From one family session to a community movement

Urban Forest Tribe CIC began with something simple, listening.

While training as a Forest School leader and working in early years education, Paula noticed a gap. Children were benefiting from outdoor sessions, but families were left at the edges. So she tried something different, a family session where children led the learning and proudly showed parents and carers what they had been doing. It landed, and families asked for more.

That demand, and Paula’s belief that nature should be for everyone, became the roots of Urban Forest Tribe. Today, the organisation runs after-school clubs, Urban Forest School sessions with schools, holiday forest camps, inclusive sessions, and inclusive home ed provision, shaped by what families say they need. 

One of the clearest needs came from families with two children, one with complex needs, one without, who kept being split apart by provision that could not include the whole family. Paula describes siblings sitting on the sidelines, watching each other have fun in separate spaces. Urban Forest Tribe set out to change that, to build sessions where everyone is welcome, and no one is left out.

A rare thing in London, a permanent outdoor home

If you have ever tried to run outdoor sessions in London, you will know the friction, permissions, policies, and endless admin that comes with borrowing space. Paula talks about how long it can take to secure a suitable site, sometimes months of phone calls, forms, and “why” questions.

Now, Urban Forest Tribe has been given access, and priority access, to an outdoor site in North London, and it is a genuine blank canvas.

The plan is to transform an unused space into a 1000m²+ Outdoor Learning and Wellbeing Space, a place where climate action, biodiversity, and community wellbeing meet. It will host regular sessions for local schools, families with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), home-educated children, and the wider community.

Paula’s excitement is obvious. So is realism. This site needs work to become safe, welcoming, and ready for year-round use.

What the space could become

Paula sketches a future you can almost step into:

• A mud kitchen, shelters, and gathering areas
  
  
• A fire circle and spaces to sit together
  
  
• Hammocks, play, and gentle challenge
  
  
• Sensory planting, wild areas, and places to pause
  
  
• Citizen science, and nature surveys led by community curiosity
  
  
• Wildlife focus, including hedgehog surveying, plus bats, birds, and pollinators
  
  

On the Crowdfunder page, Urban Forest Tribe describes wildlife zones, wildflowers, sensory planting, and a pond, alongside a permanent inclusive hub for learning, wellbeing, and environmental action. Crowdfunder UK

This is not just “nice to have” green space. It is infrastructure for inclusion, confidence, community connection, and climate-positive skills.

Why timber matters so much

Paula is refreshingly specific about what will make the biggest difference right now.

Timber.

The site needs natural structures and practical build-outs that turn a patch of land into a functioning learning space. The Crowdfunder budget includes tools, materials, and resources like timber, outdoor shelter tarps, ropes, soil, wildflower seeds, natural materials, child-friendly tools, outdoor learning equipment, and weatherproof storage.

So when Paula says “mainly timber”, it is not a throwaway line. It is the backbone of making the site work.

The Crowdfunder, what it is, and why now

Urban Forest Tribe is raising £10,000 through the Tribe Roots for Resilience Crowdfunder, with donations unlocking match funding.

At the time of writing, the campaign is part way to its target, with a set deadline and a “keep what you raise” funding model, so every donation helps move the project forward.

The Crowdfunder page also shows match funding already provided by partners including Aviva Community Fund and Solus Employee Giving. Crowdfunder UK

How you can help today

Paula says it plainly, she cannot do it on her own. Urban Forest Tribe needs support, and there are a few concrete ways to get involved.

1) Donate

If you can give, your donation helps unlock match funding and buys the materials that turn plans into reality. Crowdfunder UK

2) Share the campaign

Momentum matters. A quick share to your networks can be the difference between “lovely idea” and “fully built, fully used community space”. Crowdfunder UK

3) Volunteer, especially if you can build

If you have carpentry skills, practical making experience, or just time and energy to lend, Urban Forest Tribe wants to hear from you. The Crowdfunder page invites volunteers to get in touch via the project contact section. Crowdfunder UK

Watch the video, and imagine what happens next

The most powerful thread in Paula’s story is not the site, the timber, or even the fundraising target.

It is listening.

Urban Forest Tribe exists because families asked for something better, and Paula said yes. Now there is a chance to build a permanent home for that yes, a place where SEND families are not split apart, where siblings do not sit on the sidelines, and where outdoor learning is not an occasional treat but a dependable part of community life.

What if this space became the place families point to and say, “That’s where we found our people”?

What if that could be true for hundreds more families next year?

If you want to support Tribe Roots for Resilience, here is the campaign link to include alongside the video: https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/tribe-roots-for-resilience