THE WILDERNESS CENTRE (WYLDERNE)

Protecting a valued community asset and expanding opportunities for outdoor learning, wellbeing and connection with nature.

Organisation: Community-owned outdoor learning centre
Location: Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire
Investment: £822,000
Investment Date: 2025
Source of Investment: Resonance Community Developers

About the Wilderness Centre

The Wilderness Centre is an outdoor learning centre in the Forest of Dean that has welcomed generations of young people through school residential visits and outdoor education. Now owned by the community through Wylderne, the centre is creating new opportunities for people of all ages to connect with nature, develop outdoor skills and experience the benefits of learning in the natural environment.

Alongside supporting schools, the centre is expanding its offer to provide activities including bushcraft, canoeing, orienteering and high ropes, helping make outdoor learning accessible to the wider community for the first time.

Our investment

In 2025, Resonance Community Developers invested £822,000 to help Wylderne bring the Wilderness Centre back into community ownership.

The investment formed part of a successful £1 million fundraising campaign to purchase the site and secure its long-term future. By protecting this valued community asset, the investment has enabled plans to restore and expand the centre, ensuring it continues to provide opportunities for education, recreation and community engagement for years to come.

Impact

The investment has safeguarded the long-term future of a much-loved outdoor learning centre, ensuring it remains a community asset rather than being lost to private ownership.

For the first time, the Wilderness Centre will expand beyond school residential visits to welcome the wider community, creating new opportunities for people of all ages to enjoy nature, develop practical outdoor skills and improve their health and wellbeing through access to green space.

By combining social investment with community ownership, the project is helping protect an important local asset while encouraging environmental awareness, strengthening community connections and supporting future generations to learn about and care for the natural world.

“The significant Resonance investment will help the Wilderness Centre to evolve into a place where people can enjoy contact with nature and learn how they might help the unique biodiversity of the Forest to thrive.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming back not only our local schools but, for the first time ever, everyone from our community.” Simon Dawson, a Director of Wylderne