The trees we plant do more than just remove carbon dioxide from the air; they create amazing green spaces that will help peoples’ mental health and wellbeing as well as create habitats for our threatened wildlife.
PATT Foundation runs activities and projects that aim to help people reconnect with nature and their communities. With the help of our dedicated teams and volunteers we have been able to create important spaces for communities to learn new skills, meet new people and get back into our natural world
Research shows that those undertaking nature-based tasks get significant benefits from their work and therefore, in light of the recent lockdown situation, PATT founder Andrew Steel, an ex-serviceman, looked to tackle these multiple issues along with the mammoth task of putting 50 Million trees in the ground.
Andrew said: “It seemed that there was a lot of energy being put into the funding of trees for the Northern Forest, but they wouldn’t jump into the ground themselves – and reliance on volunteers to accomplish that task could not be guaranteed. There had to be a solution that covered multiple bases and with the advent of nature-based therapy the solution was relatively simple.” He continues: “Why not engage veterans on tree-planting projects and thereby assist in tackling mental heath issues too, if budgets would allow, then an avenue could potentially exist to ‘employ’ the veterans on this basis.”
Andrew concludes: “So many veterans and ‘blue light’ servicemen and women suffer from PTSD and the focus has all too often been on the problem and not finding a solution. If we reframe the situation and talk about Post Traumatic Growth, we can engage individuals and tackle the problem head-on – putting veterans back on a pathway to recovery. The solution is relatively simple and the timing could not be more perfect to help benefit the environment, wildlife and our worthy veterans.”
