Branching Out: Supporting Children’s Wellbeing
Find out more about the pilot exploring how elements of an established mental health art-in-nature programme, Artscapers, could be scaled up to benefit more children.
Branching Out is a Fullscope initiative led by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI) and Cambridge Acorn Project (CAP), asking the question, what can a school community do to support children’s wellbeing?
Working with 6 schools in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, we have been learning how members of the wider school community can become ‘community artscapers’ and support children in their schools to spend time being creative in nature. Teams of teachers, teaching assistants and parents have been delivering art-in-nature nurture groups for small groups of children throughout the Autumn term.
Delivery phase results
Children from Mayfield Primary School have co-produced resources to support the 6 schools develop art-in-nature initiatives.
3 children from Mayfield Primary School have advocated for better creative access to the outdoors in an All Party Parliamentary meeting at the Houses of Parliament.
25 adults have undertaken a training programme and subsequently delivered art-in-nature nurture groups in their school settings. 63% of this cohort are volunteers.
48 sessions delivered, with approximately 58 children benefiting from this intervention.
Academic partners from Anglia Ruskin University and University of College London have just completed interviews with participants from across the programme. They are analysing this data to understand the potential of this model, contributing to a national research initiative, Creativity for healthy lives seeking to understand how local, cultural, natural and community assets can mitigate health inequality.
The short film below provides a snapshot of the work to date – we hope you enjoy it.
You can read more about the programme, our research partners and the team involved by visiting Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination