Grow People, Places and Nature

Aim

Support us to fund free nature-based groups that enhance wellbeing, develop green skills, and drive community climate action in Bristol

Campaign summary

Every week at The Birch Collective, people facing some of life's harder challenges come together outdoors to learn practical skills and find community. 

We've seen it enough times to know that when people come to care for the land, they leave feeling more connected. It’s this relationship we want to support with this campaign. For us, climate action happens through belonging. By helping people feel at home in nature, we’re growing the roots of long-term care for the environment.

This summer, we’re raising £20,000 to cover the real, practical costs of delivering our free nature-based wellbeing and climate action sessions across Bristol over the next 12 months. With eligible donations matched by the Aviva Communities Fund, your support could help unlock up to £40,000 for people, places and nature in Bristol.

We will cement climate action across our programmes, grow green skills alongside connection, and meet the rising instability facing nature and our community. 

A place to come as you are

At The Birch Collective, we run free, weekly nature-based sessions for young people and adults facing mental health challenges, social isolation and structural barriers.

We know that many people are moving through life without places that feel welcoming, affordable or truly theirs. It can be hard to feel steady in that uncertainty.

At the same time, we are seeing instability in the natural world too. The climate crisis can feel huge and overwhelming. At Birch, we bring climate action back into everyday life through shared care, practical skills and long-term relationships with local green spaces.

“My favourite thing is seeing how much the garden changes through the seasons - and knowing we’ve had a hand in shaping it.” - Fresh-Air-Thursdays Participant

Why this matters now

The people we work alongside tell us they want something steady: somewhere rooted in real community, real relationships and a sense of purpose.

This crowdfunder will help us to strengthen that connection to the self, each other and the land around us. Because none of this happens by accident. A welcoming community space takes time, a safe group culture takes real skill, and a thriving garden or woodland takes consistent care. 

And a community where people can truly belong, contribute and care for nature requires people to show up week after week. 

Six years of grant funding have enabled us to build strong foundations for this next chapter. But local, public support gives us something different. This Crowdfunder will help us go further: reach more people, grow carefully to meet rising demand, and stay true to the warmth and relationships that make Birch what it is.

“As someone diagnosed with PTSD, these activities helped me stay present outdoors… It gives me a sense of possibility.”  - ReCoupe Participant

What your support will grow

Your donation will enable us to continue and strengthen the programmes that make up Birch’s nature-based community. 

This Crowdfunder will fund the practical, unglamorous things that make it all possible. Everything from skilled staff and tools to food, travel support, and evaluation of our impact. The practical infrastructure that makes free, safe, outdoor community work actually happen.

These are costs that enable people to grow food, restore woodland, and carefully manage Bristol’s green spaces as a community, over time. 

How your donation could help

Thanks to Aviva Communities Fund match funding, eligible donations can be doubled, helping your support go twice as far.

• £25 could provide food and hot drinks, helping make a session welcoming and accessible.
• £50 could fund materials for practical land skills, growing, craft or habitat work
• £100 could help provide tools, PPE and materials for participants caring for woodland and community garden spaces.
• £250 could support skilled facilitation for a nature-based group session.
• £1,000 could fund a place for a young adult to participate in Camp Birch/Seeding Change.
• £2,500 could support youth leadership, helping young people shape Birch’s future through paid governance and co-design opportunities.

These are ordinary costs that make extraordinary moments possible.

What we do:

Fresh Air Thursdays - Our weekly outdoor group for 16–25-year-olds at Strawberry Lane Community Garden. Together we grow food, cook, learn land skills, and spend time around the fire. For many people, it's the first place in a while where they feel they can relax.

Through this campaign, Fresh Air Thursdays can continue as a free weekly space where young people build confidence, community and practical climate skills: caring for soil, supporting pollinators, growing food and improving biodiversity in a shared urban green space.

ReCoupe: Working Woods - ReCoupe is our weekly woodland management and wellbeing programme for adults aged 18+, based at Troopers Hill Woods.

Our weekly woodland management and wellbeing programme for adults aged 18+, based at Troopers Hill Woods. Our group learn coppicing, tree planting, green woodworking and habitat creation. Practical conservation work can be seen over time. As the woodland changes, people change with it.

With support from this project, we can bring more people into community land stewardship, preserve heritage land and craft skills, and restore local land.

Camp Birch - An immersive residential programme for young adults navigating the transition into adulthood. Participants practise low-impact living, gain seasonal land skills, reflect and find community. Camp Birch is a route for people to find their way into a longer-term connection with Birch and with nature.

This project will strengthen the programme’s ability to help participants carry their experience forward. To explore how their own futures are connected to stewardship of the natural world.

1:1 Nature Mentoring: Gentle, relational outdoor support for people facing significant life challenges. Offering a different route to joining groups for people not quite ready to do so.

Supported by this campaign, people rebuild confidence, routine, and connection that they can bring to their communities.

Youth Leadership Young people don't just participate in Birch, they help shape its future. Through our Steering Group and Youth Advisory Board, they influence programme design, communications and organisational decisions. 

With the support of this campaign, young people decide how we take action to care for ourselves, each other and nature at Birch.

Help us grow what Birch has become

What began during the pandemic as a six-week nature connection course has grown into a trusted, deeply rooted organisation. Through weekly and long-term programmes, Birch has become a place people can return to and grow with nature over time.

In 2025 alone, Birch worked alongside more than 350 people in Bristol, many of whom faced isolation, low well-being, or barriers to everyday life. 

• 86% of participants reported feeling more connected to nature;
• 87% reported making new social connections;
• 95% reported gaining new knowledge or skills.

Locally, we’ve helped care for 17 acres of urban public woodland, planted over 200 trees in 2 new areas of coppice, begun creating a forest school space, and germinated local tree seeds from the woodland for future, climate-change-resilient replanting.

Along the way, we are proud of the relationships we have built:

• A strong community of participants who return week after week, many for years.
• A multi-year partnership with the City of Bristol College ESOL, so young adults who have experienced forced migration can access the outdoors and nature-based support.
• Strong referral pathways with Bristol-based organisations across the Bristol Council, the NHS, many voluntary sector organisations and regional partnerships.
• The first NHS-funded nature connection partnership of its kind, with Southmead Hospital’s Head Injury Treatment Unit pilot, is now continuing into its second year.
• A growing model of youth leadership, where participants shape programme design and organisational direction, and are paid and valued members of our governance structures.

After six years of growing Birch, people really resonate with what we do. This is the moment we ask our wider community to help us take the next step.

How you can support 

Make a donation

Thanks to match funding from Aviva Communities Fund, every £1 you donate will be doubled - so whether you give £5 or £500, your contribution will go twice as far.

Choose a reward

Have a look at our rewards and receive something meaningful in return while supporting Birch.

Spread the word

Share this campaign with friends, family, neighbours or colleagues. Every share helps us reach more people and move closer to our matched-funding target.

Join our programmes

If you’re new to Birch and like the sound of what we do, you’re very welcome to join us. If spending time outdoors, learning practical skills and being part of a gentle, welcoming community feels like something you’d benefit from, this is for you.

Find out more about our programmes

Support us today.

If the work of The Birch Collective matters to you - or if you believe Bristol needs more spaces like this - please donate today.

Funding method

All or nothing – this project will only receive pledges if it reaches its target of £40,000 by 19th August 2026 at 12:24pm