Branching Out: Tackling mental health inequalities in schools with Community Artscapers

“Working with skilled artists and enablers, we focus on how the world just outside our doors can be opened up as a space for curiosity and imagination for everyone, allowing children’s ideas to be explored and valued, and giving them a voice. In turn, this gives all young people the confidence to think of themselves as citizens, enabling them to care better for their communities, and the planet.” - Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination

‘Artscaping’ is an arts-in-nature practice developed by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. It is an evidence-based approach, combining the benefits of both the arts and nature for mental health and wellbeing through outdoor activities co-created by artists and children. Since 2015, over 7700 people have engaged with Artscaping in schools and communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Children who participate in Artscaping have shown improvements in self-confidence and self-esteem, agency and calmness, alongside a greater appreciation of what CCI calls slowliness. After engaging in the outdoor activities, children feel happier and more optimistic – See Walshe, N., Moula, Z. and Lee, E. (2022) for more details. In addition to these benefits to mental health and wellbeing, Artscaping connects children to nature and helps them to value the natural environment around them, which can help to address eco-anxiety, and environmental sustainability. See Moula, Z., Walshe, N. and Lee, E. (2023) and Walshe, N., Perry, J. and Moula, Z. (2023). Many of these benefits extend to the adults working alongside too with wider positive impacts reported at a school and community level.

“Providing time and space early on for children to reconnect (or connect for the first time) with nature and art is the actual ‘medicine’ that’s required. Giving children a fresh start, with the adults seeing them a-new with talents that were previously under the surface, is huge. Think of what could be achieved if more children worked with CCI! And think of the money that would potentially be saved in staff time, paediatrician referrals, expensive therapy…” – Paula Ayliffe, Co-Headteacher, Mayfield Primary School

The research project–‘Branching Out’, funded by the Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities research programme, investigated how more children can have Artscaping opportunities. Teams of local community artscapers were trained and supported to run art-in-nature/artscaping groups in six primary schools in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, particularly those in the most deprived areas. The research project developed training resources and models to support schools, all now free to access on the CCI website. Multi-agency level working was necessary and, as a result of the project, new partnerships were developed between schools, local authorities, NHS trusts, the VCSE and researchers. In addition to the benefits to pupils, schools recognised Artscaping as a useful whole school early intervention to support mental health and wellbeing, and the staff and volunteers involved also experienced improvements in their own wellbeing.

“All primary age children should participate in one session of arts in nature activities per week to support their mental health and wellbeing, connect them with nature and positively impact on their broader engagement with learning in school” – Professor Nicola Walshe, Pro-Director of Education, Institute of Education, UCL. Principal Investigator, Branching Out, Creativity for Health and Wellbeing in the Education System Roundtable.

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