Dianne Boardman discovers the benefits of the Escape Project
Dianne Boardman discovers the healing benefits of the Escape Project, which helps nurture people of all ages.
MENTAL illness comes in many shapes and forms and affects families all over the UK. It has been particularly highlighted over the last year, as restrictions have led to more isolation than usual and support networks have been eroded.
The mental health charity Family Action Group has a project to help.
“Escape” is a community orchard and allotment based in Swaffham, Norfolk, with a second allotment in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, which is open to everyone, but is also designed for those with mental health issues or learning difficulties.
It aims to get participants outside in the fresh air, doing the physical exercise of planting, weeding, growing and harvesting, while mixing with others and feeling a sense of purpose, all of which are known to benefit our emotional wellbeing by reducing anxiety, stress and depression.
“There is something really wholesome about spending time in the great outdoors and sowing a seed to watch it grow,” Katy Fullilove, Escape Project Co-ordinator, says.
“As participants come together to grow vegetables and plants, they make friends and share experiences, and have said they have felt a sense of purpose and belonging that they have not found anywhere else.”
Claire Peak, from Family Action Group, explains its origins.
“It started as a little gardening club for some local junior school children who found it difficult to socialise.
“They came along and would dig frantically.
“A little boy in the group said it was like a place to escape to, so it was christened ‘Escape’.”
A few years later the garden is thriving, with acres of vegetables, a restored heritage orchard and a busy outdoor kitchen with a cob oven, where volunteers can feast on the fruits of their labour.
This covered kitchen is open all year, with space for seasonal activities and learning opportunities such as horticultural classes, beekeeping and woodworking.
They have also partnered with the local community college, providing courses in horticulture.
Some Escape volunteers have now studied to become Master Gardeners, who go out into the community helping locals develop their own gardens and allotments, and giving talks to groups and schools.
Sarah Smith is one of them.
She volunteered for Escape after losing her job through illness.
“It gave me a purpose,” she says. “I treated it like going to work. People have many reasons for coming here – bereavement, retirement, unemployment.
“You find yourself sharing stories with others as you pick raspberries or collect apples.
“I always approach new people because I remember how scary that first time was.
“There is always something to learn, and not all the jobs are exciting. Last week I was shovelling woodchip, but I also went to the Chelsea Flower Show two years ago, where our artisan garden won a gold award.
“That was something I never thought I’d do!
“Katy battled to keep us open during lockdown, but we had to limit numbers and I missed going every day as I used to.
“But I helped my dad in his garden instead, which has given him a new interest, too.”
Katy says the transformation in people is marked.
“It has become evident how much people need a sense of purpose – somewhere to be and somewhere to belong.
“At Escape there is such a diverse range of people and a lot of people from the edge of society, but when you provide a space for people to come and
express themselves, magic really happens.
“I’ve always been interested in plants and understood through my own experience just how healing growing things and spending time in nature can be.
“Nurturing that relationship between plants and people can bring about some pretty profound changes in health and wellbeing, as people feel how connected they are with other living beings and see that their actions can have a positive impact on the world around them.”
Participant William Taylor has autism and Asperger’s.
“What this place does for me is make me remember the positives of who I am,” he explains.
“I’ll always have my problems and difficulties.
“I find social situations quite difficult, and this takes me to a world where I feel cared for, and also there’s an achievement aspect.
“I’m doing something practical and that I find rewarding.
“Escape is a wonderful project with wonderful people and has helped repair many mental scars in my life.” ■