This year we funded 10 innovative green social prescribing projects. The projects varied from food growing projects on hospital sites to a state-of-the-art urban food growing farm managed entirely by children and young people.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was a key driver in funding the projects. The pandemic has highlighted both the importance of nature for the health and wellbeing of our communities and the significant inequalities in access to greenspace across our region.
Our support for green social prescribing also demonstrates the Partnership’s commitment to becoming a global leader in tackling climate change, as we know that investment in green space has benefits for biodiversity, flood adaptation and carbon capture.
The projects are currently being evaluated by the University of Central Lancashire and the University of York. The evaluation will help us to identify the social, economic and environmental benefits of the projects, providing learning which we will share in an initial summary report early in 2022, with a full university evaluation to follow in April. Early feedback from service users has been positive in terms of the impact on their health and wellbeing.
We hope the diversity of partners involved in the projects, which included hospitals, GPs, local authorities, community groups, mental health charities and private sector organisations will mean that the learning we share will inspire further investment in green space projects across our region.