National Organisations
Beat The Street – Intelligent Health
We understand the positive impact that physical activity has on health and happiness.
That’s why Intelligent Health makes physical activity a way of life through expertly delivered, measurable campaigns with long-term, community-wide benefits.
Our award-winning programme, Beat the Street has been created to build active communities to make them healthier, happier and more sustainable. Beat the Street is a real-life game played on streets and parks across a community. It works because people are enabled to make changes to their behaviour that are simple, easy, cost-effective and timely and can continue when the programme is removed – the sustainability is the behaviour change. Crucially Beat the Street has 8 years of strong and wide-ranging evidence of behaviour change for adults and children.
Beat the Street is a social movement that brings an energy to a town and delivers measurable change/impact. It delivers at scale, creates a platform for everyone, uses local assets, works with local stakeholders, delivers gamification, is evidence-based.
Getting people physically active not only improves health and wellbeing, it also saves public money and improves our environment. Changing behaviour isn’t easy, but our knowledgeable, innovative approach makes it possible – and fun.
Our success is built on the hard work and skill of our staff and the forward thinking of our campaign partners. Together, we’re making a big difference.
We believe a healthy community needs all stakeholders working together to make a difference. That means people, organisations and leaders.
Intelligent Health achieves change through community-wide initiatives (such as our Beat the Street programme), personal activity trackers, social prescription and bringing together key partners.
http://www.intelligenthealth.co.uk/about/
The Defence Gardens Scheme
DGS aims to help fill the gap in mental health support by increasing access to nature-based therapy; creating the time and space for bespoke, holistic support and a ‘soft landing’. DGS combines People, Place and Purpose brought together by a highly trained Practitioner. A manual outlines the programme and evaluation framework. For clients, this explains the sessions as well as the opportunities for progression. For project leaders it explains the integrity of the course, as well as a fidelity of delivery and evaluation that is understood by funders and sponsors.
Gardens and Partner Gardens currently in Northern Ireland, Wiltshire, Greater Manchester; listed below, and Scotland.
https://salmon-owl-9a2b.squarespace.com
Gardening for Disabled Trust
Gardening for Disabled Trust aims to help people back into gardening in spite of disability. Grants available to people with all kinds of mental and physical challenges so that they can adapt their gardens and make gardening possible, enhancing their well-being and help them defy their disability. Based in Kent, they award grants to individuals and groups across the UK.
P.O. Box 285, Tunbridge Wells TN2 9JD
https://www.gardeningfordisabledtrust.org.uk
The Green Gym
Multiple local Green Gyms operate across the whole of the UK. Too many to list here. Volunteer in local projects, planting trees, sowing meadows and establishing wildlife ponds. The website has a good “Find a Green Gym near me” function
Incredible Edibles Network
Our vision is to create kind, confident and connected communities through the power of food.
Community is at the very heart of Incredible Edible’s work and our growing patches are edible attractions to get people talking. From its inception, Incredible Edible sought to show how ordinary people can transform their own landscapes and turned disused plots into abundant sources of healthy food.
Working with whoever is willing, we create powerful connections through food, which lead people to believe that when we act together each of us is stronger for it.
https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk
Perennial
Perennial is the UK’s only charity dedicated to helping anyone who works in horticulture, and their families, when times get tough. Perennial provides free and confidential advice, support and financial assistance to people of all ages working in, or retired from horticulture. This help extends to spouses, partners and children.
Perennial 115 – 117 Kingston Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 7SU
The Sensory Trust
Green spaces are home to the things that matter – fresh air, natural life and open space. Public parks, woodlands and countryside are our vital, freely available opportunities to connect with nature, the outdoors and other people.
They are the spaces that in principle are open to everyone. In reality this is not the case for many people with disabilities and health conditions, who find their enjoyment of greenspace limited by barriers to access and a limited range of experiences on offer. Our work focuses on harnessing the benefits to people’s wellbeing and quality of life that comes from using green space.
Our approach is designed to make spaces accessible, inviting and welcoming. This applies as much to local parks serving as daily nature connectors, to the more occasional but perhaps deeper enjoyment of a larger forest or country walk. There are key questions to consider:
- How people get to these spaces,
- What experiences are on offer, and
- Are there opportunities for people to get more actively involved?
https://www.sensorytrust.org.uk/projects/gardens
Social Farms and Gardens
Social Farms & Gardens is a UK wide charity supporting communities to farm, garden and grow together.
Our vision – people and communities reaching their full potential through nature-based activities as a part of everyday life.
Our mission – to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities and the environment through nature-based activities.
Silent Space
Our lives are often hectic. It can be difficult, particularly for those of us who live in urban areas, to find five minutes peace.
During the summer of 2016, garden writer Liz Ware set up a not-for-profit project and called it Silent Space. A handful of gardens open to the public agreed to take part and to reserve an area where people could be silent. For a few hours each week, visitors to these quiet areas were invited to switch off from technology and to stop talking.
There’s nothing complicated about a Silent Space. It’s an area of a garden or a park, already enjoyed by the public, that is reserved for silent visiting. While some gardens run their space for as little as a few hours a week, others are permanent.
Once inside a Silent Space, we stop talking, turn off our phones and cameras, and switch off from social media. There are no other rules.
Whether sitting or strolling, we take time to notice the beauty around us. Even as little as five minutes will help us to enjoy the restorative benefits of being peaceful in a green place.
Tribe
Tribe is a smartphone application that allows you to access voluntary and paid support opportunities in your area. It makes impactful work accessible and takes just a few minutes to sign up and start making a difference in your community.
University of the Third Age
Each u3a is different and has the groups wanted by its members. Anyone can start a group! Most u3as will have some sort of gardening group. Often local groups do garden visits as well.
The Third Age Trust 156 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8EN
Veterans’ Growth
Veterans’ Growth is a charity dedicated to helping ex-service personnel who are suffering from mental heath issues. They offer Horticultural Therapy and support. The programme is based in East Sussex but available to anyone from around the UK.
Rocks farm, Oast Cottage Lane Westfield, TN35 4RS