Reachout Create Workshop: Connecting with Nature
Free creative workshop for adults with lived experience of mental health conditions.
Who can attend?
We welcome anyone living in Croydon over the age of 18 who has lived experience of mental health conditions. All levels of creative skill and artistic ability are welcome. Are workshops are Free to attend.
Connecting with Nature
Connecting with nature and being outdoors can positively impact our mental health and wellbeing. Join us this Autumn at South Norwood Lakes as we creatively connect with nature at our Reachout Create Project. Choose from a range of creative activities based both indoors at the Waterside Centre and outside by the lake.
Refreshments and Lunch are provided. Join us for an hour of campaign activities during lunch.
Creative activities you can expect:
- Nature photography
- Print-making
- Collage
- Campaigns activity
Nature Photography workshop
This workshop is suitable for all skill levels and types of cameras. Please bring whichever camera you enjoy using including SLR’s, digital compact cameras and phone cameras. This workshop is suitable for those with limited mobility. There will be both an inside and outside photography activity.
We will start of by discussing photography techniques and tips. The lakes are a perfect place to capture nature and wildlife and autumn colours. We will look at photograph reflections and the movement of the water. We will explore what’s in the foreground and background of photos, and what we chose to focus on. We will do this by creating windows out of leaves, and deciding to focus our camera on the leaf meaning the background is blurry. Or focusing on the background making the leaf blurry.
Free creative workshop for adults with lived experience of mental health conditions.
Who can attend?
We welcome anyone living in Croydon over the age of 18 who has lived experience of mental health conditions. All levels of creative skill and artistic ability are welcome. Are workshops are Free to attend.
Connecting with Nature
Connecting with nature and being outdoors can positively impact our mental health and wellbeing. Join us this Autumn at South Norwood Lakes as we creatively connect with nature at our Reachout Create Project. Choose from a range of creative activities based both indoors at the Waterside Centre and outside by the lake.
Refreshments and Lunch are provided. Join us for an hour of campaign activities during lunch.
Creative activities you can expect:
- Nature photography
- Print-making
- Collage
- Campaigns activity
Nature Photography workshop
This workshop is suitable for all skill levels and types of cameras. Please bring whichever camera you enjoy using including SLR’s, digital compact cameras and phone cameras. This workshop is suitable for those with limited mobility. There will be both an inside and outside photography activity.
We will start of by discussing photography techniques and tips. The lakes are a perfect place to capture nature and wildlife and autumn colours. We will look at photograph reflections and the movement of the water. We will explore what’s in the foreground and background of photos, and what we chose to focus on. We will do this by creating windows out of leaves, and deciding to focus our camera on the leaf meaning the background is blurry. Or focusing on the background making the leaf blurry.
Print making
We will explore print making and textures using leaves. Printing undersides of leaves with the veins, cutting leaves to different shapes to create different images and patterns.
Mindfulness Pressed flower book mark/ wallet card
Learn mindful and grounding techniques and create bookmarks and cards to remind you to connect with nature. We will using pre-pressed flowers and leaves
Bird Collage
Inspired by the wildlife around the lakes, create collages of the local wildlife including ducks and birds. Explore using painted textures to collage with. There will templates to use, or you can create your own.
About the Reachout Create Project
Our mental health Croydon community has shared with us that some people find it easier to tell their stories of lived experience in creative ways. We've decided to provide a series of free online and in-person creative sessions and workshops over the next two years. Our future workshops will include creative writing, photography, zine and banner-making, drawing and more. These will be run by artists with lived experience. With your consent the work that you create in these workshops will be used as training materials as part of our ‘ReachOut Challenge project’ which is our anti-stigma and mental health awareness campaign. The Hear Us Reachout Create project is possible thanks to funding from the London Community Foundation through the Adobe Fund.
About Hear Us
Hear Us is Croydon’s Mental Health service user group. We are your voice in mental health. Our purpose is to promote, educate, communicate and empower, for the benefit of people affected by mental health issues. Our organisation is 100% service user run. We are launching new creative workshops led by lived experience artists. We run a range of other projects including peer support, welfare and benefit advice, campaigning and an Open Forum. To find out more about what we do, visit our website.