Community Engagement is a key pillar of the PeacePlus Nature programme, empowering local communities to take action to protect nature, and discovering how they can support wildlife right on their doorsteps through PeacePlus Nature.

Led by Community Development Manager Rachel Burns, our dedicated team is on the ground making a difference. Let’s introduce Matt and Jordan, two of our Community Engagement Officers, to find out what they’ve been up to!

Meet Jordan, Community Engagement Officer

Bringing the Antrim Hills to life

I’m Jordan, the Community Engagement Officer for the Antrim Hills area. After studying Zoology at university, I’ve spend the past few years developing my skills in Learning and Development. I’m really excited to build on this experience to engage with leaders in schools and community groups across the Antrim Hills. 

Since joining the PeacePlus Nature programme in January, I’ve been spending time learning more about blanket bogs (a unique type of peatland landscape found throughout the Antrim Hills) through a range of varied days on-site with our Peatland and Conservation teams. Learning about peatland restoration techniques, as well as how our team works alongside local farmers to manage habitats for breeding waders, including Curlew, Lapwing, and Snipe – has been invaluable.

Lately, I’ve been engaging with leaders in local schools through workshop sessions and school visits. A key focus of these sessions is listening to the specific interests and concerns of leaders and young people, and supporting them to carry out relevant, practical activities.

Some brilliant examples of our activities so far include:

• Big Schools Birdwatch: Helping young people identify and connect with the nature within their school grounds or local area.
• Clay Lapwing Decoys: Creating decoys for fallow plots in the Glenwherry area, which facilitated learning about this vulnerable wading species.
• Habitat Heaps: Conducting minibeast hunts and creating habitat heaps, which encouraged young people to consider the whole life cycle of our bird and invertebrate species and how they can support nature at every stage.

Looking ahead, I’ll be continuing to connect with local groups and schools to deliver peatland-focused workshops, connecting people with these amazing landscapes and sharing how they can get involved in species and habitat recovery.

This will include delivering industry-leading Environment Leaders Programme qualifications. With both Level 2 and Level 3 qualification options, these programmes are designed to be highly practical, supporting young people as they develop key leadership skills while designing a real-world project for positive change.

Meet Matt, Community Engagement Officer

Connecting Communities across Lough Neagh

My name is Matt, and I am one of the new Community Engagement Officers for the PeacePlus Nature Programme. I’m based in Belfast and will be working across the Lough Neagh area. My job is simple at its core: getting people connected to the nature on their doorstep.

Lough Neagh is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the British Isles and a genuinely special place for wildlife. However, for many of the communities living right beside it, the Lough can feel like it’s just always been there in the background. Part of my role is to change that.

I work with schools, youth groups, and community organisations across the area, running hands-on sessions that get people outside and curious about the wildlife around them. That might look like:

• Minibeast Safaris: Getting a primary school class outside lifting logs, peering under leaves, and getting genuinely excited about a woodlouse.
• The Environment Leaders Programme: Working with older youth groups to help them build the skills and confidence to become real voices for nature in their communities.

Northern Ireland has an incredible peatland heritage, but it’s one that many people have lost touch with. These landscapes are extraordinary, ancient, alive, and vital for storing carbon and supporting wildlife, yet they often get overlooked. Part of my work is helping communities rediscover that connection, whether that’s through school visits to local bogs, exploring the history and ecology of these habitats, or simply helping people see something they’ve driven past their whole lives in a completely new way.

A core part of this work is also making sure the outdoors is accessible to everyone. This includes working with Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools, where I get to see firsthand just how powerful a connection with nature can be for young people – sometimes in ways that surprise everyone in the room. Nature doesn’t discriminate, and neither should the opportunity to experience it.

A big part of what I do is also about listening and finding out what communities want and need and building relationships with local organisations so that this work has roots that last beyond the life of the PeacePlus Nature Programme.

I’m only getting started in this role, and there’s a lot of ground to cover literally and figuratively.

Opportunities to Get Involved

If you are a school, youth group, or community organisation and you’d like to get involved, the Community Engagement team would love to hear from you!

• For the Lough Neagh area: Contact Matt at Matt.Dawson@rspb.org.uk
• For the Antrim Hills area (including Antrim, Ballyclare, Larne, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Carnlough, and Cushendall): Contact Jordan at Jordan.McCrissican@rspb.org.uk