The celebration event that took place at Derby Arboretum, catered for families from across the city, shining a light on our local green spaces and the role they play in supporting our health and wellbeing. The wild wellbeing project has been working towards improved health and wellbeing through access to wildlife-rich natural spaces.
Wild Wellbeing Celebration Event at Derby Arboretum
(C) Rebekah Noakes
The wild wellbeing event in Derby Arboretum drew in families and groups from across Derby to bask in our local green spaces. This fantastic setting helped showcase the marvellous array of wildlife on our doorsteps benefiting our physical and mental wellbeing.
There is a growing understanding that improved access to green spaces can help improve mood, reduce feelings of stress, and help alleviate feelings of loneliness by connecting you to a wider community. Diverse cities like Derby can benefit from improved green spaces, giving wildlife and communities a sense of place while simultaneously improving our personal health as well as the health of our local environment.
The Wilder Communities Team have been working with local organisations and funding partners throughout Derby including the Women’s Work, Derbyshire Mind and YMCA Derbyshire in order to support health and wellbeing facilitated through Derby’s Green spaces. Much of this work has been funded by the Cadent Foundation, an organisation established to make a positive and lasting difference to local communities and the wider society. Work has involved building community gardens and educating groups about their local wildlife. These activities support mindfulness practices, bringing together communities and provide space for nature in urban environments.
Keen to try mindfulness in your local green space? Check out our wilder wellbeing activity pack.
The work over the past year came to a head in the celebration event in March with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust teaming up with groups and charities from across Derby including Derbyshire Mind, Royal Crown Derby and National Forest Therapies to name a few. The celebration boasted a range of activities from arts and crafts inspired by our botanical surroundings and mindful drawing to gardening and exploring the release of Beavers into the county through the world of virtual reality.
The activities were enjoyed by both adults and children alike, with some members of the community surprised by the facilities and range of habitats on their doorstep having rarely explored the area despite living beside the park for a number of years. The event helped to make people ‘more aware of what’s around them’ with participants commenting ‘it’s nice to get out’. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Kirsty Barker is thrilled with the project that has been built up over the year evidenced by a turn out and engagement of over 100 participants to the event over the course of the day.
(C) Rebekah Noakes
(C) Rebekah Noakes
(C) Rebekah Noakes
This is a programme of activities we intend to continue growing through our continued urban rewilding, cultivating nature connectedness throughout the community. Derby is one of the UK’s first cities to reap the benefits of urban rewilding, evidenced within Derby’s vision document for a harmonious balance of Derby’s residents and their interconnected green spaces.
We at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust see a future where nature and our urban areas are not separate but intricately weaved and supporting both our wellbeing and the needs of our ecosystem. To find out more about wild wellbeing or our Wilder Derby Vision for a wilder Derby follow these links.