1. Creating space for new narratives in rural landscapes

We support people to reauthor rural stories so they reflect lived experience, diversity and care. We create gentle, sensory spaces where people can explore identity, land and belonging in ways that challenge dominant narratives about who rural places are for.

2. Widening access to land, nature and rural creativity

We widen access to land and rural creativity by addressing the barriers that shape who feels welcome, safe or represented in rural spaces. Our work creates supported, relational pathways into nature and creative practice, helping people build lasting connections with land, community and more-than-human worlds.

3. Embedding care, relationality and community governance

We develop governance structures rooted in relationality, care, listening and shared decision-making. Our work explores how power moves, how feedback is offered and how organisations can hold people safely. We support other organisations to embed care in their own practices. The land and rivers, and other than human beings are part of our decision-making processes.  

4. Strengthening relationships between people, land and more than human worlds

We explore other-than-human relationality through creative, reflective and nature-based practices. Our work invites people to consider how our relationships to land, weather, water, plants and animals shape community life and how these relationships can guide decision-making.

5. Slow publishing and community-owned knowledge

We are building an archive of alternative rural experiences. We create tactile, accessible publications that hold rural stories, maps, reflections and shared learning. Our publishing practice is slow, sensory and collaborative. It centres community ownership and helps people build archives of their own experiences within a rural context.

6. Creative, land-based wellbeing and belonging

We deliver nature-based wellbeing sessions, fire circles, forest school workshops and rural gatherings that support mental health, confidence and connection. 

7. Guardianship and caring for landscapes and rivers

We support people to develop practices of stewardship and collective care. We explore how communities can care for damaged or threatened landscapes, including rivers, sacred sites and ecologies under pressure.

8. Queer ecology and rural queer belonging

We use queer ecology as a way of understanding rural life, creativity and community. We create spaces where queer people can connect with land, each other and new forms of rural identity. 

9. Cross sector collaboration and rural access

We work with cultural organisations, environmental groups, local authorities and community networks to widen rural access. Our work supports organisations to understand rural exclusion, develop inclusive practices and build long term relationships with marginalised communities.

10. Evaluation, reflection and shared learning

We aim to embed evaluation throughout our projects so learning is shared, accessible and useful. We support communities and organisations to reflect on their practices and to develop new approaches to care, creativity and rural belonging.

11. Reinvestment into community benefit

Any surplus generated through our work is reinvested into further activity, new publications, rural access work and community led projects. Our aim is to grow Field Notes sustainably while keeping benefit rooted in the communities we serve.