Thanks to funding from the Ramble Worldwide Outdoor Trust and Ramble Worldwide, over the last year the Ramblers have worked with seven Global Majority community groups in London and Greater Manchester, delivering walking workshops and learning more about the barriers blocking these groups from leading walks for their communities.

We used these insights to identify gaps in the resources we currently provide and have created a Community Walk Leader Toolkit to help equip new and existing walk leaders to plan and deliver a range of fun and enjoyable group walks. The new resources include videos and information to give communities the skills, knowledge and inspiration to establish and lead group walks.

Breaking down barriers

As Britain’s walking charity, the Ramblers’ ambition is to break down barriers to ensure everyone, everywhere can feel safe and welcome to enjoy all the benefits of walking in the outdoors.  Ramble Worldwide Outdoor Trust shares our ambition to make the outdoors more accessible for more people from all communities, and since its creation in 1969 has contributed nearly £6 million to support Ramblers initiatives.

The new toolkit aims to support people from communities that are under-represented in the outdoors. Toni Murphy, founder of Touch Grass, one of the community groups involved in the project, said “one of the biggest barriers to getting out walking and outdoors is just the confidence. Not knowing where to go, not knowing the rules.”

Michael Duxbury, Trustee, Ramble Worldwide Outdoor Trust says: “We are delighted, on behalf of Ramble Worldwide, to support this innovative project which we hope will give more people the confidence to explore and enjoy the outdoors. We look forward to seeing the progress of groups and individuals who benefit from the toolkit in the future”.

The new toolkit is now available for free on our website. Gemma Twitchen, Programme Lead for Walk Leadership at the Ramblers, said “we’re hoping this toolkit will help current and aspiring walk leaders develop the skills and confidence to lead walks in their communities”.