The Nature, Art and Wellbeing Community Fund aims to increase adult engagement with nature, art and movement for wellbeing, tackle inequalities and enable people to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of their local area.

The fund is a collaboration of initiatives including:

• National Lottery Community Fund via the Stepping into Nature project: Use’s Dorset’s outstanding natural and cultural landscape to create and provide inclusive activities and sensory rich places. The project aims to improve the health and wellbeing for people living in Dorset that are older, living with long term health conditions including dementia and their carers.
• National Academy for Social Prescribing Fund via the Thriving Communities Nature Buddies project: re-connecting to nature & art through activity. This project is led by The Arts Development Company in collaboration with Active Dorset, Help & Care and Stepping into Nature in a year-long programme aiming to upskill existing voluntary and community groups to deliver inclusive and creative nature-themed local activities for people who are referred by Link Workers.
• Contain Outbreak Management Fund via the Your Nature project: Dorset Council Better Days, Coast and Greenspace Teams working with providers and communities aiming to reduce the risk of social exclusion and longer term inequalities by creating opportunities to rebuild community connections, improve mental health and physical activity levels for people significantly impacted by Covid restrictions, in particular people with dementia or learning disabilities including Autism.

Your project should help people (mainly adults) engage with nature, art and movement for wellbeing, tackle inequalities and enable people to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of their local area.

The fund particularly encourages projects which improve the wellbeing of adults living with long term health conditions, learning disabilities, low mental health, long term unemployment, in a carers role, access day opportunities or who are from marginalised backgrounds including ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation. This fund will not support projects focused only on youth (under 18) wellbeing, though would consider if part of an intergenerational project.

We would particularly like to support projects that may:

● Upskill people to deliver activities promoting inclusiveness.
● Remove barriers for people to engage in nature.
● Provide opportunities for physical movement, learn skill and meet others, for example through community based ‘Social Prescribing’ type activities .
● Mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

You can use the Fund to establish new projects, or to add value or new dimensions to existing projects.

We encourage you to plan how your project can:

● Respond to an identified need (which will improve health, wellbeing, and independence)
● Support the social and economic wellbeing of local communities in sustainable ways that care for the environment, with outline plans for aftercare & sustainability
● Have the support and involvement of local people
● Harness capacity within local sectors (voluntary, academic, commercial).
● Target interventions for specific sections of the local community and workplaces
● Bring organisations and people together in tackling problems or promoting new ideas e.g if an individual can you link with existing local community groups
● Demonstrate innovation or best practice
● Be of high health and safety standards