Project Summary

Project Description

We aim to develop three distinct groups of croft users over the funded period.

MineCroft

MineCroft was a series of short programmes which ran on a shoe-string budget over the winter months. It was highly effective & extremely popular hence the reason we would like to roll it out into a more coherent project. This is a pun-tastic bush-crafting/survival-skills, child-led, education/play project involving three-hour sessions for youths (in all weathers - shelter-building is incentivised by bitter winter weather!) on our multipurpose 2-acre green space in a highly urban area (Leith Community Croft), supervised by experienced facilitators. Minecraft is a global sensation in the video-gaming world on which we capitalised to inspire interest in the sessions. We brought it to life for the children in the great outdoors. The pilot sessions were the most successful children's activities we have ever run (& parents enthused too). This report was from a typical session: 'The children were rightfully proud of their shelters & the fire-building skills they had honed. 

Youth Steering Group 

Out Nature Nurture Children programme demonstrated the value of environmental/outdoor education for vulnerable children (who were affected by issues including anxiety, suspected ADHD, traumatic bereavement and substance-abusing parents). A wealth of research provides evidence of positive correlations between time in nature and improved productivity, lower stress levels, refined learning and problem-solving skills, and even enhanced recovery from illness. We would offer older children and teens, who hang out on The Croft a chance to develop their own Steering Group enabling them to have their say in the day to day operations of their space. 

Workplace Wellbeing Days 

Organisations are increasingly recognising the call to establish a working environment which allows people to meet their physical and mental wellbeing needs, allowing people to positively contribute their best towards their co-workers and their organisation. The capital cost of running Wellbeing Day programme is small compared with the vast array of evidence, which reveals multiple advantages: greater individual resilience as-well as the organisations, enhanced employee well-being within a nature-positive culture, feelings of contribution to the climate emergency, and addressing unequal access to green spaces. Offering Work Wellbeing Days to organisations regardless of sector allows EiC the opportunity to inform larger groups of people about the climate crisis at hand, calling attention to the importance of the intrinsic human draw to nature and its link to overall wellbeing and quality of life.