CCC Next Generation
Neil Marshment Photography
Following on from the success of the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Partnership Scheme (CCC), which ended in November 2024, our “Next Generation” project continues until November 2025. This project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, using a small amount of underspend from the main scheme, aims to explore and develop new ways of working with young people, across the nature and heritage sectors.
The project builds on work done in the latter stages of CCC by arts consultancy INSTAR, which investigated how young people in and around High Wycombe feel about their local landscape and how they want to interact with it. Delivery partners Chiltern Rangers, Amersham Museum, Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), Wycombe Museum, and the Chilterns National Landscape are being given funded time this year to explore ways of working with young people which they haven’t done before – based on some of the recommendations from INSTAR’s work. The partners all wanted to know more about engaging and working with young people in nature and heritage, and have spent several months stepping out of their comfort zones – exploring new approaches and ways of reaching a more diverse range of young people.
The ultimate aim of the project is to help organisations better connect with young people, making their work, voluntary opportunities, and offers more accessible and encouraging more young people to get involved in conservation and heritage activities and engage more with their local landscape.
For the first few months of the project, the partners worked with consultant Trish from INSTAR, and the Project Manager, to explore ideas and new ways of working. This then led into the delivery phase, when during the spring and early summer of 2025, partners worked with youth organisations and young people themselves to develop and test out new approaches, aiming to build this into their offer for young people. This resulted in some fantastic activity a huge amount of learning, that the partnership came together to review and reflect on in September 2025, before sharing everything in a public webinar in October ’25. Read on down the page to learn about each of the projects, most of which the partners will be continuing well into the future!
Sharing our learning
The project partners held a webinar in October 2025 to share their experiences, for anyone interested in working with young people within heritage and nature.
View the slides presented by the partners about their activity and key learning, as well as read Q&A between the attendees and partners.
Watch the Video
Youth Voice, Your Way – Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT)
Through this project (and more widely through their Community Organising approach), BBOWT is exploring the voice of young people in the operation and governance of nature and heritage organisations to enable more relevance to young people. In addition, they are looking at ways to be able to support their Community Network of groups and small organisations to help them learn from and engage with young people, so that their offer is more relevant, leading to more, and more meaningful involvement with young people.
BBOWT works with a community organising approach to collaboration and as such they will be using listening sessions with young people and groups to answer questions such as: how things work for young people, how can we support young people to take action for nature in a way that is meaningful for them (e.g. land management, advocacy, campaigning)? The information from the various ‘listening exercises’ is being collated and will be shared in the October online session.
Next Generation Approach – Chilterns National Landscape
This spring, the Chilterns National Landscape team worked with colleagues, youth professionals, and other organisations to explore how the Chilterns National Landscape and its partners can better reflect and respond to the needs of the next generation.
This is about learning from real experiences, understanding barriers, and identifying opportunities to ensure the Chilterns remains relevant and meaningful. By listening to those who work with young people and hearing directly from them, we can build a stronger foundation for future plans.
The insights we gather will help define how Chilterns National Landscape evolves its work with young people – whether facilitating, delivering or signposting. The approach will be shared in the October online session.
Building Youth Connections – Wycombe Museum
Wycombe Museum is keen to fill the gap in their provision for young people, and they are trying several new approaches to find the best way to do this:
- Hosting several 17 year old work experience students at the museum, giving them an insight into how the museum works, co-developing elements around the collection, generating content for the website and social media and getting feedback from the young people about how to make their experience better.
- Listening to their youth volunteers (16 to 19 year olds) to seek feedback on a more considered approach to the collection, hopefully developing content around their experiences of the collection and/or Wycombe.
- The museum will invite local youth groups to the museum to work with them and their collection, to rethink the way the museums tells our stories, as well as engage with groups they already work with to look at how to develop relationships and further empower young people.
The museum will be holding open/loosely structured sessions for young people with a focus on our collections, the chair story of Wycombe, but also their place in High Wycombe and what matters to them. They will ensure that each session has space for them to follow their interest/needs while also supporting them in engaging with the collections. Older teens will be given relatively free reign to develop content, with support, with the aim to have teen relevant content, written by young people, on the museum’s website and social media. These activities have led to some real insights so far – and these will be shared in the October online session.
Nature Unlocked – Chiltern Rangers
Chiltern Rangers is building on their existing work and expertise with young people by bringing together teenagers and youth professionals for a series of hands-on sessions with a difference. There’ll be practical outdoor activities, as well as sharing ideas, building further connections with a variety of youth organisations; all shaping what happens next.
One of the standout moments was a campfire session for youth professionals and teachers – a relaxed, open space to connect, reflect, and exchange ideas around how nature fits into the lives of the young people they support. Two sessions in the late summer were left deliberately open – ready to be shaped by the voices and ideas that come through in earlier sessions. Young people will also play a central role behind the scenes, helping co-curate the programme and influence how it all comes together. Find out what happened in our October online session!
Bring it Back – Amersham Museum
Working with a completely new group – those returning from university to the local area – Amersham Museum is working with Wild Amersham and the local parish church on a short, high-energy, burst of action project exploring hidden wildlife, investigating the past, rediscovering a town space, and making a real impact.
Young people have shaped the programme itself, both in terms of name, content, messages etc – and as a result have uncovered forgotten history, boosted local biodiversity, and brought fresh life to spaces, all whilst learning new skills and making connections with local people and places. Come along to our October learning session to hear more about it.
Meet the team
