The volunteer session programme has now been released for July – September 2026. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
RLSS UK’s Drowning Prevention Week is an annual, water safety campaign designed to educate children and young adults in water safety and lifesaving skills.
Drowning Prevention Week educates children aged 5 to 17 each June with crucial water safety advice just before the summer holidays, when young people are outdoors more and need these skills and knowledge most, so everyone can enjoy water safely. We’re calling on all carers, schools, lifesaving clubs, leisure operators and water-related businesses to participate.
RLSS UK exists to prevent drowning and support everyone to enjoy water safely. We are committed to saving lives by leading in lifesaving, lifeguarding and water safety education, and we aspire to have communities free from drowning. With your support we can achieve this.
Drowning is preventable and nobody should drown.
The volunteer session programme has now been released for April – June 2026. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
“I had a brilliant time volunteering at Ladywell park with Rivers & People Riverbank Management. As a student I’m always working at a computer so it was a lovely change of pace to get up and active whilst helping out the community. Meeting the other volunteers was a great opportunity to meet other locals and make connections outside of university. From a conservation perspective it was really interesting to learn about the maintenance needed for these parks to stay enjoyable all year round. In the session I attended we focused on removing reeds and silt to improve the flow of the stream. As a newcomer everyone was welcoming to me and I felt very comfortable in the group. I hope to be involved with more projects in the future and I encourage you to do the same!” – Elsa, Local Uni Student
January began in a very wet fashion, with lots of heavy rain and the rivers in flood mode. Our first session back was at Cornmill Gardens where we working on the viewing platform both checking the wooden slats and removing a line of vegetation so in a month’s time when the plants get growing you’ll still be able to see the river! The volunteers also cleared up litter and various bits of rubbish that had floated downstream in the recent rains, which Glendale’s cleansing team collected at the end of the session.
Later in the month we were back on the weir in Ladywell Fields, allowing the river to permeate through the weir and unblocking the secondary channel was our key aim and after 3 hours of shifting vegetation, rubbish, fence panels, and a e-bike we left the weir with a good flow, and a cohort of moorhens who appeared as we left.
Glendale is the parks contractor for the London Borough of Lewisham’s contractor, and they release a quarterly update on what is happening across the green spaces,
It doesn’t feel too long since I wrote a post about the end of 2024, but 2025 has been a really busy and varied year for our Rivers & People volunteers. Firstly, I want to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped out at one of our 36 sessions this year. We covered all three rivers within Lewisham, and miles of banksides, surveying for wildlife, litter-picking, restoration projects within the channel to improving access to the river from within the parks. Overall, 693 volunteer hours have been given to the rivers in Lewisham, so thank you to everyone who has been involved.
To join the Rivers & People volunteer group in 2026, please check out our January-March session programme.
The volunteer session programme has now been released for January – March 2026. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
The volunteer session programme has now been released for October to December 2025. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
Rivers and People 