Communities Fund has provided £2,460 of match funding
Nurturing mental health to drive climate action
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
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Aim
We’re fundraising so that BTC can keep offering free, nature-based programmes to empower communities and foster environmental change.
Who are we, and what is our project about?
We have so far delivered over 300 sessions - completely free to attend - for people facing systemic obstacles. Our creative, nature-based programmes have served local communities’ mental health and driven environmental action. And we don’t want to stop!
For us, social and environmental justice are not separate: to care for our planet, we have to care for the people in it, bringing everyone along with us.
We’ve learned a lot over the years: that for change to be lasting, it has to be compassionate, connecting and creative. And it works! Out of over 2,000 people we supported, 98% of people accessing our services said they felt more social belonging and 97% felt more engaged with nature. With demand for what we do growing all the time, we need to ensure we can keep offering opportunities to those that need them.
What do we provide?
We run six free-to-access programmes:
- Woodcraft, Wellbeing & Wilding: 8-week programme for 16-25-year-olds facing mental health challenges to connect with nature and strengthen their wellbeing.
- The Green Leader Scheme: 9-month training and mentoring programme for Woodcraft, Wellbeing & Wilding alumni to design and deliver their own creative environmental actions in local communities.
- The Green Machine: outreach programme for children and families to invest in green spaces through fun, creative activities that rewild neighbourhoods in overcrowded areas.
- Common Ground: intercultural 6-month programme for 16-25-year-olds from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds to find belonging by connecting to land and to one another.
- Nature, Craft & Connection: trauma-informed 5-month programme for survivors of addiction and abuse to find therapeutic refuge in nature.
- Community Sundays: monthly celebration of nature and craft open to everyone, inviting people from all walks of life to enjoy a whole host of creative workshops and be part of local habitat restoration.
We are committed to widening access to the benefits of engaging with nature, and see these as fundamental needs everyone should have. That matters more than ever in the neighbourhoods we serve e.g. Easton and Lawrence Hill (where our Green Machine takes place) have the city's lowest tree cover; access to nature simply isn't equal here.
What we do is rooted in the knowledge that people who feel connected to nature are more likely to care for it. This isn't just our belief; research pooling 92 studies and 27,000 people found a strong, robust link between feeling connected to nature and acting to protect it. Meanwhile, over 70% of young people feel hopeless in the face of the environmental crisis, while 74% feel at a loss as to how they can help to solve the problem. We know that it only makes sense to protect something once we see its value - and that we can only take action once we understand how.
So just as we create spaces for people to benefit from nature, we also create spaces for nature to benefit from people. How do we do this? By running rewilding programmes, habitat creation activities, and environmental leadership training, which supports young people to design their own creative actions advocating for nature. We provide project and wellbeing support so that young people can process feelings of overwhelm and paralysis, turning it into agency and action. Hands-on crafts are our golden thread; research shows that the art of making is invaluable for creative self-expression, improved self-esteem, and stress reduction.
We know our approach works because of what happens afterwards:
- People want to come back! Many participants return as volunteers, building a community dedicated to helping others the way our work helped them, and one is now a member of our core team.
- The impacts ripple. For example, our Green Leaders go on to enact their own green actions in their neighbourhoods, some running the very type of nature-based workshops that first engaged them in the environmentalist movement.
- Participants consistently tell us they feel more confident, motivated and environmentally aware.
How do we fund this?
- Through grants and donations
- Weekend craft workshops open to the general public
- Fundraising music concerts, storytelling and poetry nights
- Team away days for environmentally-focused businesses
- Running paid services for other community organisations
- T-shirt sales - check them out here (link)!
Why are we crowdfunding?
Because in spite of this, we can’t raise enough money to meet demand and keep our programmes free for those who can’t pay. Our services have long been oversubscribed and this year every one of our funding applications has been turned down. The reality is that times have never been harder to fund free services; for the first time, we had to pause some delivery this summer, after a major funder suddenly pulled out of all community support - which is why we’re turning to our community. People tell us all the time about how valuable what we do is, that it has helped them find stability, belonging and purpose. We are constantly receiving enquiries, but without core funding, none of it can happen. We need each other!
