Join us: New nature connection and gardening project

Through running our Walk and Talk project over the last year, we have found that spending time in nature can improve our mental health. Through increased positive feelings of wellbeing, in turn we can help our natural environment thrive. Therefore, we’re delighted to announce that we will be opening a new project based around nature connection and gardening, giving you a chance to learn from your environment, grow food and find wellbeing outside.

When is this taking place?

Every Tuesday from 17th May
Running from 10.30am – 1.30pm
All equipment will be provided
We will be running our project, Keep Going Keep Growing at various sites in Bristol, mainly at the Wellspring Settlement in Barton Hill and Boiling Wells in St Werburghs

Anything else you need to know?

• No referral or formal diagnosis required
• Adults only – you need to be over 18 to attend
• Advance booking needed – details & session location will be shared in advance
• Free to attend you don’t need to pay anything

What will we be doing?

We will combine nature connection and wellbeing practices, mindfulness, creative craftwork with gardening and growing food. Sessions will be based around the 5 pathways to nature connection:

1. Contact
The act of engaging with nature through the senses for pleasure e.g. listening to birdsong, smelling wild flowers, watching the sunset.

2. Beauty
Engagement with the aesthetic qualities of nature, e.g. appreciating natural scenery or engaging with nature through the arts.

3. Meaning
Using nature or natural symbolism (e.g. language and metaphors) to represent an idea, thinking about the meaning of nature and signs of nature, e.g. the first swallow of summer.

4. Emotion
An emotional bond with, and love for nature e.g. talking about, and reflecting on your feelings about nature.

5. Compassion
Extending the self to include nature, leading to a moral and ethical concern for nature e.g. making ethical product choices, being concerned with animal welfare.

We will combine these pathways together with the 5 ways to wellbeing, find out more about this set of ideas to make improvements on your life here.

Through connecting with nature, some benefits to your wellbeing may include reducing stress, improving creativity, reducing anxiety, better sleep, growing food, learning simple wellbeing practices and connecting with others.

Keep Going Keep Growing will be run by our Project Workers, Jen Witts and Charlie Baxter.

Email – growing@changesbristol.org

Telephone – 0141 536 0920

You may have seen Jen at one of our peer support groups. As well as running meetings, she also has many years experience facilitating groups outside, focussed on promoting wellbeing and connecting with nature. Jen believes passionately in the ability of nature to transform our connection to ourselves, our land and our communities in a physical, emotional and spiritual sense. She’s looking forward to exploring all of the ways to connect together and with nature with this group!

Join us – International Women’s Day online event

The 8th of March is International Women’s Day! 

We will be marking the occasion by holding an International Women’s Day peer support workshop, available for anyone who is over 18 and identifies as women. During the workshop, there will be a short talk on how peer support works and why it is so powerful to create safe spaces for women to share and empower one another, followed by an interactive discussion and creative writing activities based around women’s mental health and wellbeing. 

If you’re a Changes Bristol member, why not bring a friend along to learn more about our groups? 

Key Details

When – Tuesday 8th March
Time – 10am – 12pm
Where – held online via Zoom – contact us for the link

This is a FREE online event for anyone who identifies as a woman. If you’d like to join us, please email service@changesbristol.org for the Zoom link. 

Closures over the holiday period

During the festive period we’re closing our services so that the team can take a well deserved break!

Our services will be closed from 24th December at 2pm and will re-open on the 6th January 2022. Both our Peer Support Groups, Befriending and Walk and Talk services will not be available within these times. This includes:

Friday 24th Dec: 3pm – 5pm City Centre peer support group

Monday 27th – Friday 31st: All services will be closed

Monday 3rd – Wednesday 5th Jan: All peer support groups will be closed. Both groups and telephone befriending will begin running again from Thursday 6th and Walk and Talk will run again from Friday 7th Jan

Mental Health services available over the Christmas period

Come along to our new peer support groups

We have two new peer support groups opening in November!

Where: Horfield Baptist Church, 279 Gloucester Rd, Bishopston, Bristol BS7 8NY
When: Weekly every Tuesday from 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Starting: 9th November

Where: St John’s Church, Lodge Causeway, Bristol BS16 3QG – near Fishponds Road
When: Weekly every Wednesday from 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Starting: 17th November

Our peer support groups are free, available to anyone over the age of 18 and you don’t need a diagnosis or GP referral to join. All of our groups are open-access (you can attend as many or as few as you wish) and you don’t need to book in advance to join in-person groups, just turn up! If you could arrive 5-10 minutes early, this should give you time to grab a hot drink before the group starts.

Join us if you feel comfortable to do so (our virtual groups will continue, so don’t worry if you don’t feel ready to be in a room with others yet).

If you have any questions or concerns, or if there’s anything you think we haven’t thought about, get in touch with the team at service@changesbristol.org

Walk and Talk

Our befriending team have been running a pilot Walk and Talk project which we’re delighted to announce will be opening up for all members In October. This will allow members to have a weekly social, benefit from being in nature and meet new people.

We hold two 1 hour walks every Wednesday from 10am – 11am and 11.30am – 12.30pm around Bristol. Walks are accessible to all mobility levels and there will be staff and volunteers available to walk at different paces. Locations are chosen where we know there are open public facilities, nearby parking and that are accessible by public transport such as St George Park, Brandon Hill Park, Snuff Mills and The Downs.

Once you sign up to Walk and Talk, details of the location, date and time of walks will be emailed in advance. If you are not able to access emails, please let us know and we would be able to arrange a weekly telephone call with an update.

If you’re interested in joining, you can register your interest now by phoning 0141 536 0920 or emailing befriending@changesbristol.org

What is Walk and Talk? Video