Investment theme: Improving health and well-being
Purpose:
To organise an eight-week series of outdoor education and conservation sessions for a cohort of vulnerable girls, offering solutions to improve their mental health.
Year of grant: 16/3/2024
FR Number: FR-0076341
Amount awarded: £4800
Location: Edinburgh
Full description
Skylarks is the Green Team?s all-girl programme and provides group-based, outdoor experiences for vulnerable young people in local greenspaces.
?(I?d describe Skylarks as) fun, it feels like something important. You learn about outdoor things you didn?t know before but explained in in a fun way, not like school. You get to hang out/socialise with people. It doesn?t feel like too much can go wrong. It?s a small group of safe people? Young Person.
The grant will contribute to the costs of running an 8-week referral project. The project will work with 8 girls, aged 13-16, who are quietly struggling with their own experiences such as anxiety, social isolation or childhood trauma ? girls whose voices can be unheard, whose needs can be overlooked and who are at significant risk of failing to achieve their ambitions or being their best self. The group will meet once a week and will travel to different greenspaces in and around Edinburgh eg Baswinch Nature Reserve or Dalkeith Country Park.
Project sessions last approx. 6.5 hours and include activities such as shelter-building, tree-planting, carving, creating wildlife habitats, nature sit-spots and foraging. Fire-lighting skills are used to start a fire, around which is an open forum for discussion of feelings, issues and re-enforcing achievements.
Sessions are run by the project coordinator ? a level 3 qualified forest school leader ? with support provided by Green Team volunteers. A high supervision ratio is maintained to ensure safety and maximise the impact for vulnerable young people taking part.
