Nature in Sacred Places is shortly to launch an online survey for people who currently look after a sacred place whether that’s a church, cemetery, burial ground, mosque, temple, synagogue, gurdwara, meeting house or other location.

Nature in Sacred Places (NiSP) is a collaborative project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and aims to help people, nature and heritage thrive together. Over six years, the project aims to support sacred places of all kinds to make their outdoor spaces more accessible and biodiverse, while building volunteer skills and professional capacity.

This survey will help us understand the challenges communities face in caring for their outdoor spaces, as well as the skills, knowledge and resources they need. Your responses will directly inform the support we develop.

We are keen to hear from people directly involved with individual sacred places as well as professionals and organisations supporting multiple places. People can answer in relation to a specific place or if they work across several places, they can draw on their wider experience and share examples where helpful.

How you can get involved

Our survey can be completed anonymously – but we’re also interested in hearing from communities and organisations who would like to work with us at an early stage to help test resources and share feedback. If you’d like to get involved, you will be able to leave your contact details separately and register your interest against a range of exciting opportunities on offer – from practical guidance and templates, to workshops, training and small-scale funding.

This is a chance to access expertise and influence the development of our project before it reaches a much wider audience – helping us make sure it works in practice and reflects the realities of caring for sacred places. We’ll initially be focusing on target areas across the West Midlands, Herefordshire and South Yorkshire, but we want to hear from people and organisations throughout England from the outset. Subject to funding, we aim to be working across the country from early 2028.