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Centre for Ecotherapy Newsletter 2018

2/11/2018

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​Community service updates, New training programme for 2018, partnerships and more!
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Hello and Greetings from all at the Centre for Ecotherapy!
Once again it is time for a little round up of events, new partnerships, new workshops and courses at the Centre for Ecotherapy, Stanmer Park, Brighton.
2017 felt like a stabilising year with people joining the project on different levels. In Spring we welcomed three new Directors: Jo Dempster, an experienced international youth worker and youth advocate, Odile Rapoport, a professional gardener now studying an MA in Occupational Therapy, and Chris Holden, who comes on board having used the Centre to improve his personal wellbeing and who therefore has great insight into how the service affects its service users,  Later in the year we also welcomed Julia Blagborough on board. Julia brings fundraising expertise and play therapy to the Centre for Ecotherapy skills bank.
 
In terms of volunteers, 2017 saw great commitment from a number of people who provided real support and enthusiasm to the weekly drop-in sessions. A good volunteer brings solidity to sessions, enabling the facilitator to concentrate on the needs of new clients. Both the allotment and the wilderness site have benefitted from these additional regular participants and site developments have cracked on apace. Thanks go out to all those who have given of their time and energy over the past year. You are truly appreciated!

Community Therapeutic Services
Wilderness site – Monday, Ecotherapy group
Over the course of 2017 the Ecotherapy group have built, by hand, the new amazing weather-proof shelter. This shelter provides an 8m circular dry space for the use of our groups and blends perfectly into the background. It is built using chestnut posts and sycamore and hazel poles. It utilises a reciprocal roof design meaning that the roofing poles hold each other up, without the need for a central pole, making a beautiful workable space underneath. The roofing material, artificial grass, was kindly donated by Gerard and Peter at Perfectly Green in Uckfield. There is still a little work needed to complete the shelter, but already we are using it in rain, sleet and snow and, with the addition of a fabulous fire bowl, Ecotherapy group members feel able to withstand any weather!

Come join us on Mondays, 10am-1pm
The group help with the maintenance and development of the wilderness site: pruning, weeding, mulching paths, building planters and a shelter. Play with natural art, whittle a while, make a fire or simply just be. 

Allotment site – Friday, Social and Therapeutic Horticulture group
The Friday group has seen lots of new people experiencing the benefits of social and therapeutic horticulture for the first time following the start of our pilot project in March, with thanks to a second grant of £2000 from Brighton and Hove City Council. The 6-wk Social and Therapeutic Horticulture (STH) programme, which runs alongside the Friday drop-in,  has seen over 20 people referred in from city-wide NHS mental health services (including East and West Assessment Treatment Services, Brighton SMILES, Early Intervention in Psychosis unit, and some council-run residential hostels). The location of the Centre, at the back of Stanmer Park, is difficult to get to for those without personal transport. The STH programme has the enabled the Centre to provide a taxi service for 6 weeks per client, meaning some of our more vulnerable and isolated citizens can access the healing benefits of the programme. The results, in terms of clients' sense of wellbeing and confidence, have been staggeringly positive. We will be compiling a report which we will share in March. In the words of one client:

                       ‘I found taking part in this programme much, much, better
                        than any of the counselling I have received...I feel happy
                        here, I feel relaxed here, it’s a lovely atmosphere,  the
                        people are very kind, you’re not put upon, people listen,
                        and it’s nice being with people that are in the same
                        situation as yourself and you don’t feel so alone.’

Come join us on Fridays, 10am-2pm. Help with the maintenance and development of the organic allotment: cultivating beds, sowing, planting, weeding, maintaining paths, pond and willow arbour. Make a fire, enjoy a joke and a chat.  Pick the produce as it ripens to eat raw, take home for later or cook tasty, healthy, food, over the fire, with whatever is harvested that day!  
For more information about our Monday Ecotherapy or the Friday Social and Therapeutic Horticulture drop-in groups, or about referring someone to, or being referred to, the 6-week Social and Therapeutic Horticulture programme, please drop us a line by email info@centreforecotherapy.org.uk or call 07517 090915.
 
