Nurturing the spirit through nature - Isobel Award winners 2022
“We were so delighted to be the recipient of The Isobel Award 2022. The accompanying bursary with the award has given The Nurture Project the opportunity of supporting clients living with mental ill health and early on set dementia with funded places over the course of the last year. It has also allowed us to explore how we might develop a programme specifically aimed at supporting people living with early on set dementia. A heartfelt thank you from the team at the project.”

Carlyn Kilpatrick, Founder and Coordinator of The Nurture Project
It’s been an interesting year with lots happening at The Nurture Project.
Our big project last year was phase 1 of The Nest which involved the refurbishment of the barn space. It’s now operational and provides The Nurture Project with an indoor facility. It means we can still facilitate meaningful sessions to our clients especially during the winter months. The Nest can also be hired out to local community led projects and organisations. We are just embarking on phase 2 of The Nest refurbishments after another round of successful funding applications, which involves toilet facilities and IT equipment.



The Nest, refurbished barn with participants of the Nurture Project, enjoying the forest around the gardens
We continue to deliver our one-to-one work, small group work and partnership work to adults living with mild to moderate mental ill health. We have just finished our Spring Men’s Woodland Project with the Norwich based charity, MensCraft. Another Mens’ Woodland Project is planned for later in the year.
We are also developing a programme supporting adults living with early onset dementia. We are still in the recruitment and marketing phase.
A new initiative for this year are the Wellbeing in Nature workshops. We are piloting a day’s workshop at the end of April with qigong mediation and mindful art in our woods. Lunch will also be provided with locally sourced produce including the latest offerings from The Nurture Project’s gardens as well.

We have a wonderful bank of volunteers who bring so much expertise with them; The Nurture Project couldn’t run without them. We get together regularly for meet ups so everyone knows what’s happening at the project, but also to enjoy one another’s company and to eat cake! There is a real sense of community.
Carlyn often hosts group site visits so people can see first-hand the kind of work The Nurture Project is involved in. These have proved very popular with individuals, potential volunteers and other health practitioners.
We offer a nature therapist the opportunity of working one day a week in the woods for a small fee. This partnership has been fruitful from a networking perspective for both parties. We are considering potential future therapeutic collaborations.


Carlyn continues to visit other projects and gardens; it’s always good to share stories and to see what other organisations are doing. She is also an active member of The Norfolk Green Care Network which she co-founded 4 years ago. Again, it’s a great way of keeping in touch with other Green Care practitioners and to share knowledge, training and resources.

The Nurture Project was accredited with Social Farms and Garden’s Green Quality Mark earlier this year which we were thrilled about. It shows our commitment to robust and best practice governance to not only our clients but also our team members.
The Nurture Project
Kettlestone House
Fakenham, Norfolk
NR21 0JA
www.thenurtureproject.co.uk
hello@thenurtureproject.co.uk
Comments