In today’s blog our Campaigns and Communications Officer, Ginny Sanderson, tells us about The Alba Explorers, a family business that is empowering young people to explore the outdoors and build a connection with nature.
Scavenger hunts, foraging, learning fire skills and navigating the wilds. These activities are not often associated with a school day.
But one pioneering family business is reigniting young people’s passion in nature through exploration of the great outdoors.
Based in the northeast of Scotland, The Alba Explorers provide outdoor learning for children, immersing them in their environment and rediscovering its value for physical and mental health.
At the heart of their mission is to drive social change, helping disadvantaged communities and empowering young people through nature education.
“Our entire company is based around helping our culture reconnect with its roots, a rich shared heritage in the outdoors,” says Jordan Lynch, the business’ co-founder alongside his brother Joshua.
“It’s our belief that restoring this relationship between the individual, the community and their environment is an essential part of the solution to social and environmental decline.”
Who are The Alba Explorers?
Launched in 2019, The Alba Explorers works mostly with primary and secondary schools. Children aged 5 to 18 are taught skills such as bushcraft, first aid, woodland management and more to nurture personal growth and environmental awareness.
So far, they have trained around 2,500 pupils and 250 staff, and have won awards including highly commended in the business category of RSPB’s Nature of Scotland Awards 2023.
Jordan says: “I think the western world is beginning to rediscover the clear positive correlation between meaningful time spent outdoors and good physical and mental health.
“At the core of it, our company is primarily concerned with social change. Especially instilling children and young people with the skill and confidence to improve their lives.
“We use outdoor and environmental education as the vehicle to do this because we’re also concerned about environmental decline in Scotland, and believe that both concerns can be answered together with the work we do.”
‘I feel all this beauty in my soul’
Instilling children with a respect and understanding of nature is an essential part of The Alba Explorers’ mission.
One P2 pupil described their experience as: “Absolutely amazing, because of all of the beauty, and all that makes me happy. I just feel it, I feel all this beauty in my soul. You feel all this in your soul.”
Giving children hands-on experience with outdoor disciplines – from bushcraft, to conservation, hillwalking and woodland management – is hoped to improve their mental health and wellbeing, and their ability to succeed in further education and employment.
“Environmentalism is the vehicle that we use to help teach people self-reliance and resilience” Jordan says.
The Alba Explorers also encourage children to develop a career in the rural sector by showing them career paths, building their confidence, and teaching them essential skills.
“It made my brain explode seeing all that we could do by ourselves,” one P4 pupil said, while a P5 student said: “I didn’t know I was so responsible or safe but now I know I am.”
‘Who we are is directly linked to the land’
Jordan believes social degradation and environmental decline are connected – and addressing both issues is the key to real change.
He says: “The decline of the natural environment is a big concern of ours, and it’s clear that the solution is multi-faceted.
“Individuals with complex struggles, distractions and unaddressed needs don’t make for effective stewards of the environment.
“We simply cannot expect people who are suffering a mass crisis of mental and physical health, and poverty, to play an active role in caring for their environment.”
Jordan also believes social and environmental issues should transcend party politics.
He said: “The people we are, how we behave and what we aspire to are directly linked to the land we live on.
“It’s an exercise in futility to try to separate humanity from the environment. We should stop talking about the two as if we’re separate and start realising that we need to care for ourselves within the context of the environment also being healthy.”
‘The best job in the whole world!’
The outdoor education they provide has had a positive impact on children’s self esteem and relationship with their parents.
One Montrose parent whose child had recently been diagnosed with autism said The Alba Explorers played a big part in “bringing him out of his shell”.
“Usually he’d respond with ‘can’t remember’ when I ask him about his school day, but on his Alba days he’d come back and tell me everything he did.
“Recently he did something he wouldn’t have done a year ago – he stood up in front of his school and recited a poem. Last year he would have been so nervous and distressed he wouldn’t have done that.”
Another parent from Edzell said: “Giving the kids the opportunity to be out of the classroom, learning in a different style, is so important and valuable.”
Jordan says one of his favourite things about his job is: “Seeing children defeating challenges, exceeding their own self-imposed limitations, and becoming more happy and capable people.”
It gets extra special, he says, when he discovers children have been able to improve how they interact with their parents.
“I think about how grateful I am when someone does something for my two boys that gives them self-confidence or teaches them how to be successful in the world. I feel joy, pride, and relief simultaneously!
“Knowing that the instructors in our company can help provide these experiences and feelings to parents all over Tayside and Aberdeenshire is just about the best feeling we could ask for. I’m pretty sure I have the best job in the whole world!”