We are a not for profit community interest company established to offer affordable and accessible nature based therapeutic services. Our work harnesses the evidenced practices of Nature Connection, Mindfulness and applied Eco-psychology to bring a spectrum of interventions which support the mental and emotional needs of people in the community. We work with people of all ages and backgrounds with a variety of identified mental health needs ranging from low level emotional and psychological needs, to mild to moderate diagnosed mental health needs as well as people with complex and enduring mental health conditions.We also work in partnership with land based, regeneration projects, other green social prescribing organisations, NHS Primary Care and local authorities. FUNDED ACTIVITIES THIS YEAR Better Through Nature This is our pilot program in partnership with Frome Medical Practice and Natural Academy. A six-week course for people with anxiety, depression or burnout. This program is rooted in research that shows getting connected to nature can improve your mental and physical health. Over the six weeks we offer you skills for getting in touch with nature to help cope with life's ups and downs so that you will be more resourced going forward. This pilot meets our vision and aims in servicing the community and expanding nature connectedness for mental wellbeing. While for our partners at FMP and NA there is a larger focus on how to upscale nature based early interventions for mild to moderate mental health concerns. The practice will be creating a toolkit to guide other GP practices in integrating this work to promote sustainable and ecologically allied practices into primary care. From 1st Nov 2024 to 31st Oct 2025, we carried out Phase 2 of this pilot program. We ran four courses, servicing 39 people. We measured outcomes using the WEMWEBS Scale and the Daisy, looking at health, mental wellbeing, community belonging, nature connectedness, mood and motivation. An excerpt from the evaluation report from the Natural Institute: - People’s wellbeing and broader life outcomes improved clearly and signifi cantly after taking part in the programmes. - These changes were large enough to be meaningful, not just statistically signifi cant. - Personal, Social, and Ecological outcomes all improved, showing that the programme supports change across the whole person and their wider connection and demonstrating the usefulness of using a holistic outcomes tool such as the Outcome Flower/Daisy. - Female participants tended to report slightly stronger gains, though both sexes benefi tted. - More data would be needed to assess any statistical signifi cance in differences between average outcomes experienced by females and males. - The programme’s impact was consistent across all phases, demonstrating reliability over time. What some participants had to say: “It helped me slow down and pay attention to the small things around me, in nature and refocus my thoughts. It was really good at helping me tune out the noise clutter in my head.” “Opened my eyes and mind to my attitude to myself, others and the value of nature. Excellent breathing exercises to engender calm.” “It has helped me see that I am part of nature and to feel connected to it. Being outside in a green space has so many benefi ts to help my mental health and gives me time to think more clearly.” We are delighted with the outcomes of Phase 2 of the Better Through Nature pilot program with Frome Medical Practice. This work was funded by the Awards For All Lottery Grant and a continuation grant will be submitted for this work to continue in Frome across 2026 to 2027. We have also begun laying the groundwork for the project to be upscaled into Shepton Mallet. Monthly Nature Connection Sessions, Frome These took place on the first Friday of each month and were funded by the same Lottery Grant as BTN. These are two hour wellbeing sessions involving mindful nature connection practices alongside nature awareness activities such as wild cooking on the fire, foraging, bush crafts and more. It is a session where participants from our BTN courses can come and reconnect with each other and top up their nature connection and mindfulness skills. The sessions are also open to anyone in the area who wishes to come and feel a part of the community. We’ve seen a mix of people come along, of mixed ages and socio-economic backgrounds. We’ve made bird boxes, built habitats, foraged and cooked with nettles, made cordage, celebrated harvest season with fresh made soups and wild garlic fritters and more. The sessions take place at Rodden Manor Nature Project, near the town centre. Since starting in February 2025 we’ve had approximately 25 different people attend across the year. Participants report feeling calm and resourced from the sessions and that each month they look forward to feeling ‘connected and grounded’ again. Our aim is to continue to build the community that has formed around these monthly sessions. We have also been awarded funding from Frome Town Council to run these nature connection sessions over an additional 12 months from February 2027. TRADED ACTIVITIES Affordable Retreat Days We ran three successful affordable retreat days, in Nov 2024, March 2025 and June 2025. On average around 17 people attend these full days. These retreat days took place at East Woodlands Village Hall, near Frome. They involve a combination of guided meditation and nature based practices to deepen nature connectedness and mindfulness for wellbeing. People come away from these days with an increased sense of community belonging, peace and calm and more resourced. Wild Writing for Wellbeing six week course, Oct 2025 We were very fortunate to have Derek and Sarah Niemann offer to run a six week nature writing for wellbeing course for us. It started in early October 2025 with 8 participants meeting weekly at Jack Daws, Great Elm woods near Frome. Participants explored their relationship to nature, experiencing awe and wonder and its expression through creative writing. Here’s what one participant had to say about the course when asked what they gained from it: Much more than I expected or anticipated. The permission to stop, slow down, do some deep looking / responding, and take images away in my mind to dwell on in the dark hours! The gift of other peoples' perspective and amazing responses. Nuggets of knowledge that made me take down books from the shelf, read poetry and attune my ear to nature. These things have added to my wellbeing. I often feel depressed at this time of year, I'm an outside person and struggle with long nights and enforced bad-weather indoors days. But a legacy for me will be a routine of 'Thursday morning nature writing' which I intend to keep up - a walk and a piece written. We also hope to do a sharing event with music, word etc - I really hope this can happen! The group met again in January 2026 for an evening of shared nature inspired creativity, with music, poetry and writing. We will be repeating the course in Autumn 2026. Winter Reflections Death, Dying and Me Workshop, Feb 2025 This professional development workshop was developed by Barbara Gonzalez and Peter Darby Knight for counsellors, psychotherapists and others in the helping professions who work alongside death and dying. The workshop supported participants to explore their own relationship to death, through story and metaphor and nature connection. Participants came away from the day feeling resourced and supported to continue the challenging work they offer in private practice, medical settings and community support services. Feedback: “As a therapist, I spend much of my time supporting others around loss and end-of-life experiences. This workshop gave me the opportunity to step out of my professional role and simply be human in the presence of death. I felt deeply cared for throughout, and I’m leaving with a more embodied, compassionate understanding of my own relationship to dying.” The workshop will be repeated in 2026. Community Impact Our services reached approximately 120 people this year. We have worked closely to train clinical teams at the medical proactive in the benefits of nature connection for mild to moderate mental health conditions. Through outreach across the sector we have been working with GPs, primary care networks and other nature based services to support them to replicate the service. We have created a Toolkit outlining the processes and learnings from the pilot program so far and we are in further talks with University of Derby and Liverpool John Moores university researchers to support the broader evaluation of this valuable work. This year we also continued to collaborate with the Green and Healthy Frome project, sharing our findings and contributing to conferences and media about our work and how it intersects with health and climate.

A consultation is due to take place in early 2026. This will be with a participant advisory panel to help us develop the next phase of the BTN project.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration