We aim to create deep emotional connections with the natural world around us and to reconnect everyone who joins our courses with THEIR own true wild nature.
We want to inspire children to climb trees in the woods, to run in wild meadows, explore rock-pools along the shore, scramble over rocks, splash in muddy puddles, paddle in streams, pick wild fruits, light fires, make bow and arrows, to go outside, get muddy, make friends and fall in love with nature again!
We want children to play free and be wild. To do this we want to help everyone, to break down some of the barriers that stop children playing outside. We want to support parents, families and communities to work together, so we can all be outside more, we can all have the confidence to let them play freely. We need to rewild, for us and for the future sustainability of our planet.
“For me there is nothing more pressing, nothing more important than remembering that we are part of nature, and not separate from it. Our very survival as a species depends on it.”
Luke Funnell - Founder and Director
WE ARE NATURE
What is Rewilding?
We recognise now that mass industrialisation and mass agriculture has caused huge problems for the land and sea. Species have disappeared. Soil has become depleted. Pollution has been shown to have devastating consequences. The effects of climate change are starting to become tangible.
What has happened to the land, the species and the soil acts as a mirror for us. The land and the sea needs rewilding. What has happened to children, to young people and to adults is similarly devastating.
Rewilding is a way of supporting the land and sea to return to a better sense of balance, of giving space for the land to recover, of standing back and letting nature heal itself. Rewilding is a way of relinquishing human control, of repositioning humans so that we are a part of – and not apart from – nature. Rewilding is a way to help nature to thrive.
Rewilders understand how ecosystems have been damaged and they are proactive in finding ways to help nature to thrive again. Their actions - such as reintroducing wolves – are sometimes controversial but they have been shown to have dramatic impacts.
Humans need rewilding in similarly dramatic ways. Read more here: Rewilding
“At no time in human history have children spent less time outdoors. Attention deficit disorders, obesity and a variety of other physical and emotional ailments can be attributed to a decline in exposure to the out of doors and the natural environment.”
OUR AIMS
Project REWILD AIMS: TO Reconnect & Rewild our communities
Make outdoor activities and play accessible to more people (Get people outside more)
Create spaces where children (and parents) can be a bit more ‘wild’ – less structure, fewer rules and more fun!!
Help people to access natural spaces in our local area, to discover, explore and enjoy.
Create connections between people and communities, as well as connections with the natural world
Improve Health and happiness by spending more time outside in nature
Support sustainability by improving emotional relationships with nature and helping children to grow up understanding, loving and caring for our natural world
Join our team
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Join our team -
MEET THE TEAM
LUKE - DIRECTOR & FOUNDER.
Luke has worked as an outdoor instructor and facilitator for 15 years leading transformative woodland projects for children, teenagers and adults. He is qualified as an Advanced level bush craft and survival instructor, health and social care worker. teacher and Forest School leader. He has over 25 years’ experience as a youth worker in schools, residential homes and the community. Luke has spent the last 9 years training in deep ecology, nature connection and nature philosophy.
Project Rewild has been a lifetime in the making. From my early experiences and love of nature, I grew up in Hollington (Hastings) in a council house. I would play for hours over the woods. We had no money so we just played out, and I am so grateful for that. As an adult I have worked for years with some of the most vulnerable young people in my community. I quickly realised that the most profound changes came when working with people in nature. I care deeply about my home town and its people. Project Rewild has to be accessible. I created it to give everyone these experiences, I do not want money to be a barrier.
My personal journey in connection with the land has been nothing short of life changing. My training and experience have helped to ground my overwhelming passion and desire to help others feel and connect with their own true wild nature. For me there is nothing more pressing, nothing more important than remembering that we are part of nature, and not separate from it. Our very survival as a species depends on it.
POLLY - DIRECTOR.
I've been practicing Mindfulness Meditation for over 8 years. I was introduced to the practice while dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety. Mindfulness gave me techniques to handle my stress in a more workable way. It helped me navigate stress and difficulties more skilfully with a clearer frame of mind, which also helped me make the transition through these periods smoother and quicker. I completed my mindfulness teacher training with the NHS at the Sussex Mindfulness Centre in Brighton (SMC).
I feel passionate about inspiring people to reconnect with themselves and nature through mindfulness practice. I'm committed to bringing people together and rekindling our need for community and making mindfulness practices available for all who want to learn them.
