GLT works with strategic partners & landowners such as the RSPB and local authorities.  These provide the location while the GLT provides the team and the “know how” to deliver the programmes to transform lives.  The RSPB has generously provided the current location at Strumpshaw Fen.

 

GLT supports people of all ages who are in the 5% most disadvantaged in our community. The programs it runs help addicts, the homeless, ex-prisoners, veterans, adults and children with mental health issues and special educational needs to turn their lives around.  GLT works with participants not on them.  So week by week they learn new skills which impact their daily lives from cooking a healthy meal to learning bush craft skills to engaging with others using the power of nature as the catalyst.  This allows participants to change their own lives for the better.

 

Tom Brown, CEO Green Light Trust, “We are delighted to be expanding our work in Norfolk following our successful pilot.  Norfolk seemed the obvious choice as the next location as we grow the charity. Both Norfolk and Suffolk are stunning, green counties which on the surface radiate a rural idyll, but this is often an illusion.  The green and beautiful landscape hides widespread deprivation, inequality, and lack of access to nature which we and our partners are determined to change.  The pandemic has had significant impact on the mental health of 1 in 4 of us and while it is too soon to evaluate what the long-term impacts on the most vulnerable, we do know that our programs transform lives.  Our expansion in Norfolk will go some way to addressing this need so that lives can be built back better for a future which is hopefully both greener and brighter.”

 

“It is through working with our key partners like the RSPB, that the GLT is able to transform lives.  Our programmes save the NHS and social services of this country well over twenty times the amount that we spend to support each of the 2,000 participants we see each year.  We are really grateful for that support,” continued Brown.  

 

“We have partnered with the Green Light Trust for several years at RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk.  The stunning coastal scenery and woodland provides GLT participants with a safe space in which to find the peace and stillness that only nature provides,” said Emma Marsh RSPB Director.   “Participants who attend GLT courses in Suffolk - and now in Norfolk - are often those in our society who are disengaged from the natural world and might not think a bird reserve is for them.  GLT’s inclusive programs reach out to a broader audience, reconnecting them with nature and delivering measurable benefits for mental health, general wellbeing, and recovery from addiction.   We are in ongoing discussions with the GLT to identify further sites where we can combine our skills and resources and work together to support more people across the country,“  Marsh continued.

Participants enjoying Eco therapy in Norfolk at Strumpshaw Fen with the Green Light Trust