Securing funding and approval for new projects can sometimes feel like waiting for a bus – you can wait a while for one, and then three come along at once! We are excited to announce the successful approval of three new or returning projects for 2025; the JU:MP Connector Programme, the Open Gate group and the continuation of the Holidays, Activities and Food (HAF) Programme are all upcoming for early 2025!

Want to know more? Keep reading!

JU:MP Connector Programme

Having widespread success across Bradford, JU:MP is coming to Keighley! The Join Us: Move Play programme will build and develop play across areas of Keighley through a series of family forest school taster sessions, aiming to get more local people active.

Through February and March you can expect the first taster sessions to start popping up in local greenspaces like Park Wood, Lund Park and Cliffe Castle, with more regular play sessions in and out of schools starting to establish. As we head into April we will have a regular programme of play across Keighley, with Holiday Forest Schools and family events happening across the Easter holidays.

Keighley is full of hidden gems when it comes to green spaces, and we can’t wait to bring more outdoor play to schools and the local community alike.

The Open Gate Project

Thanks to funding from Bradford Council’s Local Community Support Grants we are looking forward to launching the Open Gate project this spring, a concept inspired by the Odensehuis movement, empowering people living with dementia to get out more, develop new friendships and regain independence.  Our practitioners will be facilitating a welcoming open-house type indoor/outdoor space, supporting participants rather than doing things for them.

Those with eyes on our social media will have seen our recent venture to Bradford Cathedral to participate in the Bradford 2025 Participatory Grant Making Social Prescribing Awards. Annie and Susan were pitching to other organisations, funders and stakeholders, with every participant (Get Out More included) voting on which projects they would like to see going forward.

After hearing plenty of pitches and brilliant ideas, it was time to vote. After a nervy wait, it was time to announce the projects that were selected… and the “Open Gate” project was chosen which means that in Bradford’s City of Culture year, the group will get extra funding to complement the nature-based activities facilitated by our practitioners, we will have a range of musicians, artists and wellbeing practitioners coming along! Well done to everyone who was involved in the process, and watch this space for the first sessions happening soon.

Holidays, Activities and Food Programme

Over the past three years, Hazel has been delivering the HAF programme during the Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays. Hosting a range of trips, forest schools, family sessions for communities around Keighley. HAF has proved to be a success to year on year, and has a massively positive impact on the children and families who come along, which is why we are over the moon that after some uncertainty, we are thrilled to be running the programme again in Easter!

This means more opportunities for local children to engage with their local woodlands or embark on trips to iconic Yorkshire attractions like Malham and Fountains Abbey, all tied together with nutritious food! We’re excited to continue providing this valuable service and look forward to seeing many familiar faces, and hopefully some new ones too!

It is a privilege to have so much going on, why not Get Out More during 2025?

Get in touch with us!

Well, it’s been a huge year at Get Out More! We’ve finally made a move into our own premises in Cliffe Castle, Keighley, which has realised our long-held dream to run nature-based programmes from our own community space.

We’ve hardly had space to include all the amazing projects we have been involved with this year.  Thanks to everyone who has helped to make this happen and we look forward to building on the success in 2025!

We wish you a happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.

JANUARY:

Winter offered us the crispest of weather in parts, and we took full advantage of it in January with our Winter Wellbeing group for adults, funded by Bradford Council. The fresh and chilly air at Park Wood was the perfect backdrop for circular walks, nature identification, fire lighting and natural crafts (not forgetting plenty of cuppas to keep us warm!)

Bravo to those who came along in what was in parts, a very wet and windy winter.

FEBRUARY:

Summarising six years of family play, training and community events  in parks across Bradford, sounds like a big ask doesn’t it? On a snowy February day the cameras were rolling at Bowling Park for the making of a film about our Forest School Play Project.

Although Better Start Bradford is coming to an end we won’t be saying goodbye to the Forest School Play Project so soon however. With new funding from the Pears Youth Fund we’ll be back delivering a range of family play, forest schools and training in Bradford in 2025!

MARCH:

Sheltered from the winds of a blustery March day, the Outdoor Taskforce helped lay the groundworks for terraced planting stations at East Riddlesden Hall. A handy group of volunteers, including Get Out More staff spent the day digging and laying a membrane layer, a perfect spot for a plant nursery.

We are looking forward to seeing how this site develops in the future.

APRIL: 

The Tales and Trails programme from the National Literacy Trust made it’s way to Cliffe Castle in April, bringing with it an American style library bus! This event was the culmination of visits from the library bus across Keighley and Bradford, with over 700 people attending on the day!

