● Green Futures

Building rural green leadership

Green Futures is a paid placement creating a real entry point for a young person to build skills, confidence and a livelihood in community-led environmental work, here in Somerset and Dorset.

It exists because rural places are full of ambition and action, but the jobs and pathways for young people to stay, contribute and lead are thin on the ground. At the same time, small grassroots organisations are often stretched, with limited capacity for engagement and storytelling, even though these are essential for building participation and long-term momentum.

Green Futures is our response, a practical, shared role that builds capacity now, and grows future leadership for the years ahead.

● Origins

The starting point

What it is

  • A 12-month paid placement for a young Communications and Engagement Coordinator

  • Hosted by This Living Place, working across community-led partner

  • Supported by Youth Environmental Service training and peer learning

What it’s doing

  • Supporting grassroots organisations to tell clearer stories and bring more people in

  • Creating a real job pathway for a young person in rural environmental work

  • Strengthening the connective tissue between projects working on the same future

  • Rural areas lose young people, not through lack of care or ambition, but through lack of paid opportunity

    At the same time, community-led organisations are doing vital work with tiny teams. Without capacity for communications and engagement, good work stays invisible, participation stays narrow, and momentum is harder to sustain.

    Green Futures is a small but deliberate intervention in that system, creating a job, building capacity, and keeping skills rooted in place.

  • The coordinator supports community-led work across partners by:

    • capturing stories and sharing what’s happening on the ground

    • strengthening event engagement and follow-up

    • helping projects connect and collaborate more easily

    • building visibility for community-led solutions in our region

  • Early signs we’re seeing:

    • stronger storytelling and clearer public visibility across partner work

    • more joined-up communications between organisations

    • better conditions for young leadership to grow locally, with proper support

    • a replicable model we can share with others

  • If you’re a community organisation, funder, or partner interested in shared roles, placements, or growing rural green pathways, we’d love to talk.

    This model is still evolving, but it’s already showing what’s possible when organisations collaborate to create real jobs, not just short-term projects.

  • This pilot is teaching us what it takes to make shared roles work well:

    • clear rhythms and relationships matter as much as task lists

    • learning time is not optional, it is infrastructure

    • collaboration reduces duplication, but only when it’s held with care

    • the role can only thrive if the person feels part of something, not split between clients

Project Partners