OUTDOORS
“Supporting inclusive and good outdoor lives”
Being outside is good for us. We all deserve a good outdoor life. There is plenty of research to tell us that outdoor time supports better physical health, mental health, social health and even leads to better educational outcomes. Through outdoor adventure, play and education we explore our sensory worlds, take healthy risks, and learn experientially by seeing first-hand and by doing and feeling. The outdoors is an awesome lens through which we can explore our environment, food, science, the arts, story, heritage, the more than human world, people, culture, space and freedom, physical ability, place, challenge, sensory needs, inclusion, risk, trust, change and most of all ourselves.
One of the main ways we get outdoors is by cooking, eating and sharing food. Wonderful food and fire smells waft through all of our work. We share food in everything that we do, community, education, workshops, Base Camp and Alternative Provision. The food links to the outdoors can be explored in detail when together, prepping breakfast or lunch. Cooking over fire can be therapeutic and eating outdoors extends the time we spend enjoying or exercising in green or blue spaces. Food though, can often be an invisible ticket required for entry and participation to many social, community and educational elements in our lives. Food and energy poverty are sadly so common now that we can’t assume everyone can bring a packed lunch or afford a social coffee and cake, so we just remove this barrier by offering food always for free for everyone to share outdoors. We hope our outdoor work is nourishing, socially, emotionally, educationally and literally!
We love adventures, even tiny ones. We are sensitive to the fact that not everyone can have foreign travel, have a holiday, leave the county or even visit a local beach. Our adventures are designed to be accessible for those with fewer resources. We make the most of what we have and what we can walk to. Rural issues are different to those in cities and so we struggle with public transport due to being infrequent and expensive. It may look as if we have a beautiful landscapes close by, but it doesn’t mean we can get there. We don’t want to exclude people from participating so we don’t plan big adventures elsewhere or with specialist kit or even bikes and rucksacks unless we are confident we can provide these for free. Adventure is pretty aspirational and it is important to dream, whenever possible we support young people to achieve adventurous outdoor lives through training, kit and bursaries.