The Birch Collective

We work alongside young adults to empower and support your transition into adulthood.

We want you to unlock your potential to engage fully with life, and to respond resiliently to life's challenges.

We believe that developing connections with the natural world gives you a sense of belonging, and helps you find purpose in life.

We offer you the chance to be part of an inclusive community where you can explore new found skills and interests.

City of Bristol College ESOL course students enjoying the garden

West of England Nature Partnership

Second Step

The Prince's Trust

West of England Healthier with nature

Dates

Who for?

Fresh, is our weekly group for 16-25 year olds. We offer a range of activities designed at a pace to make learning accessible and to draw out your creativity.

There is no fixed time limit to attendance, attend all year round, once a month or just one off, totally up to you. You can attend until your 26 birthday. If you are older the 26 or reach that age there are opportunities to return as peer mentor to support others, if this is of interest to you.

You can expect to learn a huge range of practical skills and ways to create beauty and bounty. We explore 4 main areas of interest:

What to Expect

Who is this suitable for?

Land skills and nature based wellbeing Weekly Session (1-5pm)

Come and join us to learn, play and explore our garden and the surrounding area

Expect anything from foraging walks and natural craft, organic food growing to natural building and cookery.

Equally we very much encourage just hanging out by the fire with a cuppa!

A FREE weekly group for 16-25 year olds, 5 minutes walk from St George's Park

Fresh-Air-Thursdays

A safe and inclusive 5-day and 4-night camp for 18-25 year olds to try something new, build confidence and skills, and have a moment  to pause and reflect on your transition into adulthood. 

🌳We will be camping in 50 acres of private woodland with beautiful views over the Somerset Levels.

🌳The land includes a tree-top platform, an outdoor kitchen, fire pit, cosy-round house and archery range.

You will join a group of other young adults from all walks of life to be inspired, to meet new like-minded people and to live together in nature.

Pre and post camp mentoring will be offered to help you get the  most out of the experience and help you decide what to do next, including a 1:1 session post camp.

A minibus will transport participants from central Bristol and we can loan camping equipment.

All meals and snacks are included and we will cater to all dietary needs.

FREE OF CHARGE FOR ALL......

In small groups lead by highly experienced outdoor educators and facilitators we will engage in a huge variety of hands on activities that will challenge and inspire you.

Expect to play and work hard, have time alone and time in the group.

Differences you can expect

This is free! Register your interest below.

Nature immersion woodland camp

Meet new people and spend more time with those you already know

Camp in a beautiful woodland glade. Surrounded by ancient trees, many 4 legged friends and winged creatures

Take a little time out of life to slow down, and enjoy a simpler way of living more in tune with rhythms of the natural world

A FREE 5-day residential camp for 18-25 year olds, 30 minutes from Bristol centre

Camp Birch

After securing NHS funding we have undertaken a number of long-term 1:1 placements. (6 months plus), in conjunction with the Bristol Green Social prescribing team and Second Step.

 Those we are supporting have specific and persistent mental health needs and we are working with the natural world to support them.

The focus of this work is to assist in integrating those with long standing health conditions back into the community, where their current situation prohibits them from attending group settings.

We can work with with varying types and severity of mental health difficulties, please get in contact to discuss yours or your clients needs and we can discuss if this may be a suitable intervention and cost.


Please follow the link below or go to our contact page to enquire about cost, availability and suitability

Tailored support for individuals

Commissioned NHS provision , in conjunction with the Bristol Green Social Prescribing team and Second Step to support individuals in a range of outdoor settings

For those with specific and persistent mental health needs

Working with the natural world to support recovery and assist in reintegration

Commissioned NHS provision to support individuals in a range of outdoor settings

1:1 Nature-Based Mentoring

We have developed a programme of peer mentoring for graduates of our FRESH and Camp Birch.

You will gain ongoing training and guidance to return to future programmes to support others who are just beginning their journey. We will explore what aspects of the work you would most like to gain skills and experience in and work alongside you to develop goals for your placement.

This year we will be bringing back 2 participants from last years camp to join us and support the new people who join us in the woods this year.

They will also be invited to pre and post camp meet-up session to share their experiences and ease the nerves of those that are coming for the first time this year.

We also developing how bring a stronger voice of those we work with into the decision making and delivery of our services at Birch. Peer mentors will be invited to join us for our Autumn Steering group and also be invited to join our decision making body.

This is an opportunity for personal development and to provide experience and skills for those that may wish to pursue a career in nature-based therapies, facilitation or land-based learning.

Completing this journey will provide valuable learning to embark on a future career in these areas.

Once on the programme you can expect to gain these skills and develop these parts of yourself:

Work alongisde the birch team

We offer tailored training, supervision and guidance to young people who would like to transition to a supporting role

Perhaps you aspire to working in this area?

We can support you to develop skills and gain experience in running groups in the outdoors

A programme of training and support for graduates of our programmes

Seeding Change

Sessions are flexible and suitable dates can be found to suit the group

We offer therapeutic forest school sessions for young adults in Stoke Park Woodlands. These practical, exploratory sessions focus on the health and wellbeing of participants through activities including:

- Natural crafts: willow weaving, clay, green woodwork, leather work

- Bushcraft & cooking on the fire

- Mindfulness & relaxation Games which develop a connection to nature

- Woodland care and management

These can be designed to meet the outcomes of the group you have in mind. We have worked alongside a diverse range of people including those with anxiety and depression, refugees and asylum seekers and people who are neuro-diverse.

