Introducing Lottie Williams, our new Volunteer Coordinator
We’d like to wish Lottie Williams, our new Volunteer Coordinator, a warm welcome to the Glasbren team! Thanks to the Carmarthenshire County Council Targeted Finance fund, we are able to enhance our volunteer offering in 2026, to include transport provision, better facilities for wheelchair users and, crucially, a Volunteer Coordinator to help improve the experience and impact of our volunteer programmes, track and monitor that impact and recruit new volunteers - unlocking the potential of Lords Park for diverse and accessible volunteer opportunities for all.
We were struck by Lottie’s passion for nature-based wellbeing, service to the land and her vision for how the volunteer experience could be here at Lords Park. With a background in teaching and her work as a nature-writing for wellbeing practitioner, Lottie is a perfect fit for holding a safe, inclusive and non-judgemental space and upholding the Glasbren volunteering culture. She’s already making waves….. Lottie is also a published writer, and so we could think of no better way to introduce her properly than in her own wonderfully-woven words….. Read on below to hear why place and community are so important to her, and about how she plans to bring that into the role of Volunteer Coordinator here at Lords Park farm. Over to you, Lottie.
I squint my eyes and hold my palm across my forehead, unaccustomed to this clear blue sky with no hint of a cloud in sight. This year has so far swept a blend of graphite, but today it feels like Spring is on its way. I walk up from Lord’s Park with my flask of morning tea, and stand on the brow of the hill that overlooks Glasbren’s polytunnels and barn. I wave, and my longish shadow waves back from the dozy slope of land that tilts away. I raise my gaze to the other side of this shallow valley beyond the farm, where skeletal trees no longer seem winter-stark, a tinge of new season softening their boughs.
Turning westwards, the high rise turbines tell me that, despite the sun’s warmth, there is still a wind up there today. Easterly, the welcoming curve of the Tywi winds in calm, placid fashion towards Carmarthen, but we all know what it’s really like. That river has muscle. Above, the castle stands sentry to time. To the south, the Taf’s mouth widens to Carmarthen Bay, and the estuary is a watercolour blend of strokes and swirls, of mud, sand and land. A skylark sings 90’s Internet dial-up on repeat, and, somewhere below, Moss the farm dog barks.
I smile. I‘ve always wanted a job in which I can wear my boots. Forever drawn to the hills and coast, I love to walk and run (jog), feel the weather first hand, take in both the magnitude of the views and the immediate ground at my feet. Places are very important to me, holding memories, people and experiences. My favourites include Amroth Beach, Ilkley moor, my garden, and now here. What a blessing that my new office is the land at Glasbren, that my community encompasses all that is below the soil, through the soil and above the soil. To have the privilege of raising connections with the human and more than human built on who we are and how we arrive, and with a shared sense of hope and purpose. Where everyone is equal and important, whether or not you have vertebrae, roots or wings.
Several reasons drew me to the role of volunteer coordinator. Firstly, community. Relationships can be drawn from working together and spending time in nature, both of which are incredibly transformative and beneficial. In the face of climate and ecological emergency, I feel compelled to be part of a local initiative inspiring greater change and making positive action. Think global, act local - support nature friendly local farming, food growing, and seed saving. I am dedicated to the experiences and welfare of our volunteers, working to heighten their relationships with the land, the food they eat, their skills and learning pathways, working and socialising with each other, and, importantly, taking care of themselves. We continue to operate a no duress ethos here, and we welcome everyone as they are.
I began volunteering for Glasbren back in 2023 after the move from Bronhaul to Lord’s Park Farm, but family and work circumstances pulled me away for a while. Abel once told me the land would welcome me back when I was ready, and it has, and so it feels full circle that I’ve returned.
For most of my adult life, I have worked in both primary and secondary schools as a teaching assistant and an English and drama teacher. More recently I studied for a Masters in Creative Writing at Swansea University and trained as a writing for wellbeing practitioner with Literature Wales. This means I also work freelance as a published writer, and facilitate writing sessions designed to support positive mental health and wellbeing through activities specialising in nature, place and environment. I have brought these skills to the role of volunteer coordinator in which everyone is authentically welcomed with warmth, equality and accessibility. I have already introduced a cylch cinio | lunchtime circle on Volunteer Thursdays. This safe space includes gair yr wythnos | Welsh word of the week, a seasonal poem or passage of prose, and a short accompanying activity if anyone should wish. We are setting up a llyfrgell gymunedol | community library, and our cist had | seed kist box is always open for thoughts, feelings, questions and suggestions. There’s lots going on.
Up on the hill I pull my boots from the quickening mud, although on this warmer, drier day it has set slightly more blachmange than custard, and I turn back to face the farm. The polytunnels nestle brightly into the hug of the land. The chicken shed, Le Palais de Poulet, is close by, and the sheep too. A flicker of white distracts my attention, labels blaring sunshine and strapped to the newly planted trees from February’s Coed Community Day. So much magic happens here, and we are welcoming more volunteers. So, do you fancy planting a tree or a fruitbush? Perhaps you’d like to help develop the gorgeous Little Stewards piece of land so the next generation can learn and grow? Maybe you want to feel the earth between your fingers, sow the seeds for this upcoming season and watch as the seedlings grow, plant them out, then help harvest them? Do you want to learn how to build wooden structures, fix polytunnels, pack veg boxes, build terraces into the land? Or would you just like to come and reconnect, rest in this peaceful place? Find healing? If you’d like to join us, I’d love to hear from you. If you aren’t sure, I’d still love to hear from you, and answer any thoughts or questions you may have. The volunteering information on the website can be found here, and my inbox is open at volunteer@glasbren.org.uk. People care, earth care, fair share. Together.
