From little seeds!

Our Story :

Five ponies on a four acre field with one stable and a shed, working with young people, supporting them in getting outdoors and learning the basics of equine safety and understanding. thats how we started in 2017.

By February 2020 we needed a new home due to flooding and the unsuitability of the land to develop further, and we met a group of people who simply got what we wanted to do. The new home had planning permission for a stable block and car park, was big enough to sustain the ponies all year round and had room to develop other features too.

 When lockdown came, we were able to dedicate time and the limited self funded rescources we had to making the space feel more like a farm. We build two small garden areas, and began growing fruit and vegetables to enrich the horses, and by 2021 had met some more wonderful people who leased land to us for sheep, goats, ducks, bees and an allotment.

 It felt a little like field of dreams, if you build it, they will come! And they did ! service users wanted to use our space to feel good, to connect with nature and to learn skills.

 We developed two strong suport programmes, one for general mental wellbeing for all ages, we have groups for 5-11 year olds, 11-18, and over 18s  which focuses mainly around the animals and connecting with the horses during training, and a recovery programme supporting people living with addiction, which has taken on a life of its own and the groups plans and dreams are forthcoming and varied.

Our Plan : 

It was this programme that led us to 'stage two' of their development. Taking things a step further forward having spent 9 months building and honing their space and skills, they now want to take those skills and move our services past grant funding and into being able to run their own community concern.

This is where Buzzcraft Wellbeing is being born.
This project will feature a menu of wellbeing activities that will shape full day work shops, both funded for our community to support peoples mental wellbeing, get them outside and active and learing new skills.
And for partners and businesses locally looking for away days to both treat and enrich their staff whilst looking after their mental health. When businesses engage our groups services in booking an away day for their staff, they will be directly funding further workshop days for the community. Paying forward by connecting with nature.

The funded support will be available free of charge to our community of need, those individuals either suggested to us by support partners, doctors and social prescribers, or through ongoing support programmes like the recovery scheme. Or individuals who identify a need to make a healthier choice, and become more active or less isolated themselves, without fear of discrimination or being misunderstood, to connect with nature in a safe supportive space. make friends and learn new skills.

Building this new project has been a lot of fun, with members bringing their ideas to the group, we have shaped a whole host of opportunities that we are working on over the autumn and winter before launching Buzzcraft in April 2023.Our members are training in bushcraft coaching, Bee keeping, training the goats for goat trekking. Learning how to manage a flock of sheep. Training and learning connection with the horses, learning to manage poultry. Creating a beautiful grow to give garden of perenial and seasonal flowers, and creating wild life conservation mini projects and a habitat rich allotment.

 Our aims : 

Being part of this growth has opened up training and potential employment possabilities for members of the recovery service, who are now all training in peer support to enable them to take those skills and  support others. Growing confidences and proving the worth of people who only a few months ago may have felt they had little to offer, the group is thriving in the knowledge this is their project and their vision. 

We want to remove as many barriers as possible to service, having support cost nothing to the end user is vital in a time when more people than ever need early intervention peer support but equally don’t have a disposable income to support extra activities. Building our community accessible social farm space where people can come and get involved with a variety of green activities is really important. But so is building our CIC past the grant funding and into a sustainable and active community company.

Getting here hasn’t been easy,  We have had some assistance through grant funding but we know this will come to an end in a few months time and now need to ove past that stage to sustainability and our bright future.  Without help there is a real risk we could loose the project, that would be a huge loss to all our supported communities.

Our needs :

 
We need to invest in our bush craft school,
Knives, fire steels, kelly kettles, tarps, ropes,  and further coaching days for our staffing voluenteers.

 
Our allotment is under development but still needs much work to,

fence off the brook safely, create hedgehog and bird housing, install a wild bee hive and enrich the area with wild flowers, raise beds and create accessible growing areas.

Training for our project leaders to allow them the skills to support others and themselves wilst working with the public.

We also need to support the oncosts of the farm, rent, insurance and feeding the animals.

Please consider supporting our project and making Buzzcraft the sucsess it deserves to be.