Stick Around

Purpose

Stick Around is an all-inclusive outdoor programme for adults. In several important ways it mirrors the children’s programme: engaging with nature through being active: being playful and experimental by constructing and crafting, and making friends. We also help support each person’s well-being with moments of reflection using recognised approaches such as the Five Ways to Well-Being.

Our broader mission is to connect people and land by caring for both. This happens in a variety of ways. One way focuses on supporting adults with complex needs, including mental health and substance misuse issues. These are often people for whom the outdoors is a place of calm and outward-looking engagement. The work we do with vulnerable adults provides a safe and supportive environment for them to reconnect with themselves, others and nature.

Our programme offers both private and open access activities. We do this partly as volunteers, and partly through paid session work. Grant funding for this work has diminished as council and charitable sources become increasingly strained. So we are starting to make direct appeals to our wider community.

Schedule

Weekly sessions are held on Thursdays 1-3PM, usually at the orchard. There’s no obligation to book a place. We welcome drop-ins, but if we are on a walk, or working elsewhere, you may miss us. So it’s always best to message us if you are thinking of attending. We can then advise as to where we’ll be.

Funding

Stick Around has been supported through small grants, sales, PAYF session income, and volunteer work. We have ongoing efforts to make it self-supporting, but we’re not there yet! Until then, we are asking for donations as part of our funding mix.

Donations to STICK AROUND will help in the following ways:

• ensure the programme runs every week during the current year
• enable us to liaise with referral organisations, by contributing to really effective care pathways for people who have had set-backs in life
• help Stick Around become more self-sufficient, by developing a range of products hand-made by the participants and establishing places to sell them
• enable us to invite artists, crafters and bushcraft leaders to the sessions to inspire us and develop everyone’s skills.