Grow Research Opportunity
Grow supports people with lived experience of mental distress to access the deeply therapeutic effects of nature. A closed group of up to 15 people is supported by 2 experienced project leaders to explore local Sussex countryside, in partnership with the National Trust (NT) warden based at Saddlescombe Farm just outside Brighton. The group meets fortnightly for 3 month ‘seasons’, travelling together by minibus, with healthy lunches provided. We offer activity choices for varying mental & physical health - including NT guided walks & conservation activities, green woodworking, environmental art, mindfulness, tea & chat by the fire. Participants can devise their own volunteer roles & we support progression to mainstream eco-projects by making community links & encouraging peer support. Grow has shown that it can transform people’s lives - they've gained confidence, self-esteem, a sense of hope & belonging & increased overall wellbeing, empowering them to move their lives forwards. We started delivering the project in March 2011 & are currently funded until June 2012. This pilot of the project has been very successful & we are at a really exciting time of growth & change involving developing plans to access further funding and expand.
In collaboration with project beneficiaries & with some outside advice we designed processes to gather monitoring data – this is currently collected via a 2 sided narrative feedback form & an evaluation form based on the Recovery Star model - which shows changes to wellbeing over the course of the project. This has given us some very useful information but could be improved I’m sure as we did not have much time to spend on it. Also we’re unsure of the best way to correlate the resulting data & best use it to show the impressive outcomes we’ve seen. I’ve also gathered info on various ‘wellbeing’ indices but haven’t looked at if / how these could be useful. So essentially what we would like SCR support with is some research around relevant best practice & an evaluation of our evaluation processes. This would help us continuously improve the project & effectively show potential funders & recruitment sources the impact of participation. We always work in tandem with our project beneficiaries & their take on changes to our evaluation processes would be crucial. We are used to working in a collaborative & supportive way & would of course do so with any student who wanted to work with us.
We would really appreciate hearing from anyone for whom this might be an interesting opportunity.