The team brought the campfire, ziplines, natural art activities and a storyteller from Mud Pie arts to bring books about nature to life! Each family got a copy of a nature based book to take home, continuing the fun once the day was over. Tales and Trails was a unique initiative and it was a joy to be a part of.

MAY: 

The big one! After months of I-dotting and T-crossing we finally moved into our new premises at The Gatehouse, set in the stunning grounds of Cliffe Castle.

Cliffe Castle has been the home of projects such as Wellbeing Wednesday for years now, so moving in felt more like coming home. The move has transformed the way we work, with more activities delivered for the community at Cliffe Castle, the goal of a community hub is well within reach.

JUNE:

We’re keen to extend outdoor wellbeing activities to older people and loved sharing nature activities with care homes  as part of the Mental Wellbeing grant from Bradford Council The residents loved listening to birds, smelling herbs, growing seedlings and reading nature poems. All set against a backdrop of stories told of their experience in nature in the past.

We have continued to develop ideas with care settings across the district, keep your eyes peeled for more in 2025!

JULY: 

July saw our Mini Explorers cement itself as a firm favourite through the week. Wednesday lunchtimes were all about little ones taking their first steps into the world of outdoor play. Children splashed, jumped, played musically instruments, hunted for minibeasts, built dens and so much more.

Mini Explorers has gone from strength to strength with sessions still being fully booked in the chillier months. The Gatehouse has really shown it’s worth as a community space, with parents free to drop in and out whenever they need.

AUGUST: 

Festival season hit Keighley this year, with the the first event Creative Earth EcoFest bringing a range of artists, photographers, outdoor wellbeing practitioners, musicians and more to the grounds of Cliffe Castle. The team ran a host of activities including natural art and play and forest bathing.

It was great seeing such a large gathering of like-minded individuals in the park, same again next year?

SEPTEMBER: 

With the Summer holidays coming to an end, Sue and Sam took off their Holiday Forest Schools hats and returned to delivering wellbeing programmes through school time. The Leap is a project focused on delivering natural artwork workshops with adults and children alike. Pictured is an incredible weaving project that children from Carlton Keighley created, with help from Emily from Keighley Creative.

OCTOBER:

This year, we ventured into delivering our first forest school level 3 training course.  11 learners attended the Level 3 Forest School Practitioner course with a further 3 undertaking the Level 2 Assistant Practitioner course, meaning there are 14 more practitioners well on their way to qualifying and enabling more forest schools across our district.  Trainees include community workers and volunteers, school staff and parents so with the sessions they each delivered during the summer and autumn, they are already making an impact in their communities and enabling more children to discover the joys of forest school

The Level 3 will be running again in June 2025, with bookings being taken now!

NOVEMBER:

As we headed into autumn and winter, our attentions turned to the Play Futures programme, funded by UK Government via Groundworks. Play Futures aimed to support unemployed people into jobs in outdoor community jobs and youth work through a range of training.

Participants had the opportunity to gain qualifications in forest school, food hygiene, first aid and safeguarding, as well as work placements on Get Out More projects.

Congratulations to everyone that completed the course!

DECEMBER:

Finishing off the year strongly, Hazel launched the Nature Natters, a group focused on getting creative with natural materials and making space to have a chat and a cuppa. In December we have had wreath making and Christmas decorations, supported by local artists.

With a healthy number of people coming along to each session, and exciting new developments in our work with older people in the pipeline, we are really excited to see how this and other projects grow in the new year.

After celebrating the end Forest School Play Project at Bowling Park with stakeholders, trainees and parents alike, we knew that we didn’t want to be away from Bradford for long. Following the end of Better Start Bradford funding, Get Out More are thrilled to announce the return of the Forest School Play Project, thanks to support from the Pears Foundation.

As we discovered throughout the Forest School Play Project with Better Start Bradford. There are some fantastic green spaces and a huge appetite to explore them. We are so excited to be back at sites like Bowling Park, Peel Park, Bradford Moor Park and hopefully some more green spaces along the way.

Young child playing in the snow

The funding, which covers two years, will allow us to continue running a range of initiatives to engage children and families in nature, including:

• Delivering Family Play sessions for families to drop in and out as they please.
• Running free Holiday Forest School style clubs through the holidays and after-school.
• Accredited Level 1 Forest School Training empowers local play workers with skills and confidence to deliver outdoor play. This will help to sustain activities beyond our involvement.
• Encouraging local communities to explore green spaces outside of their local area through the provision of trips to other areas accessible by public transport.