Polly is also a qualified level 3 Forest School leader.
MARK - DIRECTOR
Mark is a professional Filmmaker and runs his own company Shendao Silent Films,
In 2016 Mark arrived at Standing Rock, A Native American reservation, with the intention to film a documentary about the forceful construction of an oil pipeline through sacred Lakota territory and under the great Missouri River. He found himself putting his camera down in order to embody the knowledge and wisdom respectively that was rooted within the Lakota Tribe, After returning home to England, I Innately recognised the need to re-emerge our own indigeneity back into our culture, something this land has been solemnly missed for many, many generations. The vision of Project Rewild gave the same calling that took me to Standing Rock. I couldn't rest until I reached out to Luke to offer not only my film services but the service of my Purpose and Spirit. Since then it has only warmed my soul to witness the work that is unfolding from the project. I've found a movement that I can only surrender to for the greater good, one of re-indigenizing and Rewilding ourselves, and our communities
CLAIRE
‘As a child I grew up in the West Country, bug hunting, badger watching and playing in the woods. Now as a mother, i have learnt that children are our greatest teachers, they possess a natural curiosity and awareness, and when immersed in nature they thrive, we as adults need time outside too.
I joined project rewild as I wanted to be involved in something truly special, a project that is bringing together communities and reconnecting us with our lost selves.’
Claire has previously worked for the ambulance service and for the NHS as an occupational therapy assistant.
Claire is also a passionate photographer and gardener, and has been working on a no dig allotment site for the last 3 years.
‘There is no deeper connection than that of growing your own food, nurturing seedlings, and learning from the land. It takes patience persistence and acceptance, nature teaches us about ourselves in a way that transcends time and culture.’
SAM.
Sam has a natural childlike curiosity and playfulness and loves helping children and adults to find their confidence in nature. She likes to meet people where they’re at and find what excites and motivates them. She studied sculpture, then worked in practical countryside management and ecology for the National Trust and Sussex Wildlife Trust. She is a L3 forest school leader and has been working with children in nature since 2012. For the last 10 years Sam has been studying and practicing nature connection with Jon Young and the 8 Shields movement where supportive practices of gratitude, mentoring, storytelling and deep listening, among others, help to build healthy, connective communities.
“Some of my earliest positive memories are around experiences with nature...exploring and taking apart leaves and flowers, watching leaves flicker in the breeze, and these memories remain strong. As I got older I started to notice a feeling of deeper connection on occasions when I allowed myself to slow down and be truly present in nature. This feeling of being held, of community and kinship, of interconnectedness is the feeling that I want to help other people experience.”
MICHAEL.
Michael, founder of 'Human Keystone' is an experienced outdoorsman, Fisher, Forager and primitive skills practitioner. Through month long immersions into some of Europe's last wild placed he has developed deep kinship with the natural world. His teaching style is unorthodox, ancestral as well as process led rather than goal orientated.
www.humankeystone.uk
ADAM.
I've primarily worked with young people in various settings for the past 25 years, and during this time, I've accumulated some challenging, humbling, though ultimately wonderful and rewarding experiences.
Once in Hastings, I began a new role as a Behaviour for Learning Coach with a local outdoor education charity. It was here that I swiftly recognised the valuable therapeutic benefits of working both outdoors and in nature, and the positive impact this could have on the young people I worked with, the majority of which, often presented challenging behaviours and had evidently experienced trauma of varying degrees in their lives. In addition to this, I began to deliver outdoor sports and therapeutic activities to adults, who were experiencing low confidence, low self-esteem and subsequent difficulties with their mental health.
Therefore, whilst working in Hastings, my passion for working outdoors and spending valuable time in nature was taken to another level.
It was also during this period that I got to know and worked with Luke Funnell, who also shared a deep passion for nature, the outdoors and the therapeutic and positive impact this could have on the client groups we worked with. As a consequence, I now take great pride in working for Project Rewild
KIRSTY.
I work in a primary school in Hastings as an assistant SENCO, I have worked with children for over 18 years of all ages and abilities. I joined Project Rewild to be able to help others be out in nature and feel a sense of freedom that most everyday life doesn’t allow or has been forgotten. I feel we all need to take time to come back to nature, surround ourselves with it and let go, and be guided.