Tuesday Youthday
The Centre is in the early stages of piloting a day a week dedicated to young people 16 - 25 yrs. This provision is aimed at young people who are not in mainstream school and may be experiencing barriers to education or employment, or groups of young people who would benefit from outdoor skills and confidence building activities outside of their usual daily activities.

Some initial work with students from DV8 Sussex has been very successful. One young man with High Functioning Autism commented:

                      ‘The Ecotherapy session  was quite fun, and it gave me
                      a bit of exercise and  fresh air. I had a good stroll around
                      the woods.  And it was great to go somewhere new. I would
                      like to do go back and do it again and do more wood sawing.
                      I would like to go deeper into the woods, and see further
                      along the path, because I’m curious and interested to see
                      what’s around the corner. There is nothing I didn't like. The
                      morning at Ecotherapy made me feel happy and wanting to
                      go back.'
 
We would love to develop this day as part of our core activity programme, however we are restricted by funding. We welcome enquiries from youth-focused organisations who would like to refer young people and who would be interested in supporting and helping develop this programme. 

Training and Professional Development 
 
Dates for new workshops!
 
The introductory workshops in Social and Therapeutic Horticulture and Ecotherapy have been extended to full days following feedback from previous participants on the half day courses. We have scheduled one of each per month this year.  For dates see our website.
 
We are also introducing our new intensive Ecopsychology course, delivered over three weekends, for those wishing to delve deeply into their own responses to humanity’s role in relation to the natural world. This exciting new course will explore the deeper spiritual and existential questions around what it is to be both human and humane that call out to be addressed at this time in our history.
 
For more information on any of our training workshops please go to the Training pages of the website 
 
Workshops on the move!
If you would be interested in hosting one or both of our introductory workshops at your own venue and bringing a number of your local colleagues together, our facilitators would be happy to travel. This might make more sense if there are a number of practitioners and interested persons in one area that would benefit from our workshops. Please give us a call on 07517 090915 or email to info@centreforecotherapy.org.uk
 
Partnerships and Collaboration
2017 saw Brighton and Hove Food Partnership’s Roots and Boots project working on the allotment on a Thursday. BHFP’s Community Gardener worked with groups of vulnerable adults with multiple and complex needs, often with a history of homelessness, alcohol/substance misuse and/or mental health difficulties. Engaging in the meaningful activities prevalent on the allotment enabled group members to reconnect with themselves, their surroundings and encouraged them to step with confidence along their path towards recovery.  

The Centre is proud to be a founding member of the Green Wellbeing Alliance, a collaboration of initially 8 member organisations who all work therapeutically with their clients outside in nature. Members, including the Centre, are Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Grow, Plot 22, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Where Two Rivers Meet, Sussex Recovery College and Rock Farm.  Members have been in discussion since early 2017 and were delighted to be the recipient of £10,000 from BHCC’s Collabration Fund in order to develop the Alliance.

We are delighted to be able to offer structured working opportunities to the Brighton and Hove Youth Offending Team (and are keen to get them even more involved through the Tuesday Youthday). Young people, needing to give back to their communities with work hours, come to the Centre along with their supervisor, and help with some of the more physical jobs on the sites such as wheel-barrowing woodchip for paths, clearing nettles and digging beds. Getting the young people out into nature, whilst they are making reparation for their mistakes, means that they double the impact of their time served. They receive the healing benefits of Nature, begin to renew connections with themselves and learn new skills that may help them move forward into a new phase of life once their community service is finished. The ease with which trust, self-respect and emotional resilience can be developed in a natural, supported, skills-based setting is stunning.
 
The Centre has recently formed an informal working partnership, sharing gardening knowledge, skills and volunteers with The Bridge community education centre. Volunteers from the Centre for Ecotherapy are running a gardening group at the Bridge on Wednesdays. If you are interested in finding out more, please call the Centre for Ecotherapy on 07517 090915 or the Bridge on 01273 687053
 
Sharing our Space
The Centre makes available both its sites for the use of other projects and organisations for a reasonable rent. In this way we have been happy to support Grow in its work with the Sussex Recovery College . The Centre recognises the work of both these organisations as invaluable to the local community and is delighted to be working alongside both in the Green Wellbeing Alliance.

