By Chloe Peck, River Action UK
In Hackney, east London, I joined a group of young people taking to the water to discover their local river from a new perspective as paddleboarders, citizen scientists and river campaigners. I spent the afternoon at The Leaside Trust with young people from underserved communities and the brilliant team at GET OUT, paddleboarding and testing water quality.
The day was about much more than getting young people onto the water. It was about giving them the tools and knowledge to investigate the health of their river for themselves and showing them that they can have a voice in its future.
Connecting Young People with Their Rivers
GET OUT works with young people from underserved communities, using sport and outdoor activities to improve health and wellbeing while building stronger connections with nature.
Having previously taken young Londoners to Cornwall to experience surfing, the charity wanted to create opportunities closer to home, helping young people build an ongoing relationship with the natural spaces on their doorstep.
GET OUT founder and director Kieran Harkin explained: “Access to nature shouldn’t depend on where you grow up or how much money your family has. We want young people to feel that these rivers belong to them too: that they can explore them, understand them and have a say in their future.”
At Leaside, I watched the young people learn stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), building their confidence before heading out to explore the water.
But this wasn’t just about learning a new sport.
Becoming River Citizen Scientists
Once on the water, the young people became citizen scientists, using water-testing equipment to investigate water quality and learn what their results could tell them about the health of the river.
Rather than simply hearing about pollution and the pressures facing our waterways, they were able to investigate those issues themselves.
For me, this is what makes citizen science so powerful. By putting knowledge and practical tools directly into young people’s hands, we can help them understand their local environment and feel confident asking questions about its health.
Rivers should be places where communities can connect with nature, play and enjoy the outdoors. People also deserve to understand the health of the waterways around them.
By teaching young people how to test their rivers and understand what they find, we can help create a new generation of river campaigners who can ask difficult questions and hold polluters to account.
Young People as Part of the Solution
Children and young people will inherit the consequences of the decisions being made about our environment today, but they shouldn’t have to wait until adulthood to have a say in its future.
Projects like this give young people the skills, knowledge and confidence to become part of the solution now.
Just as importantly, connecting with rivers should be fun. Getting onto a paddleboard, exploring somewhere new and spending time outdoors are all part of building a relationship with nature.
That was what stayed with me most from the afternoon. These young people weren’t just learning about their local river. They were exploring it, enjoying it, investigating it and beginning to see the role they could play in protecting it.
