GRCF2021: Inspiring blue recovery through connecting people with the ocean (360G-cabinetoffice-G2-GA-202211828474-21-22)

Building on almost 40 years experience, MCS will significantly scale up participation in volunteering, marine citizen science and youth engagement, connecting people with and inspiring them to take action to protect, our marine heritage. Three new full-time specialist engagement and eight retained roles will:-connect more people throughout England, from more diverse backgrounds (underrepresented groups, young people), more deeply with the ocean;-improve access to nature while supporting development of transferrable skills to improve employability;-increase volunteering from underrepresented groups and young people (widespread training, resources, improve inclusivity);-engage new audiences in citizen science through beach cleans, surveys on marine/ inland litter, microplastics, marine wildlife (15,000 new citizen science volunteers, 3,000 digitally trained);-transform community engagement (15,000 people engaged, volunteer-led talks to communities/ schools/ youth groups);-co-create activity with young people (under25s) to increase engagement and improve skills (formal/ informal settings, digital resources).-bolster health and wellbeing by connecting people with blue spaces;-improve the health/ resilience of the marine environment (better), (1,500 litter clean-ups, robust data (pollution trends, seaweed decline) informs conservation, inspires behaviour change)Activity meets themes 1&3, is evidence-based, fully costed and ready to go (pending recruitment).