Green Social Prescribing - Surrey Heartlands Improving health and wellbeing in the great outdoors

Green Social Prescribing - Surrey Heartlands

Improving health and wellbeing in the great outdoors

Finding out how nature is making you feel happier and healthier!

Being outdoors helps improve health and wellbeing. We're looking to map all the opportunities for people in Surrey to be in the natural environment and look after their physical or mental health.

Using the information you provide we will create a directory of nature-based opportunities so everyone in Surrey can find local activities in their community to help them enjoy nature and look after their health and wellbeing.

We'd love to hear about anything and everything that helps you enjoy the outdoors and makes you happier and healthier too. This could include nature-based opportunities such as the local park, feeding the ducks, walking groups, community allotments, kayaking clubs, litter-picking groups or outdoor sports for example.

Why are we doing this?

Surrey Heartlands has secured funding as one of 7 test and learn sites for Green Social Prescribing in England. Test and learn simply means we'll be working with communities to try new things. We'll be doing this over the next 2 years, supported by a cross-governmental partnership.

The test and learn site will explore and bring together opportunities for communities to get involved in their natural environment. This could include activities such as walking, cycling, community gardening and food-growing projects, and practical conservation tasks such as tree planting. For people who need help to get involved this could include supported visits to local green spaces, or waterways, and other outdoor activities to reduce isolation and loneliness.

We want to work with you

To design and deliver Green Social Prescribing in Surrey Heartlands we want to work with as many partners as possible from health, care, district and boroughs, green sector organisations, voluntary community and faith sector representatives, and Surrey communities. To find out what green opportunities are already available in Surrey, we are asking everyone to help us fill in the map.

The Surrey Heartlands Green Social Prescribing test and learn site will focus on communities hardest hit by coronavirus . This includes areas around Spelthorne , Woking , Guildford and Reigate and Banstead , as well as people dispersed across Surrey who have mental health conditions , are living with dementia or who are caring for someone , who have a learning disability or are from black, asian or minority ethnic backgrounds .

What difference will this make?

Surrey Heartlands Green Social Prescribing programme will  improve the health and wellbeing of people in Surrey by:

Making it easy for people to find nature-based opportunities:

Working together with partners from health, district and borough councils, voluntary, community and faith sector organisations, green sector providers and residents themselves, we will uncover the green opportunities already available in Surrey. We will ensure they are easy to find so everyone is able to easily access the opportunities already available and use these to improve their health and wellbeing in the natural environment.

Developing new nature-based initiatives that are accessible to everyone:

We will work with local people and partners to design and deliver new opportunities to help people look after their health and wellbeing in the natural environment.  In this way we hope to increase the culturally relevant and accessible green opportunities in Surrey and help the green sector become a more accessible place for our diverse population. 

Ensuring the nature-based opportunities in Surrey are high quality:

  Together we will develop a quality standard for green social prescribing, so that we recognise good practice in Surrey. By capturing data and stories we will build an evidence base for the transformative impact of nature on health and wellbeing, especially for those who experience inequality.