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It’s Our Planet Too Case Study

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It’s Our Planet Too is a social enterprise and educational brand on a mission to inspire children to love and care for our environment.

Founded by Kate, a mum of two in recognition that our children are growing up in a world facing very real challenges, yet are starting to take notice of our impact on the environment. We hope to empower them to become little eco heroes who seek to make a positive change for a greener future.

At It’s Our Planet Too, our vision is for every child to believe that they have the power to protect our planet. But this has to start with gently educating our children (and their families), so considering our environmental impact becomes a way of life and starts to dictate the choices that we all make.

Our website is a resource for children to learn about our planet, the effects that humans are having on it and to discover why some animals are struggling for survival. It has been supported by social media activity and has received some fantastic feedback from both environmental organisations and parents.

A recent social impact survey showed the positive impact we are having within our community; with 82% of respondents being inspired to make a small lifestyle change and specifically, 72% having spoken to their children about the environment as a result of seeing our messages. Over 80% of respondents felt that It’s Our Planet Too had made them more aware of environmental issues.

In late 2021, we launched a range of sustainably and ethically produced children’s products including organic tees, water bottles, bags and fact-filled notebooks that embrace our brand values and key messages and also allow us to give back. We are incredibly proud to support a fabulous charitable venture that is striving for the wildlife rangers working on the ground, protecting the animals that our children love. As a social venture, we pledge to give a minimum of 50% of our profits to good causes.

It’s Our Planet Too is a relatively new organisation, having been incorporated in 2020 yet have already achieved recognition in a number of areas. In early 2021, we were a successful applicant to the Santander Breakthrough Women Business Leaders programme and later on to the prestigious Cambridge Social Ventures incubator, part of the Cambridge Judge Business School. We finished 2021 as a member of Social Enterprise UK, we won Theo Paphitis’ small business Sunday in recognition of our work and started 2022 having been awarded a place on the #ialso list of inspiring business leaders and female founders.

We have some exciting plans for the coming months; we hope to grow our organisation to allow us to make a significant and continued donation to our charity partner, whilst working to improve climate literacy amongst our community and to weave sustainable practices into all that we do.

We are incredibly grateful to the Enjoolata foundation for their support over the past 12 months, their belief in our mission has been fundamental to our work and has underpinned all that we have accomplished so far.

Farming, Family & Therapy at Jamie’s Farm

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Towards the end of last year, we visited Jamie’s Farm, a traditional red brick farmhouse in the picturesque Sussex countryside just outside Lewes.

Jamie’s Farm in Lewes is no ordinary farm. It is one of a group of similar farms across the country that transform the lives of vulnerable children between the ages of 10-16 by working closely with partner schools, providing a combination of ‘farming, family and therapy’ through a unique residential and follow-up programme.

The goal of Jamie’s Farm is to ‘re-engage children with educational life and enable them to fulfil their potential both in school and the wider social setting’. It acts as a catalyst for change, enabling disadvantaged young people to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.

Social and academic exclusion are real problems affecting young people in the UK today. There are worries about the effects of children becoming disconnected from their natural surroundings, especially those from BAME or low-income families.

In a report from Jamie’s Farm, one young person from a local college said, “In a normal week, I just stay inside, but here I get to be outside, help out the animals, and be active. It’s taught me the importance of good teamwork and communication.”

As a society, our growing relationship with technology can play havoc with our connection to nature and each other and Jamie’s Farm tackles this by asking their young visitors to leave their phones at home, instead opting for communal co-operative and nature-based activities such as farm work, gardening, group walks over the downs, caring for the farms’ animals and playing music together around a campfire.

Jamie’s Visitors come from diverse backgrounds, and guests are invited to cook healthy home-cooked meals together in the cosy farmhouse. Recipe ideas from home are welcomed, contributing to a really healthy cross-cultural and all-inclusive environment. The visits are also a valuable opportunity for teachers to get away from the stresses of everyday life and form better relationships with individual students and the entire group, outside the formal school setting.

Through other funding opportunities, the farm has also taken a more regenerative farming approach by adopting a rotational cropping regime and planting 1,500 metres of new hedges to support local habitat.

Enjoolata Foundation awarded £10,000 to Jamie’s Farm in April 2021 to convert a disused ‘duck house’ farm building into a multi-purpose space that will be used for one to one meetings and group sessions. It will transform visits for many of the young people who visit, offering a safe and inviting space to discuss any issues that arise. The new building will be completed later this year.

When not being used for visits, all farmhouses can be rented for holidays. This allows the farms to contribute towards the finances of the charity and allows anyone to take a rural break that also gives back!

To find out more, visit Jamie’s Farm website.