How we’ll spend the money raised
With match-funding from Aviva Community Foundation, we can make a real difference, bringing free environmental skills training to communities facing systemic barriers to accessing nature.
We aren't extravagant - look at our accounts, and you won't see a trace of unnecessary spending. We channel all our funds into running tried and tested services that offer crucial support where it is most needed.
Here’s how we’ll spend the money:
People at the heart of everything we do - for us, re-engagement with nature takes place alongside human connection. We need:
- £7,000 for our core team salaries: roles which hold our centre & keep us thriving
- £1,200 for our network of freelancers, who bring specialist experience in environmental action and mental health support.
- £800 for volunteer onboarding, training and travel costs (want to join us?)
Nature as the source of lasting change - it keeps us well and helps us care. We want to keep improving green spaces and expand our outreach to other areas of Bristol! We need:
- £4,000 to run our beautiful hub on the hill at Bridge Farm, bringing people together amongst wildflowers and woodlands.
- £3,000 to keep our outreach programmes flourishing, bringing play-based climate education to communities with little access to green space.
- £2,000 to safeguard Bristol’s ecology through Community Sundays, sharing land restoration and re-greening skills with the wider public.
Craft as the path of inspiration & expression - change is creative and practical! We need:
- £3,000 for tools and equipment for green woodwork, metalsmithing, willow weaving, wild pottery, felting, foraging and more!
- £2,000 for materials and food. No one can craft their way to change on an empty stomach!
- £1,000 for staff training to keep everyone safe and well (e.g. first aid, safeguarding, working with trauma)
- £1,000 for overheads. The unglamorous stuff that keeps the wheels turning (e.g. accounting, HR, marketing)
Total - £25,000
What difference would your donation make?
What we can offer thanks to your support:
£12.50 - Funds a full day of nature-based workshops with a hot meal provided for one community member. [Community Sundays on a restored area of nature]
£25 - Funds a tree-planting session for a young person. [Woodcraft, Wellbeing & Wilding programme]
£50 - Funds a month of weekly nature-based sessions for a child living in a densely populated area [The Green Machine programme]
£125 - Funds a full summer of nature-based sessions for refugees and asylum seekers or people in recovery from abuse [Common Ground/Nature, Craft, Connection programmes]
£250 - Funds a young person to journey through green leadership training [Green Leader Scheme]
How you can help
There are three simple ways to get involved and support our project:
1. Make a donation
Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. Early support can help build momentum and inspire others to give too.
2. Spread the word
Share our project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to succeed.
3. Volunteer with us
If you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch through the Volunteer form on our website.
People’s stories
Hio Oamil first joined one of our workshops two years ago. They are a neurodivergent young person who has struggled with anxiety. Through The Green Leader scheme, they designed and led a series of bird ID and sketching walks in Eastville Park, all of which sold out with waiting lists. The walks focused on declining urban bird populations and the threat posed by habitat loss. Hio went on to interview for the British Trust for Ornithology's Youth Advisory Panel, and was recently invited to speak at We Are Fox, a Tobacco Factory Theatres event about urban wildlife.
The next cohort, currently midway through the scheme, are developing equally distinctive projects. Daniel Jules Kramer-Arden is designing a portable zine combining plant identification, mindfulness, and games aimed at young people who have struggled to find an accessible route into the natural world. Kiana Eskandani, architecture student, is developing clay-based workshops to guide construction industry professionals to rethink their relationship with retrofitting, natural building, and the impact of construction on climate change.
“I want to explore how clay and earth-based making can be used as a tool to advocate for the environmental impact of construction and buildings on global warming.” - Kiana
The real cost of losing our funding is not just fewer sessions, but the fading of a community that keeps regenerating itself. We need your support to keep that cycle going.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 15th October 2026 at 12:22pm