Hello, I am Martin Jones, Retail Manager at the Welsh Wildlife Centre and co-ordinator for WTSWW’s online shop.

I have been inspired by nature since around the age of 7 or 8, when one of my earliest wildlife encounters was seeing of a pair of red kites in the late 1990s near Rhandirmwyn. I spent many weekends during my primary school years out birding with my parents, and I made it a goal of mine at a young age to one day work for a wildlife charity.

Growing up gay was quite hard, particularly in West Wales where gay culture was pretty much non-existent and with Section 28 in place, it was never something that was discussed during my education. Upon reflection, I’ve realised that this is probably why I struggled a bit in school – coming to terms with who I was with a lack of awareness unfortunately had a huge impact on my academic performance. After a confusing few years, I left school not knowing what I wanted to do for a career, I decided not to go to university and fell into high street retail by default.

I spent 4 years working in various retailers before deciding that I wanted to work with a wildlife charity. I didn’t have the qualifications or experience to go into a conservation role, but I had gained a lot of experience working in retail and decided to start volunteering at the Welsh Wildlife Centre Gift Shop in 2012. Various circumstances over the following couple of years, combined with support from Trust staff led me to the role that I have with the Trust today, a role that I enjoy immensely and get a great deal of satisfaction from.

During the time that I have been working at the Welsh Wildlife Centre, I met my fiancé, Wayne. We have been together for 8 and a half years and live together in St. Dogmaels. His unwavering support, patience and kindness has helped me through some incredibly difficult times and helped me to become the outgoing, positive person that I am today.

I have changed jobs four times during my career. Despite coming out at 16, each time I have started working somewhere new, the whole process of coming out begins again. It can be daunting, but often more so, it’s actually quite enlightening. One gets a complete sense of an organisation’s culture when the team you work with first find out that you are gay.

In a workplace environment, I have very fortunately never encountered any negativity towards me based on my sexual orientation. I also don’t feel it has ever been used against me in terms of career progression. I started at the Welsh Wildlife Centre as a volunteer in 2012 and as well as growing up with the Trust, I have progressed my career to a position that fulfils my childhood goal. I absolutely love working at the Welsh Wildlife Centre, where our team feels more like a family than it does just work colleagues.

WTSWW have striven to make everybody feel welcome – whether that be staff, volunteers, members or visitors. The organisation’s commitment to achieving EDI policies is ongoing and there will always be improvements that can be made but at its core, it is a charity that is open, inclusive and endeavours to be as diverse as it can be. Through guidance from the Wildlife Trusts ‘Wild About Inclusion’, the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales have introduced changes including signposting staff to an LGBTQ+ support network and encouraging staff to include pronouns in their email signatures. At the Welsh Wildlife Centre, we have a close knit team that fosters an inclusive ethos and we have made meaningful changes within the building including introducing a gender neutral public convenience. As a team, we want to create a safe space for all to enjoy.