Peak District Mosaic: Championing National Parks for Everyone

Published: 11 August 2025

Stopping to enjoy the view! A Peak District Mosaic walk around Bradfield

Getting out in National Parks brings people joy, opportunities for recreation, improves health and wellbeing and builds a sense of belonging. However, significantly fewer people from ethnically and culturally diverse communities visit, live in, volunteer or work for a National Park than other groups. This is clearly evidenced in a range of reports including Defra’s 2019 Landscapes Review, reports on the wider environmental sector such as the RACE report, and the National Parks’ own data. The Championing National Parks for Everyone project has been developed in response to this, and specifically works with people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and to remove the barriers these communities face in accessing and enjoying National Parks.

The project is led by the charity Peak District Mosaic and is working with the Peak District National Park, Yorkshire Dales National Park and North York Moors National Park. The aims of the project are to increase the diversity of visitors to the National Parks through a varied programme of activities, deliver a large-scale Community Champion training programme to support diverse communities to visit the National Parks independently, create improved pathways for people from diverse communities into employment in the outdoor sector and to improve the practice of the National Park Authorities in working with diverse communities.

Throughout 2025, the project will recruit, train and support a team of at least 72 Volunteer Community Champions across these three National Parks. The Community Champion training programme will create a cohort of volunteers who can independently deliver safe, enjoyable and sustainable outdoor activities into the future, including easy-going walks, longer hikes, cycling sessions, adventure days or visits to heritage sites in the National Parks; Community Champions are bringing in their own interests and passions when planning future sessions for their communities. Already 31 Community Champions have been trained under cohort one of this training programme, with around 45 Community Champions likely to complete cohort two and the final cohort three planned for winter 2025.

Community Champions from 2017 standing with their certificates

As part of the project plans, Peak District Mosaic will continue to work closely with the new Community Champions, offering various networking opportunities to share experiences, and further training provision to ensure they have the skills needed to safely run the ongoing events programme for their communities.

The two year project finishes in December 2026 with plans to extend the work into 2027 and beyond, sharing their learning on what works and future Community Champion training, funding dependent. The various evaluation work will show the impact of the project, how well it has met its initial outcomes and the changes in organisational practice that the project brings about for the three National Parks and Peak District Mosaic.

Championing National Parks for Everyone is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund and other key match funders. Thanks to the National Lottery players, the project is supporting more people from diverse communities to have the skills and resources to build a lifelong relationship with their National Parks.

Find out more about the Championing National Parks for Everyone project here.