Greenspace Therapy and Community Mural

Lucy Campbell, one of the 6 community-embedded researchers within REALITIES, leads the Easter Ross Hub in the Highlands as a space for creative and greenspace therapies. It was previously found that there is a lack of providers of community creative projects in ER, as well as nowhere the local communities could go to garden or be outdoors for their health. In response, the hub provided greenspace therapy sessions and the creation of the community mural, inspired by the symbolism of Forest.
Initially, information was gathered to understand how people related to their greenspaces, as well as how and why they would engage with sessions. Working with local youth clubs, they co-designed mask-making sessions where attendees created masks from natural materials as inspiration for a community mural, as well as rock painting and leaf printing. These were hugely successful for the community and resulted in a weekend of mural painting, where participants created a beautiful mural.
In relation to the Collaboratory, this fostered relational engagement with local environments, and by connecting mental health support services with community greenspaces, it served as a way to offer nature-based therapy and encouraged community members to experience greenspace as shared environment, nurturing a sense of belonging in a space where a lack of ‘purpose’ has been noted in Lucy’s earlier research. The accessibility of the activities valued intergenerational interactions (with participants ranging from young to old) and fostered collective memories of inclusive spaces, paving the way for emotional and creative expression. The success of these experiments so far reveals a real appetite within ER for this kind of work, with greenspace providing a powerful catalysts for strengthening local identity and fostering resilience.