Across July to September, we delivered 20 activities bringing people together through Wellbeing Wednesdays, community growing, foraging, seasonal cooking, bee and pollinator education and time spent reconnecting with the natural world.
But the numbers attending only tell part of the story.
This project was created to explore whether reconnecting people with nature, seasonal living, traditional knowledge and each other could support healthier, more resilient communities.
Our Summer evaluation suggests something powerful is happening.
Summer impact
54.4% increase in life satisfaction
51% reduction in average PHQ-8 depression scores
100% reported improved mental health
100% reported improved overall wellbeing
100% met new people
100% felt more able to cope
93% felt a greater sense of belonging
93% felt more connected to nature
And 85% of those completing matched wellbeing measures experienced a reduction in their PHQ-8 score.
These are more than statistics. Behind them are people becoming more confident, learning how to manage stress, making friendships, spending more time outside, learning about the plants and food growing around them, and becoming part of their local community.
One participant described the experience beautifully:
“It’s been a lighthouse bringing me to shore in a rough sea.”
Heritage you can actually live
Thriving with the Seasons is based on a simple idea.
Heritage does not only live in buildings, museums or history books.
It lives in the food we grow and cook, the plants we recognise, the knowledge passed between generations, the changing seasons, our parks and green spaces, and the ways communities once came together to share skills and support one another.
Throughout Summer we explored that living heritage through growing and harvesting, seasonal food, foraging, bees and biodiversity, meditation, mindful movement and community conversation.
Among participants who took part in nature, food, growing or bee activities, 83% reported increased heritage and seasonal knowledge, 83% increased environmental awareness and 83% felt more connected to nature.
We are not simply trying to remember these traditions.
We are helping people experience them again.
Building community as well as wellbeing
Perhaps one of the strongest findings from Summer was connection.
Every Summer survey respondent reported meeting new people, while 93% said they felt more connected to their community.
That matters.
Because when people grow together, learn together, walk together, eat together and share their experiences, something changes.
A class becomes a community.
A park becomes somewhere you feel you belong.
And heritage becomes something living, shared and relevant to life today.
The story so far
By the end of Summer, Thriving with the Seasons had delivered 46 of its planned 62 activities and generated 510 attendances across Spring and Summer.
We are now moving into Autumn, when the focus naturally turns towards harvest, preserving, fermenting, seasonal food, traditional skills and preparing ourselves and the land for the quieter months ahead.
The seasons keep changing.
And we are continuing to learn that sometimes moving forwards begins by remembering what we already knew: how to live a little closer to nature, a little closer to each other and a little more in rhythm with the world around us.