Hear what Annie Berrington has to say about the return of the Forest School Play Project:

“We’re delighted that Get Out More can continue our work with communities in Bradford. Our long-running Forest School Play Project enabled hundreds of 0-3 year-old children and their families to enjoy outdoor play in Bradford parks, as part of the Better Start Bradford project. The young children who took part then, are now at primary school. This new support from the Pears Fund will enable us to pick up with them, and hundreds more families, making sure that communities in urban Bradford can benefit from play in natural spaces. We’re also excited to be able to provide more free training for play workers to allow them to engage their service users in nature-based play, helping everyone to get out more!”

If you have any connections with youth centres, or groups around Bradford we would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us on [email protected]

Two young children looking at flowers

It’s been another bumper summer at Get Out More with our new lottery programme, Gateway to Nature getting underway alongside another sell out Holiday Forest School programme and a hugely enjoyable summer of delivery with Holidays Activities and Food. There’s plenty to shout about, and lots to look forward to.  You can read all about it below:

• Day places for Holiday Forest Schools now available
• Applications still open for Play Futures employment programme
• All for Play trips and looking back at the HAF programme
• Forest School Training opportunities with Get Out More
• Gateway to Nature, six months on…
• Life at our new office update

Read the full newsletter here

Get Out More and the Highfield Community Association are now recruiting for Play Futures, a free programme for adults in West Yorkshire who are unemployed and are looking to return to work.  Play Futures is a skills-based programme supporting people towards outdoor careers in the community such as in play work, youth work or outdoor education.  Participants will develop skills in youth work and forest schools and gain key qualifications to support them into work. They will also get to learn alongside professionals on work-based placements and receive one to one job support, guidance and signposting to help them towards work and further training.  The 10-day course runs one day a week between 15 October – 13 December 2024.

Play Futures is a Community Grants project being delivered by Groundwork UK and  funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). In West Yorkshire the West Yorkshire Combined Authority leads the implementation of the Fund as part of the Mayor’s ambition to make West Yorkshire the best place to work, learn and live.

Get Out More’s Managing Director says, “Get Out More CIC and the Highfield Community Association recognise we need more skilled people to come and work in the outdoor education, youth and play sector.  We have created this course to help support more local people towards these jobs.  In our work we meet people who have a keen interest in working with children and young people but don’t know how to get a foot in the door.  This programme will provide trainees with the opportunity to develop skills in a supportive and fun environment. They will be able to put their skills into practice in real life settings, supported by professional practitioners and will leave the programme with some accredited qualifications which are respected in our sector.”

There are 12 places on the programme.  To express an interest contact Get Out More at [email protected] or Tel: 01535 668588

The winds of change have really blown since the last newsletter, it’s been a whirlwind three months at Get Out More with the completion of our move to The Gatehouse at Cliffe Castle, and a whole host of new groups and events popping up as part of our Gateway to Nature programme. There’s loads going on, and you can read all about it below.

• A nearly sell out Holiday Forest Schools!
• Gateway to Nature
• Annie Berrington receives a Churchill Fellowship
• Free HAF places for eligible children
• Away days with Get Out More
• The Forest School Play Project Movie!

Read the Newsletter here.

Annie Berrington founder of Get Out More CIC in Keighley has been awarded a coveted Churchill Fellowship which will enable her to visit Norway to research how the Scandinavian care system overcomes barriers to enabling nature connection for older people living with dementia.

Annie Berrington leading nature connection activities with a group of older people from Herncliffe Care Home, Keighley

Annie Berrington, Managing Director at Get Out More CIC is one of 134 new Churchill Fellows announced by the charity, the Churchill Fellowship. These exceptional individuals come from across the UK representing different backgrounds, experiences, professions, and passions, all united by a common aspiration to inspire change and build a better society based on global learning. Each will have the unique opportunity to explore new ideas and learn from experts and stakeholders around the world, bringing knowledge and innovations back into their chosen field in the UK.

Talking about her award Annie said: “I am thrilled to have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship. I will be visiting Norway to learn from their concept of ‘friluftsliv’ which promotes access to nature for all. I hope to learn from their models for green care and develop an understanding of how we can support more nature-based activities for older people to promote wellbeing and quality of life.”

