The scheme, delivered by Sussex Wildlife Trust, took place on Eastbourne beach as part of the nationwide Blue Influencers Scheme, designed to connect young people with their local blue spaces.
The mentors, who deliver the scheme, developed new skills to share with young people taking part in environmental social action projects.
The Blue Influencers Scheme, created by UK education charity The Ernest Cook Trust, aims to engage and empower young people living in deprived coastal, river, and estuary areas to take action on environmental and climate issues.
Mike Murphy and Natasha Sharma, wilder learning officers with Sussex Wildlife Trust, said the training was well received.
Mr Murphy said: “We came at this from two angles – how do you engage young people in an environment that they are not familiar with and maybe not comfortable in, and how do we introduce new people to a coastal environment that, to begin with, might not look that interesting.
“Our course is about inviting people to look at the marine environment in a new way and by doing so they connect with it, start to understand it and love it, and ultimately want to protect it.”
The £2.25m scheme is co-funded by The Ernest Cook Trust and the #iwill Fund, and is set to run for three years.
It aims to involve more than 4,000 young people as ‘Blue Influencers’ and recruit over 15,000 community volunteers across England.
The #iwill Fund is backed by a joint £66 million investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The Ernest Cook Trust acts as a match funder and distributes grants through the scheme.
Funding is provided to more than 20 host organisations across England to employ Blue Mentors, who work directly with young people.
The training in Eastbourne included practical activities such as collecting and curating items found on the beach, learning about tides, and ending each day with a litter pick.
Natasha Sharma, wilder learning officer, said: “The fact that they will be able to translate their experience to their blue space – in the case of rivers, they might include mudlarking – was fantastic for us.”
Kate Elliott, interim project officer for The Blue Influencer Scheme at The Ernest Cook Trust, said: “I found the training immensely powerful in forging connections amongst the group as well as with the coastal environment.
“Mike and Natasha were engaging and inspiring, and since the training, I have already witnessed Blue Mentors sharing and adapting specific elements of what they learned to support fellow Blue Mentors (who are yet to do the training) in their roles.”
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