“You’re sort of building community in a bigger way”: exploring the potential of creative, nature-based activities to facilitate community connections

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background This paper explores the opportunities that creative, nature-based activities offer for mobilising social connections via community-centred approaches to improve individual and collective wellbeing. Methods The study involved ethnographic methods and data was gathered from a nature for wellbeing project implemented in a rural village in North East England. Results The findings indicate creative, nature-based activities delivered within an environment marked by an ethic of care and kindness enabled the project to engage with participants at individual and collective levels simultaneously, which enhanced the project’s ability to mobilise community skills and assets, and affect connectedness, equity and control within social groups facing significant disadvantages. Conclusion Creative, nature-based activities, delivered with an ethic of care, present an opportunity to recognise and engage complex and, at times, opposing undercurrents inherent in social connections between individuals and social groups.