“Experience St Nicks” Day – Saturday 9th July 2022 10am – 4pm

“Experience St Nicks” Day – Saturday 9th July 2022 10am – 4pm

DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE?

Have you heard of St Nicks? Do you know what we do here in the ‘Green Heart of York?’ Could we be one of York’s best kept secrets?  

To make more people across York aware of the great things we do and what our space has to offer, we are re-opening our Environment Centre and welcoming everyone to come and explore our vibrant space! 

Although our 24-acre urban nature reserve has ALWAYS been open and our outdoor activities have continued throughout the pandemic, we want to give EVERYONE the opportunity to discover the amazing services, opportunities, community, space and activities we offer.

We are a registered charity and the vast majority of what we do is funded by donations and grants, with some partial funding from City of York council. This is why, for some activities, we are asking for a nominal amount towards funding the valued activities we provide to the local community. Why not come along and try a couple of our fun taster sessions and learn more about what we do?

As well as maintaining our large and richly biodiverse reserve where you can escape and immerse yourself in nature, we have a fabulous kid’s playground and our quirky environment centre that you can visit on the day. We will have local gin and tonics and beers to keep you refreshed (we like to work with local businesses!) and we may have additional updates on food and snack availability over the next few weeks. A few facts about St Nicks to whet your appetite:

DID YOU KNOW? – We recycle items for residential and commercial properties across York using our fully electric vehicles and trikes. Last year we recycled over 426 tonnes of waste from residents and all our collected items are recycled within the UK.

DID YOU KNOW? – our site is incredibly biodiverse with over 1,800 recorded species. We hope to make other green spaces in York just as biodiverse. The jewel-like Tansy beetle, almost entirely exclusive to the York habitat, is just one rare species that we help to house and protect across our "green corridor sites".

DID YOU KNOW? - Ecotherapy promotes good mental and physical wellbeing through outdoor activity in a natural environment. Whether via self-referral or social prescribing we offer multiple programmes of activities which can including one to one mentoring.

DID YOU KNOW? – as well a managing our nature reserve, we also manage other “green corridor” sites across York which connect the pockets of green space in and around York. We also maintain the beck in Hull Road Park, and ensure our work is having a positive impact by surveying the freshwater invertebrates species that live within the waters.

DID YOU KNOW? – Our Thriving at Work support scheme offers both one-to-one mentoring for employees who experience mental health challenges in the workplace and provides bespoke packages of advice and support for small to medium employers who want to create a thriving workplace.

DID YOU KNOW? – Our education programme supports regular school visits, and our holiday programme offers bookable classes. You can also attend as a family via our family Nature Adventurer sessions.

DID YOU KNOW? – We work hard to promote sustainable ways of living as well as free energy support and guidance for York residents on a low income, over 50+ or experiencing a long term physical or mental health condition.

Website: www.stnicks.org.uk

Eventbrite booking link for taster sessions: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/experience-st-nicks-open-dayhttps://www.eventbrite.com/cc/experience-st-nicks-open-day-500389500389

If you want to see a little taste of what our reserve looked like in 2009, take a look at this video from The One Show: https://youtu.be/PKY7j6nRNwc

Over a decade on, we now have an even greater range of species and habitats for you to explore.

We are a busy team, often out and about around York. Nevertheless, we want to open to the public, so to ensure we have experts from every team available, we will open one day a month as per the dates below:

July 19th

August 23rd

September 20th October 18th

November 22nd

December 13th

January 24^th (2023)

February 21st

March 21^st

 Other than this any call ins would be by arrangement by email or phone to take place on a Tuesday or Thursday.

 Come and visit the reserve! Our postcode is YO10 3FW (although some satnavs still struggle with this a little). Vehicular access is only via Rawdon Avenue/Harington Avenue and parking is very limited. Better to walk or cycle through the reserve, we have various access points via Bull Lane, Hazel Court, Foss Island and via a major intersection with cycle route 658:  Route 658 - Sustrans.org.uk