We have worked with the City of Bristol College to design and deliver a bespoke module of Therapeutic Forest Schools with their English as an Additional Language department and their tutor reports 'Our students have appreciated being in the forest and learning new skills.

In one activity where we were creeping round the forest to see what birds we could find, a student said that they wouldn't be able to do this in their country because of the dangerous animals, and many didn't know that you can do this in England. The impact this has on them and the next generation is huge.

In addition we developed a short course programme for United Response, who work with adults with life limiting physical disabilities and learning disabilities.

This programme is free! Register your interest below.

Bespoke sessions for specific audiences

A range of venues available across Bristol available

Sessions designed and delivered with:
- United Response - working with adults with physical and learning disability
- City of Bristol College - ESOL courses

Provision for specific target groups co-designed with partnering organisations 

Therapeutic forest school

Cost: 

The Haven Community Garden (Near Greenbank Cemetery)

CLICK ARROWS NEXT TO THE POSTER FOR MAP

Busses 48 and 49 along Fishponds Rd to Eastville Park
Walk down Royate Hill B4469 and pass underneath the viaduct follow Royate Hill under the viaduct and turn left into Clay Bottom then take an immediate left onto Wainbrook Drive. 

Keep walking to the bottom past the car parking spaces

At the bottom of Wainbrook Drive you will see a red brick tunnel under the viaduct. Pass through 2 sets of metal gates

Where:

https://www.havenlandcommunity.org.uk/news-updates

How to find us:

A recent report by the CO-OP Foundation found that 18-25 year olds report feelings of loneliness at the highest rates of any group in society.

But what is feeling lonely and how is it different to being alone?

What are the benefits of each of these feelings and what can they tell us about what we need more or less of from life?

We have created a 3-week workshop to discuss and unpick this, in a safe non-judgemental space.

We are not here to harvest your stories of feeling lonely but look at society and the way we live and think about why this leads to so many of us to feeling lonely....

We then discuss how taking action in our communities can help us feel more connected to one another.

Then we consider the idea of Social Action.....

What does it even mean? What are examples of it? How can it help us feel more connected and fight feelings of loneliness? What does social action in nature mean?

Lastly, we will use our new found insights and discoveries and ask you to think about how The Birch Collective can best use our resources in ways that would be useful to you......

We don't want you to just talk and listen ,this can be exhausting, so we offer time and techniques for quiet reflection on your own, throughout the sessions.

Come and chat about links between Nature/Social Action/Wellbeing & tell us what you want more of From Birch

We look at the nature of loneliness and being alone, whats the difference and how we can learn to manage feelings of loneliness.

We then look at Social Action, asking what it is and how it can support our wellbeing and increase our feelings of connectedness.

Finally we use our new found insights to think carefully about we can use our resources to support other young people in the future.

A series looking at links between Nature/Social Action/Wellbeing & tell us what you want more of

Steering groups

Regenerate is an online course designed to explore a range of nature-based mindfulness tools that support your mental health and wellbeing. It has been designed for ages 18-25, however, we can tailor the course to suit specialist groups of other ages/abilities (please contact to discuss tailoring an experience to the needs of those you work with).

We bring together an innovative toolkit of practical techniques to connect you to the world around you, one another and yourself, in turn developing your resilience and self-esteem.  

Regenerate uses the New Economics Foundations, ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ framework as a base to work from, they are:

Take notice

Give

Connect

Be active

Learn

Regenerate consists of 6 (weekly) online group sessions (with a maximum of 12 young people), with opportunities to explore tools in between sessions, followed by opportunities and encouragement to progress onto face-to-face sessions, such as FRESH, Camp Birch or our Steering Groups.

In groups of 12, facilitated by highly experienced and qualified practitioners, you will learn a range of tools, practices and activities that challenge and disrupt negative thought patterns, develop communication skills, and feed your emotional needs.

The suggestion is to develop these as daily routines, or regular routines for the duration of the course (and hopefully beyond). There will be opportunities to share and discuss thoughts and reflections on how this going.

You can expect to learn:

Who is this suitable for

This programme is free!
Register your interest by clicking below.

Nature based tool for resilience

We explore connecting to the natural world using the New Economic Foundations 5 ways to well-being (Connect, Be active, Learn, Give, Take Notice) as a guide.

Participants practice between sessions and then use the online group as a space to test ideas and share their experiences of learning these new found skills.

A 6-Week online course exploring nature-based mindfulness techniques that support wellbeing

Regenerate

Donations go towards ensuring all our core programmes are free of charge

We are always looking for volunteers to help us develop and support our work.

The Listening Fund

School for Social Entrepreneurs

Wessex Water

Necessity

Focus Foundation

Asda Foundation

Community Fund

Barchester's Charitable Foundation

Quartet Commuity Foundation

Portishead Nautical Trust

Sirona Foundation

Check out our craft workshops! All profits go towards funding our core programmes.

I feel I've left feeling more accepting of other people and myself

The time I got to spend with others on the camp was just something so magical and wonderful and beautiful I can't fully describe it. If you find interacting with others difficult or intimidating, or if you're struggling with your mental health, please consider giving it a go. It was absolutely worth it and I am incredibly thankful I got to go.

An experience I won't forget for a long time!

"Meeting new people and having new experiences has been massive for me"

The Birch Collective

About Us

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