BTCV set up the Environments for All programme in 1999. The charity sector recognised that many black, minority ethnic and marginalised people were not taking part in volunteering because they felt excluded. The sector also wanted to recruit more people from diverse communities to their workforce.

Before Environments for All, the image of environmental volunteering was often perceived as ‘well-educated or white middle class’. Environmental work is often seen as too scientific or too complicated. The reality is not the case.

BTCV’s Environments for All programme received the largest ever grant by the Community Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund), and also attracted large scale funding from Barclays.

Here are just some of the benefits of this leading initiative celebrating the UK’s diverse society:

• Within three years, more than 1,176 community groups and over 38, 000 people directly benefited from the work
• 50% of beneficiaries were unemployed, 13% disabled and 44% were from BME (Black and Minority Ethnic communities). Almost 3,000 were asylum seekers or refugees. The vast majority came from disadvantaged urban areas where even small-scale practical environmental action made a real lasting difference
• BME representation in BTCV’s paid workforce increased from 3% to 5%
• 250 new key partnerships were formed across the UK, involving The Refugee Council, Home Office Active Communities Directorate, Age Concern, The Muslim Council, Sensory Trust, and Black Environment Network
• Environments for All, the BTCV Guide for Community Action is the essential book for anyone working with communities involved in environmental conservation. It includes more than 40 case studies from the Environments for All programme