Ailish has been volunteering with the park for almost 10 years from a 9/10 year old. First as an Explorer and then as a Young Ranger. Giving her free time to volunteer completing many practical conservation tasks all over the national park. Ailish has been a young leader for almost 2 years where she passes on her knowledge and experience to our Explorers and Young Rangers. Ailish has recently become a member of our Youth Voice team too. Ailish is an advocate for nature and people accessing it and certainly upskilled in her time with the park and is now assisting other young people to upskill. 

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Ailish's time and efforts to the national park and our young volunteers is huge. The ripple effect from her work will go on for years to come. 

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Matthew has been a volunteer with the park for over 6 years and is one of the original Young Rangers. He encouraged his family to attend Explorers and is a fantastic role model to his siblings and cousins who have worked their way through the ranks of our young volunteer programmes. Matthew has also been a Youth Voice member since its beginning as part of the steering group in 2020 and now the official Youth Voice in 2021. Matthew became a young leader in 2023 and is doing fantastic work buliding his skills as a leader and passing on knowledge and experience to our young volunteers. 

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All the hours Matthew has given through his volunteering has had a huge impact on the national park and its purposes. And continues to be. 

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LSSC are a student-led sustainability consultancy initiative providing free advice and services to local businesses and communities. LSSC provide students the opportunity to use their interdisciplinary knowledge on real life projects and drive sustainable outcomes in Leeds. This is all done through the voluntary efforts of the committee made up of 7 people and the student body at the University of Leeds, managing the 30+ current volunteers working on 5 live projects. LSSC allows like minded climate advocates to meet and build their green skills network of the future. 

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LSSC are currently delivering five live projects which will provide huge benefit to the environment and communities of Leeds at no charge. They are supporting East SILC (SEND school) to deliver a sustainable vocational garden, aiming to achieve an Eco-mark for the school, they are undertaking ecology surveys and rewilding for West Leeds Activity Centre, volunteering for a non-profit compost company advising on marketing and sustainability and advising on ISO140002 for a Leeds based re-use shop. This has provided real life careers development experience for more than 100 members of LSSC setting them up for the next generation of green talent.