilliant work nature-based practitioners are already doing, making restorative, trauma-sensitive offers easier to find, reach, and sustain.
Provides an accessible digital entry point and personalised pathways, matching people with local, inclusive nature-based experiences that meet their needs.
Fills a national gap, linking users with trusted outdoor programmes through one coordinated system.
Who is Wild+Kind for?
Who is Wild+Kind for?
Wild+Kind is designed with and for young people navigating the impacts of trauma, and for the parents, carers, peers, and trusted adults who support them. By supporting these relationships Wild+Kind helps young people access restorative experiences that build steadiness, confidence, and connection.
It particularly supports those facing systemic barriers to support, including LGBTQ+ young people, care-experienced young people, young carers, refugee and asylum-seeking young people, and young people impacted by racism, systemic exclusion, or bereavement.
For young people and their families
For young people and their families
Access to guided, nature-based experiences shaped around each person's needs and preferences. Wild+Kind offers ongoing opportunities to reconnect for as long as is needed at a pace that feels right.
For support organisations and groups
For support organisations and groups
A coordinated referral route designed with and for the people you support, creating clear pathways into restorative outdoor experiences.
For outdoor practitioners and organisations
For outdoor practitioners and organisations
Endorsed training and recognition for delivering trauma-sensitive outdoor experiences. Support to become part of a growing network of inclusive outdoor spaces hosting trauma-sensitive programmes.
Together, these groups form a supportive ecosystem linking people, places, and practitioners through one national platform.
How you can help shape Wild+Kind
How you can help shape Wild+Kind
Wild+Kind is in its first development phase, and we’re inviting people and organisations to help shape something better from the start - influencing how Wild+Kind feels, functions, and supports real lives.
Wild+Kind is in its first development phase, and we’re inviting people and organisations to help shape something better from the start - influencing how Wild+Kind feels, functions, and supports real lives.
Wild+Kind is being developed through clear phases, from research and co-design, to prototype testing, to regional pilots launching in 2026, each shaped by lived experience and partner collaboration.
Champion the movement: Help make restorative outdoor experiences a visible, trusted option across care, education, and community systems.
Collaborate on development: Co-design national frameworks and tools for trauma-informed outdoor practice, shaping how people are matched to restorative experiences based on needs and readiness.
Fund the initiative: Digital platform development and prototyping, trauma-informed training, and inclusive programme pilots.
Why now?
Why now?
Too many young people and their families face long waits, inconsistent care, or manage trauma alone. While they wait, holding things together takes its toll, and hope can slip further away. What many long for isn’t perfection, only steadier ground and the chance to believe things can get better.
More than one in three children experience trauma by 18, and one in five face a probable mental health challenge - many waiting months or years for help that often retraumatises instead of supports (The Lancet Psychiatry, 2019; NHS England, 2023).
Evidence and experience show that nature can provide a powerful restorative route. Yet those who need this most are often least able to reach it. Wild+Kind helps close this gap with access to restorative outdoor experiences.
We’re ready to pilot and build with the right partners. Your involvement can help turn a proven approach into a national pathway so more people can find a sense of safety, connection, and hope.
Ready to help build Wild+Kind?
Ready to help build Wild+Kind?
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