The Resilient Communities Series 2025
The Resilient Communities Series is back with 3 new sessions, each designed around the things you’ve told us you need to support and strengthen your work. Each session is free to attend and is for anyone working to make the outdoors more accessible and representative.
Session 1: Bringing a Nature Focus into your Work
Session 2: Radical Rest for Leaders and Changemakers
Session 3: Press Training: Pitching, Preparing and Handling the Media
All the Elements have partnered with YHA Outdoor Citizens to run the 2025 Resilient Communities Series supported by Sport England.
Session 1: Bringing a Nature Focus into your Work
When: Thursday 15th May, 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Session Description: Panel discussion exploring what it means to bring a nature focus into your work. In this session, the panellists will look at some of the language being used around nature - like nature connection, and nature recovery - and what that means. The benefits of bringing a nature focus into your work, as well as some of the challenges it might present will be discussed. The session will include lots of practical examples and insights from a panel of community groups who are working with a nature focus, and there will be an opportunity for Q&A.
Event Panel:
Evie Muir (she/they)
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Evie is a nature writer and founder of Peaks of Colour - a Peak District based nature-for-healing community group, by and for people of colour. Advocating for the decolonisation of the outdoors, Evie is interested in the ways nature can forge a landscape of healing and justice outside of carceral feminist models. Evie published her debut book in 2024, Radical Rest, which is an exploration of Black and Abolitionist Feminist approaches to activist burn out.
Having worked in the Violence Against Women and Girls sector for over 10 years', specialising in Black and queer survivors' intersectional experiences of gendered and racialised trauma, Evie left when she became burnt out, disenfranchised and disillusioned. Her work now sits on the intersections of gendered, racial and land justice, and seeks to nurture survivors' joy, rest, hope and imagination as abolitionist praxis.
Isabella McDonnell (she/her)
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Isabella is a dispute resolution practitioner, forest bathing facilitator and writer. As the founder and host of Xeno, she has conversations with people from all walks of life about their stories of home, identity and belonging.
Isabella founded the grassroots group Roots of Belonging, which hosts outdoor events for mixed, dual heritage, and multicultural POCs/global majority to deepen their belonging in the UK outdoors. She’s a recent graduate of the Opening Up The Outdoors changemakers programme and a member of the All the Elements Network.
Nazia Sultana
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Nazia is the Founder and Director of Sustainably Muslim CIC, an organisation dedicated to empowering Muslims to protect the environment. They achieve this through a diverse array of events, workshops and volunteering opportunities. Inspired by the Islamic principles of stewardship and the life of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Nazia motivates individuals to embrace their role in nurturing both the environment and their communities. She is dedicated to making the environmental sector more inclusive for Muslims and People of Colour.
Through her work, Nazia has supported over 1500 people and has successfully cultivated and maintained partnerships with charities, local councils, and community projects. She received the 2024 ‘Inspiring Muslim’ award by the Mayor of London and Greater London Authority for her work in the community and is part of Emerald Network's and The Aziz Foundation's 100 Inspiring Muslims.
Nicole Worrica (she/her)
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Nicole is Head of Community Relationships at Wild in the City, a national, black-led organisation with a focus on health and supporting Black and minority ethnic communities in accessing nature and the countryside, addressing the widely acknowledged lack of representation and lower levels of involvement of people of colour in nature-based activity.
As head of Community Relationships Nicole cultivates strong connections with communities and organisations who support relationships with nature and who consider the barriers to engagement for people of colour. Her role promotes and delivers Wild In The City’s core programmes across London and the UK. Nicole is passionate about supporting the continuity of Wild In the City’s free Nature Connectors programme for POC communities who want to nurture their relationship with nature. Nicole co-facilitates on this programme which teaches woodland living skills, wildlife identification, traditional crafts and in-depth conversations reflecting on our relationships with nature as people of colour. She is enriched by the insights on themes around land, identity and belonging and the alliances and safety that develop when a group are taught by people who look like them.
When: Thursday 5th June, 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Description: Join nature writer and founder of Peaks of Colour, Evie Muir for an experiential and experimental embodied nature writing workshop. Through playful, sensory interactions and prompts developed from Evie’s debut book 'Radical Rest', we will explore how we can move towards resilience in our organising and movement practices. In this workshop we will apply Black Feminist, abolitionist and nature allied praxis to reimagine our relationship with rest, capacity and togetherness in service of collective liberation.
Session 3: Press Training: Pitching, Preparing and Handling the Media
When: Thursday 19th June, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Description: Led by writer, presenter and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota this packed two hour session will give you a practical introduction to working with the press. With a community panel sharing their experiences of approaching the media, being approached, talking to the press and managing what happens next. This session is designed to help you feel confident and equipped to share your story and gain a wider audience for your work.
Event Panel:
Mary-Ann Ochota (she/her)
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Mary-Ann is a broadcaster and author specialising in anthropology, archaeology, and the outdoors and countryside. She's presented TV shows for channels including the BBC, Channel 4 and 5, Nat Geo and Discovery.
She's hosted radio programmes and podcasts for BBC World Service and Audible, writes for magazines and has written three books on British archaeology.
She also hosts lots of live events. Sometimes she's the one being interviewed by the press, sometimes she *is* the press! Mary-Ann likes the outside best, particularly hiking and camping.
Lise Wortley (she/her)
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Lise is a writer, speaker and founder of Woman with Altitude, a project dedicated to empowering people through the stories of forgotten women adventurers.
Her project has received widespread media attention, and her writing has featured in outlets such as The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Telegraph. Lise also starred in Channel 4’s survival series ALONE, living for 34 in one of the most beautiful but challenging landscapes on earth.
As her day job, Lise has been working in PR for the last 12 years, and has built up a wealth of media and PR experience which she draws on across her own personal projects.
Kelly Smith (they/she)
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Kelly Smith is a construction manager and advocate for diversity in outdoor activities. As the Sussex leader for Black Girls Hike UK, they organised inclusive hikes that empower Black women to explore nature confidently.
In 2022, they founded The Black Tri Tribe—the UK’s first triathlon club dedicated to Black and Asian communities—creating a welcoming space for beginners to try swimming, cycling, and running. Through both roles, they are committed to breaking down barriers, fostering community, and making the outdoors more accessible for all.
Nick Wilson (he/him)
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Nick Wilson is a Disability Content Creator and adventurer, aka Disabled Adventurer, empowering people to get outdoors through creating accessibility videos of accessible venues, places and trails.
As an adventurer, I show it's possible for everyday people to experience the freedom and joy of adventuring, be this enjoying an accessible trail or something more extreme such as going up a mountain. Which is what I achieved in 2024, when I ascended Yr Wyddfa in an extreme all-terrain powerchair prototype without any physical support or assistance aides, becoming the first to do so.
Register to Attend
You can register for each of the workshops by filling out a short form here. Registration is open until midday on the day of each event - after which we will send out the call link to all registered attendees.
