A garden centre in Kersal is introducing new nature and craft sessions to show the Salford community what nature can do for mental health.
Garden Needs, of Radford Street, are introducing new ‘Love Your Woodland’ sessions in order to build social interaction within the Salford community.
Garry Roberts, course runner at Garden Needs, said: “A lot of people struggle to get out the house and to connect with people in the community, so this just allows them an avenue to meet new people and to have a chat.
“I think it brings the community together. It’s like a unified project, so everyone can take over something that’s within their community, they take pride over it.”
As well as bringing the Salford community together, Garden Needs wants to encourage people to appreciate the nature ‘on their doorstep’.
Mr. Roberts said: “Salford’s got a massive green space. The more people find out about these greenspaces and woodlands around Salford, the more they’re going to have that connection with them so hopefully they’re going to take care of them.”
Emma Ellison, a Garden Needs programme volunteer, said the sessions drastically improved her mental health. She explained: “I come here because it’s good for my mental health and it got me coming out of a bad patch of being isolated to myself.
“I transitioned and I had a bad time transitioning from male to female, I lost my business, my construction company and my family, lost my children, lost my home, lost everything and came to Manchester to build my life.”
Ms. Ellison spoke about how the woodland sessions were something to look forward too and for her, the sessions were ‘out of this world’.
Ms. Ellison said: “I think you meet people, you get to hear other stories; you realise you’re not the only one in the boat, you’re not the only one sailing this boat of misery, you’re all sailing the boat of misery really.”
“But then sometimes you’ll jump onto their boat, and you’ll sail together and have a laugh and you’re not alone.”
28% of people from the UK admitted that their personal relationships had been poorly affected due to the coronavirus pandemic. The social isolation brought about because of the pandemic, is in turn still affecting people’s mental health today.
This is why Garden Needs run by the social enterprise group, Social Adventures, want to deliver these sessions to combat this social isolation within the Salford community.
The Garden Needs centre run numerous sessions that focus on appreciating nature and encouraging teamwork within the community. This can include harvesting vegetables, woodland walks and woodland conservation projects.
Mr. Roberts said: “Something we do with the garden center is grow vegetables. They can see them from the seed all the way to harvesting and cooking with the produce, so it’s that sort of hands-on community thing.”
The sessions are free and are running every Wednesday at Garden Needs, Kersal, 11:00 – 13:00.
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