Volunteering
The Centre welcomes offers of volunteering both with the practical work on site, but also for the behind-the-scenes tasks of running a project of this kind. We are currently seeking volunteers to fill the roles of:
Volunteer Coordinator
Office Administrative Support
Website and Social Media Support
If you, or someone you know, would be interested in any of these
positions, please email the Centre on info@centreforecotherapy.org.uk 


Site rental 
Both the Allotment and the Wilderness site are available for other groups to use. If you are interested in using a site for a nature-focused group or activity, please get touch.
For any enquiry contact the Centre on 07517 090915 or email info@centreforecotherapy.org.uk

Thanks for reading! Please share this newsletter with anyone you think may benefit from its contents.
We wish you all the best in 2018!

Copyright © 2018 The Centre for Ecotherapy, All rights reserved.

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2017 Dates for introductory workshops confirmed!

1/11/2017

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Picture


Introduction to Ecotherapy half-day workshop.

What is Ecotherapy? How can we bring it into our lives and work?

Tuesday 21st March
Tuesday 2nd May
Tuesday 13th June

Introduction to Horticultural Therapy half-day workshop.

What is Horticultural Therapy and how can we practice it? Who can it benefit?

Tuesday 4th April
Tuesday 23rd May

 Contact info@centreforecotherapy.org.uk or click here for further details

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New Wildlife Pond!

11/20/2016

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Back in the summer the Monday group began work on a new wildlife pond on the wilderness site. Where once only nettles  grew, at last there would be diversity! Digging out the earth from the top of the pond site and piling it up at the bottom meant that the excavation work was not as lengthy as first imagined and the pond quickly took shape. Then cardboard and carpet was laid down to give the liner a sturdy base to lie on.
Picture
The liner was laid and the pond was ready for filling. It took a session and a half of water (4.5hrs) to fill but finally the pond was complete and the 'decoration' could begin. Woodchip around the edges to hold the liner in place and to prevent the nettles growing back...
Picture
Next, logs, plants, stones and tree bark to protect the liner from the elements...
Picture
At last the pond is completed. With delight we watch as the dragonflies, damselflies, water boatmen and other swimming, flying and diving creatures move in immediately. Within a couple of days the wildlife in the pond is teeming and the sense of pleasure and satisfaction at a job well done is immense. Well done, Monday people, and huge thanks to Steve Cullum for his expert advice, direction and project management, we couldn't have done it without you!!
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Ecotherapy for better mental health

4/21/2016

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Stanmer Park is home to a diverse range of people and activities. On my walk to the Centre for Ecotherapy through the park, I came across a group playing ultimate Frisbee, traveller’s caravans, cafes, walking groups and shrubberies. The benefits of being outdoors and reconnecting to nature are limitless. Jess Bayley, director of the Centre for Ecotherapy, and I sat on a bench in the Centre’s allotment and spoke about its role in the lives of the people who work on it.


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Hello and Happy New Year (a little belatedly!)  from the Centre for Ecotherapy

2/11/2016

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We hope this newsletter finds everyone in good spirits at this the beginning of February. A little soggy, perhaps, and in need of some blue skies and sunshine no doubt, but hopefully staying positive in the knowledge that the dark days are ending and the light is coming our way.

Walking up on the wilderness plot today we were amazed that the blossom on the Cherry is showing, the  fluffy buds on the Willow are breaking through and the Daphne is sending its beautiful, powerful, scent into the air.

Spring is most definitely in the air!

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May newsletter

7/7/2015

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Hello to all! We hope everyone is enjoying the Spring, the sunshine and the glory of our countryside, gardens and parks. ‘Tis a colourful and inspiring time of the year, especially in this beautiful area where we are blessed to be sandwiched between the sea and the South Downs! Enjoy all that nature offers us!

Life at the Centre for Ecotherapy has been moving on apace through the late winter and early spring! 

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Rhubarb Crumble and Custard on the fire!

7/7/2015

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Rhubarb is the only crop ready at this time, but we are committed to preparing and tasting everything we grow as it becomes available, so we had to do something with it! What better than rhubarb crumble and custard? The group divvied the chores and, after building a good cooking fire, rhubarb was boiled down, custard was stirred and a crumble was baked in foil over the flames.


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    Author

    Jess

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