Get Involved

Schools & Youth Groups

If you’re interested in participating in a school or youth group, email volunteers@ecologia.org.uk

Kitezh and Orion Children’s Communities in Russia have hosted several youth and school group visits from the UK, USA and Canada over the last few years. These groups of young people have had a fantastic opportunity to experience a different culture by living in the Russian communities and making friends there. Some also enabled the youth from Kitezh and Orion to visit and experience the countries and cultures of their visitors. Some School and Youth groups return year after year with new students to discover the unique experience that Kitezh and Orion have to offer.

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School & Youth Group Visits

To enquire about School visits, Youth Groups or youth exchanges, please contact us.

  • St Paul’s Girls School – groups from St Paul’s Girls School in London and Bedales School visited Orion in July 2014, 2015 and 2016. They plan another visit in summer 2019.

 

  • Sevenoaks SchoolKitezh Youth Exchange – Sevenoaks School in Kent, UK, have visited Kitezh every year at Easter since 2012. Groups of foster children from Kitezh were hosted in London by Sevenoaks in June 2013 and again in 2016 and in 2020. Read a touching letter from a Sevenoaks student here. In April 2017 they visited Orion for the first time.

 

  • Bainbridge Island-Kitezh – June 2016 marked the fourth annual visit of high school students from a non-profit organisation from Bainbridge Island, USA. Read about the 2014 experience at Kitezh in the Bainbridge Island Review. In a podcast organiser Loretta Stanton talks about Kitezh and how they came to volunteer there.

 

  • Mind The Gap – Thirty young people met in Russia in Spring 2012 to create a theatrical performance together – coming from Kitezh, Moscow and England.

 

  • The Haven – a Gabriola Island, Canada, non-profit organisation ran a youth exchange in 2013 between Kitezh and Canadian graduates of their Youth Leadership Programme.

 

  • Findhorn-Kitezh Youth Exchange – a youth exchange took place in 2009 between youth from the Findhorn Community, Scotland and children from Kitezh Children’s Community, Russia, first at Kitezh in Russia and then at Findhorn in Scotland.

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susie Kemp

Susie has 30+ experience as a creative copywriter, editor, and proofreader, starting out as a 20-year-old copywriter in the Mad Men world of early 1990s advertising in South Africa. Ever since, she’s had a love affair with creative conceptualisation, thinking outside of the box, writing to a deadline, and being thrown in the deep end!

She took an MSc in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University as a mature student, in 2015, and continues to keep herself busy working as a copy-editor, proofreader and copywriter in book publishing, corporate communications, and publishing project management.

Apart from her love of working with independent authors, Susie has a fondness for working in the third sector and likes to use her corporate communications and marketing experience to support projects close to her heart. She has lived and worked in the Findhorn area for 25 years, and has been involved in a number of third sector projects and organisations, and family businesses.

Working at Ecologia Youth Trust helps Susie to live in integrity with her values of supporting the next generation to be the best that they can be, and she sees it as a way to give back to Mama Africa, the beloved continent on which she was born.

Ellen Shaw

Ellen joined the Ecologia team in June 2018 as Marketing and Communications Manager. Ellen has lived in Scotland for 6 years and has worked for non-profit and charitable organisations across varied fields. She currently shares her passion for helping young people through Ecologia Youth Trust and she works as a dancer and dance teacher in her spare time.

Robyn Cooper

Robyn is the Associate Director of International Projects, having previously worked within the team as a Project Development and Marketing Officer from April 2019 until May 2021. As Associate Director, Robyn is co-leading the International side of Ecologia with Founder and Director, Liza Hollingshead, bringing a new energy into Ecologia as they look towards the future of the charity.

Liza Hollingshead

Liza is the founder of Ecologia and Director of International Projects. She was born and educated in South Africa and worked there as a high school teacher. She moved to live in the Findhorn Community in 1974. She started Ecologia in 1995 after being introduced to Dmitry Morozov, the founder of Kitezh Children’s Community in Russia, and was inspired to support the community in its mission to rescue orphaned children from institutions and give them homes, families and education in a supportive environment.

This led to projects supporting disadvantaged youth and children in South East Asia and in East Africa. TRead more about Liza’s story here.