Dame Mary Smieton Award
Dame Mary Smieton was a civil servant known for her combination of practicality, courtesy and charm. She became only the second woman to head a government department, when she was appointed permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education in 1959. She spent time at the Public Records Office, Ministry of Labour, the Home Office and as Director of Personnel at the United Nations when it was first formed after World War 2. She was also a benefactor of The Wildlife Trusts.
This annual award is given to a Wildlife Trust that has contributed significantly to an outstanding research (now EDI) project which has made an invaluable contribution to the strategic work of The Wildlife Trust and its mission.
2024 Winner: Skomer & Skokholm Accessible Boat Trips - The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales
Skomer & Skokholm Accessible Boat Trips from The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales has been awarded the Dame Mary Smieton Award for its efforts towards equality, diversity, and inclusion.
This summer, two fully-funded boat trips around Skomer and Skokholm Islands for disabled individuals, including wheelchair users and those with mobility issues, along with their carers took place. In partnership with Pembrokeshire Islands Boat Trips, an accessible route from Dale offered a chance to experience the islands’ wildlife, including seabirds and seals up close.
These trips allowed people who had never been able to visit the islands to connect with nature. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many guests expressing interest in future trips and sharing how special the experience was.
Find out more about this wonderful project here: Connecting All to Islands: Accessible Boat Trip Success | The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales
Previous winners:
The Greenhouse Project - Lancashire Wildlife Trust
The Greenhouse Project at Witton Country Park in Blackburn has been awarded the Dame Mary Smieton Award for its work in using nature as a prescription for mental and physical health issues.
Since the renovation of the greenhouse in 2021, the project has engaged over a thousand local people and a wide network of partners and is recognised locally as being exceptional for the diversity of people engaged. Lots of regular proactive outreach takes place including work with carers, sessions for South Asian asylum seekers and refugees, Eid celebrations, art groups, Ukrainian refugee groups, nature and wellbeing groups, and home education sessions
Find out more about this wonderful project here: The Greenhouse Project | The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside (lancswt.org.uk)
The Greenhouse Project (https://youtu.be/pFc-H5AtEec)
Lancashire Wildlife Trust
Welcome to English and Nextdoor Nature - Yorkshire Wildlife Trust - 2022
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and community group, Welcome to English, connected through the Wildlife Trust's Nextdoor Nature programme, which is working to empower communities to make more space for nature in their lives and their local areas.
Welcome to English (https://youtu.be/_nAeNXVNxwo)
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Based in Hull, Welcome to English is supporting asylum seekers and refugees arriving in the city to learn English, access healthcare and understand how to use local services, such as public transport. Through the collaboration with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, the group has accessed support and advice to enable them to work with two local landowners, establishing both a community allotment and access to a previously underused greenspace. The community has since been busy carrying out wildlife surveys, building and installing bird boxes and planting lots of pollinator-friendly plants - for some members of the community, drawing on their experiences of subsistence farming.
Find out more about their fabulous project here: Welcome to English | Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (ywt.org.uk)