The Woodland Project enables a non-ordinary therapeutic day out in the woods, supported by a welcoming team!
It’s hard to imagine a life where leaving your house is difficult, where you face living with judgement and constant, significant levels of stress. The families that come to the Woodland Project, often live with a relentless barrage of physical assault from their child, frequently lack of sleep, and hold the sadness of seeing their child self harm.
Woodland days really make a difference.
With your support we can make this happen!
The days encourage families to put their worries to one side, mingle and laugh knowing that their child’s behaviour is not the focus of attention. They support young people to feel safe, move through difficult feelings, find hope and be okay with who they are.
This is what we may get up to:
Each family is supported by a Circle of Life Rediscovery team member and CAMHS FISS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service Family Intensive Support Service) member. We share food, set up family & child-led activities, provide wellbeing moments e.g head massage, and offer a range of swings, hammocks, tools for crafting and fire-making! We expect families to see their children having many ‘firsts’, from trying new activities, being more independent and experiencing risky activities.
Your donations will help create the days that take place through out the whole year and is an ongoing project. As funding for all services limited, we are relying on people like yourself to help this continue! Thank you.
We are also going further:
Any funding we raise beyond £9500 will go towards young people (13 – 18 years) with mental health difficulties to join a long-term nature-based programme alongside CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and a life changing training for a group of capable but vulnerable young adults (18 – 25 years) to attend our Young Nature Leaders Initiative gaining a Level 2 Forest School assistant qualification.
The project is for individuals who live with mental health issues, isolation from their community, stigmatization on a daily basis, and have a lack of knowledge, confidence and face real barriers in how to engage in activities that promote individual well being and access to nature.
The reported problems these people face lead to behaviours such as avoidance of social contact and falling into self-defeating mind sets. To alleviate these issues, individuals need increased chances to interact with other young people of similar situation and experienced adults. Nature offers a safe and nurturing environment, the experience of 'other', non-human relationships that foster well-being. These young people are stressed, under pressure, deeply frustrated, often depressed and feel without hope.
Yet because of their experience they are often emotionally literate and exceptional advocates, but struggle to find a voice in the modern school or home experience. They need an opportunity to be in a safe environment in which they can feel more secure and more open to learning new skills and discovering new dynamics within themselves and among their peers.
This project, with your support, will enable a renewed love of learning and life to support their own interests and enable them to contribute to the wider community.
Here is a video produced by young people about how being in nature supports them.
This video was created by young people in Sussex to raise awareness about mental health issues and stigma.