We are delighted to announce that in June 2022 we awarded 14 Highland groups funding through our recent small grant fund!
Please find below a short summary of the groups and projects who have been awarded grants.
Let’s Get On With It Together – Skye & Lochalsh – The workshops are aimed at adults with long-term physical and mental health conditions to help them better self manage their health. The aim of the workshops would be to use the natural surroundings of Rag Tag’s sensory garden to assist with self-care, deep relaxation and creativity.
Thurso Community Cafe – Caithness – Our wave water wellness group is focused on getting the group out to the beach where they can walk, chat, or take a dip in the sea and try out surfing or paddle boarding.
Badenoch and Strathspey Community ConnXions – Badenoch and Strathspey – We will provide transport from villages around B&S to our allotment and will give clients/volunteers the opportunity to work as part of a team, make new friends, grow their own food, increase their fitness and mental wellbeing.
North Sutherland Community Forestry Trust – Sutherland – The NSCFT Board of Directors recently agreed to develop the Borgie log cabin facility by building an environmentally friendly workspace (a polycrub) to be used by the community for community benefit. Project Groundforce aims to clear the ground around the cabin, clear/develop forest walk trails, create wooden features and construct the polycrub.
Caithness Voluntary Group – Caithness – We plan to deliver a gardening and green health project. In the initial stage, we will purchase the necessary equipment and will develop and maintain the gardens within The Haven (Wick) and Stepping Stones (Thurso). These are the venues, operated by Caithness Mental Health Support Group, where we run our men’s group sessions.
Blooming Gardeners – Ross-shire – We are planning to make full use of the Alness site which will in the longer term help us provide additional places at Blooming Gardeners for people with learning disabilities and/or neurodevelopmental disorders. We plan to utilize the polytunnel partly for the indoor cultivation of peach and nectarine trees (5 in all). We also plan to plant a variety of fruit trees outdoors – apple, pear, cherry and plum (12 in all). We also plan to build wooden raised beds for the cultivation of vegetables to be sited both inside the polytunnel and in the area around it.
Dunnet Forest – Caithness – Our project will be a series of three story and making walks or journeys through Dunnet Forest. The journeys would be held to encompass the best of Autumn, Winter and Spring. The journeys would be led by a professional local Story Teller who will incorporate local stories whilst creating new stories celebrating the forest, the abundance of nature for the time of year and bringing in the lives and experiences of the people who are on the walk.
The Selkie Collective – Skye & Lochalsh – We want to build on the Mother’s Wellbeing Groups that we have already completed but provide these as outdoor sessions every other week throughout August & September 2022 and April & May 2023. This would be 8 sessions in total and would allow both mother and child time to connect to nature in a safe and mindful way. There would be a local movement and breathwork facilitator to guide the mothers in gentle movement and mindfulness to help with the feeling of connection to our immediate environment and to use that time in nature to help benefit mental wellbeing.
Raigmore Community Residents Association – Inverness – We plan to run 4 events over the summer time 2022-2023. Each event will start with clean up the neighbourhood, focusing on green areas surrounding the Raigmore Estate. After 1-2h walk, we would like to organise a small outdoor picnic for all residents including less able residents, where we would like to gather together and run child and adult friendly activities. By doing so, we would like to show everyone how to benefit from natural green surrounding and how to care about nature and neighbourhood.
Viewfield Garden Collective – Skye & Lochalsh – We will create a sensory trail within our community garden, to provide a calm, safe place for people with a variety of health issues and disabilities to explore the sensory experience of the outdoors. This will be done through the use of different plants and flowers, as well as a variety of pathway materials to create different sounds, sights, and textures to explore.
Ewen’s Room – Lochaber – The aim of this project is to encourage and support local people to try out a new physical activity or sport as a first step towards a more active lifestyle, with the resultant personal benefits. The aim is to encourage more people to try various outdoor and fitness activities, and of creating a sustained interest in the outdoors, to improve wellbeing and mental health.
West Ardnamurchan Community Garden – Lochaber – This project plans to facilitate increased and sustained engagement with the West Ardnamurchan Community Garden by residents of all ages and regular visitors and to give participants the confidence and skills to grow food at home, with all the associated mental and physical health benefits of gardening and spending time in nature. These aims will be achieved through practical workshops and one to one sessions.
Roots and Shoots Highland – Kingussie – We wish to develop the skills and confidence of parents to support their young children to play outdoors. We also wish to support parents of young children to network and gain regular and long-term support from other local parents by establishing new friendships and connections.
The Plock – Skye & Lochalsh – This project is in two parts:
1: To offer a programme of weekly outdoor play sessions (6 in all) during the schools’ summer holidays, for family groups, based at the Plock. This will encourage local families to spend active time out of doors together – MANGO* Days. * Music, Art, Nature, Games, Outdoors.
2: To offer training to 2 young people to become Forest School (FS) leaders in order to sustain the provision of Forest School at the Plock and all the associated physical, mental and social health opportunities it offers.
