A charity programme to support young storytellers is delighted to be able to double the funding.
A generous donation means there are 10 £1000 bursaries on offer as part of Campaign for National Parks: New Perspectives scheme.
The project, which opened for entries on October 1, will now allow 10 young people, aged 19 to 35, to share their stories of national parks in England and Wales. Each will receive a £1000 grant, plus training and mentoring.
The theme for the bursaries is "People, Climate and Nature in National Parks" and the stories must be fact-based and cover at least one national park in England or Wales.
Rose O’Neill, chief executive of the charity Campaign for National Parks, said: "We’ve already had a lot of interest in the scheme with almost 50 people signed up to our pre-application workshop earlier this month.
"We’ve had some strong applications submitted and we want to give as many people as possible the chance to benefit from this unique opportunity and uncover a wealth of stories."
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Tom Palmer, former BBC journalist and director of Ocean City Media, has partnered with Campaign for National Parks to deliver the scheme.
He said: “National parks are full of amazing stories. We’re really excited to read the pitches and we look forward to working with 10 young people to share their stories.
"We’re after a journalistic style of story – but we are open to ideas around any medium, from film and the written word to audio and documentary photography. If you’ve got a story idea about national parks, but need funding and support to develop it. then this is the scheme for you."
Funding for the initial five bursaries came from the Big Give with fund-matching from the John Spedan Lewis Foundation earlier this year. Campaign for National Parks has been able to double the size of the scheme thanks to an extra one-off donation from a longtime supporter. The application deadline has also been extended to Monday November 15, 2021.
Rose added: “As a small independent charity, we rely on support from individuals to enable us to campaign to protect and improve national parks. We are eternally grateful to all of our Friends and donors. We are very excited to be able to double the size of this scheme.”
More information at National Parks: New Perspectives.
