BEE Adventures CIC & Whinney Hill Farm CIC Collaboration on The Community Ground Up Project
Bee Adventures CIC has been working over the last 12 months to connect community groups to the outdoors. We’ve found that both adult and child groups have a massive disconnect from the outdoors and their natural surroundings. Studies have shown that spending time outdoors can improve mental health and reduce stress and anxiety. Through the Community Ground Up Project, we have seen groups engage with the outdoors, show an interest in our natural environment and show improved mental health.
The Community Ground Up Project started with the vision of reaching more people to interest them in the outdoors in line with BEE Adventures CIC main aim of making the outdoors accessible and use it as a tool to improve mental health. BEE Adventures CIC works closely in the community with groups in addiction recovery and PRU schools to get more people to access the outdoors who normally wouldn’t have the opportunity. We take groups climbing mountains, wild adventures and offer nature skills workshops. All these activities are proving to help people’s mental health but are not always accessible to lots of people in our community. We thought a community growing garden in a rural location would be more accessible for more people.
To connect people to the project, we wanted them to be a part of the creation and feel a great sense of achievement from participating in The Ground Up Project. The first phase was to clear the area, build raised beds and create an accessible pathway around the planters with groups from local schools, volunteers and groups in addiction recovery. In the 2 months phase one of the project ran over 100 participant volunteers took part and worked extremely hard to make the space a beautiful, welcoming, vegetable-growing garden. Many of the young people didn’t know you could grow your own vegetables to eat and believed they could only be bought in a shop. The most popular response was “Asda” when asked where carrots come from. The adult groups found the activities fulfilling and felt it was a safe space to talk about ongoing problems in their life.
A participant from the addiction recovery centre said, “I’ve loved being outside today, I started this morning feeling very negative when you picked my up, but now I feel much better.”
Some people in the groups initially didn’t feel connected with the outdoors and didn’t think that growing vegetables was something they were interested in, after phase one had finished with the sessions we have run everyone was keen to start growing vegetables not only in the community space but also at home.
A schoolchild said, “I spoke with my grandad after the last time we were here and told him I wanted to grow vegetables. He’s now going to pay me for the vegetables I grow in his garden.”
Amazing outcomes
Both groups reported that they felt a strong connection to the space they helped create and felt a part of the community.
100% of the participants said that they…
…enjoyed the sessions and would like to return for phase 2 and going forward.
…felt a better connection to the outdoors.
…felt a better connection to their community.
…spending time outdoors improved their mental health on the day (in the adult group).
Find out more about BEE Adventures CIC and how you could get outdoors more with them on their website.
The Community Ground Up Project is funded by the Pots of Possibility fund.
