Silver Saplings: Wild and Well

Putting health & wellbeing and older people at the heart of what we do

“It’s made me a lot happier. I suffer from depression a lot. And coming out with Wild things! gets me into nature, which I love. It gets me with other people, which I’m also very fond of and I just love these days out.”
Anna, participant on outdoors day-trip

Silver Saplings: Wild and Well is an intergenerational project which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of communities across the North East of Scotland. Whether you’re 8 or 80 years old, time outdoors is one of the best ways to stay active, make new friends and discover something amazing about the natural world we live in. Join us as we embark upon a ground-breaking new journey, bringing communities and the environment together in a mutually beneficial way.

Green Prescriptions: Why Silver Saplings?

There is plenty of research demonstrating the positive impact that time outdoors can have on health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that it can lead to a reduction in measured physiological stress indicators such as blood pressure, heart rate and a reduction in stress hormones including cortisol. Whilst ‘Green Prescriptions’ have been studied more with regard to young people, we believe they are equally important for older generations by:

Decreasing loneliness and isolation
Improving confidence and physical connection
Improving mental and physical health
Training and empowering professional and unpaid carers
Providing community engagement in the environment and the welfare of older people
Generating measurable data on the impact of outdoor time on our participant’s health and wellbeing

The Wild things! Team is incredibly excited to move into this new phase of our charitable work and would like to say a huge thank you to our generous funders Heritage Lottery Fund, Beatrice Partnership Fund, target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”Robertson Trust and The Gordon and Ena Baxter Foundation, who are supporting us to make Silver Saplings: Wild and Well a reality.

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