Alongside Annie, this year’s Fellows will address a wide range of topics including combatting racism in nursing, making towns and cities greener, using AI to support reading, and employing creative arts in dementia care. They will draw on experience and knowledge from innovators in countries across the globe from Ghana to Switzerland, Japan to Brazil.

A Churchill Fellowship is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, open to all UK adult citizens, to lead the change they want to see. The charity funds applicants to spend between four to eight weeks meeting experts in their field anywhere in the world, in person and/or online, building international networks that promote reciprocal knowledge exchange. It then helps Fellows to make a difference in their community or professional sector in the UK, based on insights inspired by these exchanges.

Julia Weston, Chief Executive of the Churchill Fellowship says: “We are delighted to welcome our new cohort of Churchill Fellows for 2024 from across the UK and to see first-hand their extraordinary passion and dedication to their respective areas of work.

Through the Churchill Fellowship we aim to inspire and empower these exceptional individuals to become catalysts for positive change. From the spark of an idea to make a difference in a local community to ambitious plans for influencing policy at a national level, we are looking forward to supporting these inspiring Fellows on their journey to make a long-lasting difference to UK society.”

2024’s Churchill Fellows join a community of over 4,000 changemakers who work on the frontline of today’s crucial issues, developing new solutions based on global research and personal expertise. From aged 18 into their 80s and from every corner of all four nations, Churchill Fellows have achieved amazing things, from becoming community leaders and charity founders to embedding new services and campaigning for action in fields from climate change to education, technology to the arts.

Applications to become a Fellow next open 4 September 2024.

Six years go by fast when you are having fun! Last Wednesday the Get Out More team and Better Start Bradford gave the Forest School Play Project the fondest of farewells at our celebration event at Bowling Park, Bradford.

Stakeholders, trainees, parents and project workers alike came together to share success stories from our time working in BD3, BD4 and BD5. Children from Thornbury nursery came along to show us all that they love best about being outdoors and we premiered our celebratory video. You can see the video below, which was filmed during a day of all seasons with Thornbury Nursery and a cohort of Better Start Bradford Forest School trainees undertaking their level 1 qualification. It just goes to prove that outdoor play and learning can have an incredible impact, no matter what the weather throws at you!

We are massively proud of the everything that was accomplished during The Forest School Play Project, and want to say a huge thank you to every child, parent, trainee and nursery that has got involved in the last six years, it wouldn’t have happened without you! Over the course of the six years we worked with nearly 600 three-year-old children from 61 nurseries, and ran 541 free family play sessions in local parks, extending the opportunity for outdoor play beyond our forest school programmes.

You can watch the video below, either through our website or on YouTube. Read on for a quote from Get Out More’s Managing Director, Annie Berrington.

“It was wonderful to celebrate the Forest School Play Project with many of our partners and peers who have been involved in this 6 year programme.  We’re very proud of the achievements of this programme which has enabled hundreds of children and families from the Better Start Bradford area to discover the joys and benefits of spending time outdoors.  The stories of the difference the forest schools have made to the parents, staff and trainees really came across at the event, and made us all the more determined to carry on the work we do in Bradford now this programme has come to an end.” – Annie Berrington – Get Out More

Are you ready for Mental Health Awareness Week?  Kicking off throughout next week, the theme is Movement: Moving more for our mental health, we will be showcasing all the ways you and your family can get moving with us, or from your own home.

There are a wealth of benefits of spending time outdoors, including better lung health, lowers heart rate, improving mood and social skills, increasing creativity, boosting our immune system and making us feel fitter!  The benefits don’t end there, with spending time in nature being attributed to changing the way our brain processes information.

Check out our social media on the following days next week for how you can get involved with us, or how ideas for how to get into nature with your friends and family, or on your own!

Monday: Forest School and Wellbeing

Tuesday: Wellbeing in the Workplace

Wednesday: Community Wellbeing

Thursday: Wellbeing in Schools

Friday: Wellbeing at home

You can read more about Mental Health Awareness Week here, and find a whole host of ways you can get involved!

Would you believe it, in just over a week we will be in to May, and with that, the promise of Sun and warmer weather.  It feels like a while since we have seen anything other than rain!  Spring marks change, and that could not be more true for the Get Out More team, with some truly exciting changes in the works. We will reveal all soon, but for now, here’s the news.

• Holiday Forest Schools
• FREE Taster Day at St Ives
• Better Start Bradford coming to a close after six years
• All for Play and HAF
• Bradford Literacy Trust

Read the newsletter here.