Being part of Project Rewild allows myself and others to do this, creating a wonderful sense of community and facilitates people of all ages to experience nature in a safe and exciting way. I am proud and enthusiastic to be part of this team, and project, that is fundamentally necessary in today’s society and simply powerful in its magic. We learn new skills, have fun and discover new surroundings that are right on our doorsteps. Come and join us, step forward into nature and discover what it has to offer, it’s ready to hold your hand and play.
ELLIOT.
Elliot’s been working with young learners in conventional education since 2017 - but during his degree in History and Philosophy, he realised that many of the stories which our society is built upon serve only to separate us from our bodies, land, community and power - and that this process often starts with education.
Seeking new stories, and a new way to educate, he travelled to the Dominican Republic, where he spent a year working in a trauma-informed, learner-led, ecologically-focused school called the Hive School. At The Hive, Elliot learned how to help young learners foster skills of self-regulation, co-regulation, and curiosity-led learning - often by working in nature.
During this time, he also worked to support adult reconnection; supporting local permaculture projects, working with local Arawako spiritual teachers, developing a music and expression fire circle, as well as a men’s circle. Through this work, he’s developed a keen interest in and understanding of somatic tools and men’s mental health.
Since returning to the UK in 2022, Eliot has dived headfirst into working with Project Rewild. Starting off as a participant in the men’s circle, and a volunteer at Church in the Woods, Elliot fell in love with the Project, and now supports the outdoor provision at Saint Leonard’s Academy, runs cold water somatic workshops in the cold season, and will be launching the “Wild Voices” expression circle in Summer 23.
Alongside his work with Project Rewild, Eliot plans to develop his career as an urban regenerative gardener.
MICHELLE.
Running bare foot with your tribe across the woodland floor, darting to avoid sweet chestnut prickles here and there, senses tuned and eyes wide open. Crouching down to hide amongst the bracken and brambles, drawing in a breath and not making a sound. I marvel at these children, who understand their environment intensely, for they have seen, smelt, heard and tasted at least four seasons in the wood. This is childhood as nature intended, full of freedom, wonder and respect. This is Project Rewild!
My teaching journey began after many hours cuddled up with our young family over a winter beach fire, having spent the day foraging along the sea shore and looking for conulous treasures amongst the pebbles. I knew then that everything felt better outdoors - the changes in light, the fresh mineral filled air, the taste of a feast prepared and cooked in the wild. We cherished every moment and returned to this place time after time getting to know every corner intimately. I felt a compelling need to capture and pass on these experiences, and to enable other families to find their own happiness in the wild.
In 2015 I left my full-time role as Company Director in the creative agency I’d started with my partner, and trained as a Level 3 Forest School Leader. In 8 years my practice has taken me to primary schools, day nurseries, after school clubs, Plumpton College and more recently, I have worked with home ed groups at Wilderness Wood. I see my role as aiding young minds to open up to really see and understand the natural world all around us. My aim is to help provide a nurturing environment, where freedom to play and respect for the nature go hand in hand, where every experience is beautiful and the memories made last forever. I am honoured to have been welcomed to Project Rewild and thank Luke, Polly, Mark and our young community for all they have taught me so far. Through our collective practice, I have a far greater sense of purpose, perspective and balance than ever before.
I live with my partner, our dog and two very active children (one toddler and one teen) in the High Weald surrounded by ancient woodland, iron streams and pheasants. A love of exploring, trail walking, rural crafts, conservation, natural history and landscape management back up my Forest School practice and as a trained creative, I’m never happier than when I’m making something wonderous outdoors!
DR DANIEL - DIRECTOR
Daniel Ford gained his PGCE in Art & Design from the University of Brighton in 2006, gaining his M.A. in Person Centred Education from Sussex University in 2010.
He worked as a Media, Art and Design Curriculum Leader in Further Education from 2006 to 2020 lecturing in the humanities.
In 2015 he was awarded a doctoral scholarship and his doctoral dissertation, ‘Beyond the Factory and the Forest’, gained him his Ph.D. in education from the University of Hull in 2019. During this time he carried out field research in England, Scotland and Tasmania whilst a member of the Freedom to Learn Project, contributing research to a variety of specialist educational journals including The Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education for Springer and Policy Futures in Education for SAGE. Since 2020 he has been a Director of Rewilding Education
Rewilding Education - Our education system is deeply flawed