As part of our on-going collaboration with the London Wildlife Trust at Walthamstow Wetlands (http://www.walthamstow-wetlands.org.uk/) the Hydrocitizenship team helped out at their Volunteer Roadshow (12th March 2016).
It was a really positive day of learning and sharing ideas with the morning involving working with members of the existing community engagement volunteer team to run our interactive research training session. In the afternoon we ran a participatory cultural mapping stall to capture the views of the many prospective volunteers that came along to find out about the project and how they could get involved.
Understanding why current and potential visitors use and value the site is really important to a project like Walthamstow Wetlands and the volunteers will be key to collating that data. Part of that research process involves the volunteers developing a set of basic research skills around the purpose, approach, ethics, good practice and logistics of visitor surveying. To help build these skills our training session involved a range of interactive exercises including research simulation through role-play. The team got the chance to test out their new skills on Sunday when following a guided walk of the wetlands we worked as a combined research team to survey the visitors. Rachel Smith, Walthamstow Wetlands Engagement Officer, had lovely things to say about our contribution! ‘It is a pleasure to work with the Hydrocitizenship team who contributed hugely to the days’ success through research technique training and cultural mapping with the volunteers’.
It was a really positive day of learning and sharing ideas with the morning involving working with members of the existing community engagement volunteer team to run our interactive research training session. In the afternoon we ran a participatory cultural mapping stall to capture the views of the many prospective volunteers that came along to find out about the project and how they could get involved.
Understanding why current and potential visitors use and value the site is really important to a project like Walthamstow Wetlands and the volunteers will be key to collating that data. Part of that research process involves the volunteers developing a set of basic research skills around the purpose, approach, ethics, good practice and logistics of visitor surveying. To help build these skills our training session involved a range of interactive exercises including research simulation through role-play. The team got the chance to test out their new skills on Sunday when following a guided walk of the wetlands we worked as a combined research team to survey the visitors. Rachel Smith, Walthamstow Wetlands Engagement Officer, had lovely things to say about our contribution! ‘It is a pleasure to work with the Hydrocitizenship team who contributed hugely to the days’ success through research technique training and cultural mapping with the volunteers’.