FAQs

• Mindful Nature Walks
• Exploring
• Campfire Cooking
• Fire Lighting
• Building Shelters
• Camping
• Personal Reflection
• Team Building 

Booking a session with Nature Works can be done by contacting Dan via email or by phone. 

All kit such as fire-starter ferro rods, tarps, sleeping bags and mats, much of which has been provided by community grants at companies such as Alpkit and DD Hammocks, are provided by Nature Works. 

Following the saying, "There's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing," attendees are advised to bring suitable warm clothing and waterproofs if they have them. Where they don't, Nature Works will work with partners, supporters or those in the industry to source items to ensure the child and keyworker can participate. 

At Nature Works, our goal is to encourage a strong relationship of trust and communication between CYPs and their Key Workers so we require 1 key worker for every CYP attending.

Nature Works creates a safe environment for a suitable fire, only big enough to cook on. Those around the fire will sit close to it and will feel its heat grow progressively, activating our innate sense of self-protection. Dan, the facilitator, will be present to advise and manage risks subtly but firmly. 

Knives are presented in the media as terrible and frightening, and not without reason. However, in this context, knives are a simple implement or tool, not a weapon. Working with a knife may be necessary to make a tent peg for the tarp shelter, or on some programmes to gut a fish to then be cooked on the fire, and these activities will be supervised.

The use or otherwise of a knife on parts of this programme is a carefully considered option, the decision made in consultation with the keyworker.

The setting is carefully chosen and will only be remote if a high level of complexity and challenge is agreed upon. The sites currently used for activities are: Stoughton Grange Farm Park woodland-near Oadby, Leicester, and Bulwick estate woodland, north of Corby. The former is only fifteen minutes from Leicester and though it is rural and wooded, it does not feel overly remote. Bulwick is darker at night and affords a sense of being miles from anywhere. 

They will be with their key worker with whom they already have, or are steadily reaching, a relationship built on trust. A degree of challenge and discomfort can be very important for personal growth, a session can be stopped early if it appears absolutely necessary for the well-being of the child.

key matters on safety and security will be discussed with key workers, and the presence of mobile phones falls into this category because many people now feel unsafe without them. For many the phone has become a person's first source of comfort, distraction and occupation, and this cannot be unwound in a short space of time or on command. The attachment and reliance on a phone could actually be a useful measure of how a child's sense of self and security improves over a series of Nature Works events.

However, owing to the nature of the activities and their absorbing nature, the child will be less likely to feel the urge to go to their mobile phone. The attachment and reliance on a phone could actually be a useful measure of how a child's sense of self and security improves over a series of Nature Works events. 

In some cultures, activities such as 'forest bathing' are considered therapy, as is the more common 'talking therapy' such as counseling. 

Nature Works however is not in itself therapy, but what it does do is weave together fundamental factors which underpin the therapeutic process between the child and their key worker. 

Put more simply, nature involves and soothes us; doing primal activities challenges us and requires communication and focus; in these tasks we fail together, or succeed together; rapport and trust follow, and the therapeutic relationship is enhanced. 

No, these are outlines depicting the level of complexity and challenge that the child and key worker think is appropriate for them. One option is not 'better' than the other, and for some seemingly confident children, a less complex and challenging option may in fact be desired. Furthermore, all the options can be reviewed and built as appropriate to ensure the best experience for each and every child.