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Mental health can affect any person at any time, but 10^th October each year is marked at World Mental Health Day. Each year, people are encouraged to recognise the impacts that our day-to-day lives and events around the world have on our mental health and to understand the small steps that we can take to take care of ourselves.

This year, World Mental Health Day is particularly important. After months of lockdown and adapting to a new normal, people have seen a decrease in their mental health. 1 in 4 Brits reported feeling lonely during lockdown, with others stating that the removal of their usual coping mechanisms and reduced access to mental health professionals impeding their state of mind as well.

Looking after your mental health

Much like the coronavirus, mental health can affect anyone but there are simple steps you can take to make sure that you are taking care of yourself.

Spending more time outside

The benefits of spending time in nature are well known and getting outdoors in the fresh air has positive effects on your mental health. Reducing stress levels and making connections within your local area are just some of the positive side effects of spending time in the great outdoors.

There is no doubt that being active outdoors in places full of greenery and wildlife is so beneficial for mental and physical health.”

TCV Volunteer, 2020

Learn a new skill

During lockdown, many of us took to learning new things to keep ourselves occupied such as baking, cooking, or using it as an opportunity to get back into reading. However, there are many skills that you can learn at home that will also have a positive impact not only on your mental health, but the environment too.

Head over to the TCV YouTube channel for a whole host of ‘How To’ videos that will provide you with a new skill that can help the wildlife in your local area.

Helping others

The feel-good factor that comes from helping others in need has a positive effect on your mental health. At TCV, we have resumed volunteering whilst following the latest guidelines to keep our sessions COVID-19 safe, protecting our staff and volunteers.

Protecting and caring for your local green spaces is one way to ensure that you’re helping your environment, improving your mental and physical health and potentially proving an accessible and relaxing space for someone else who is suffering from similar issues.

I would like to volunteer with TCV to do more to improve green areas near me once lockdown is reduced.”

TCV Volunteer, 2020.

Take notice

With everything that is going on in the world right now, it can be difficult to focus on the little things. The small everyday things that bring us joy. Whether it be walking through your local park and noticing the plants, the trees, and the birds. Or it is perhaps sitting down with a good book, a cup of tea and listening to the wind blow outside. Whatever the small things that bring you joy are, taking a few minutes of your day to appreciate them and revel in them does wonders for your mental health.

Connect with people

When lockdown was at its peak, many of our volunteers told us that the social connectivity that came from volunteering and normal life was something they missed. We live in a time where staying connected is easier than ever before. Now with reduced lockdown measures in some parts of the UK, it is important to check in with our friends and family.

Not just for our own mental health, but a simple message to let someone know that you’re thinking of them or a knock on someone’s door may be just what they needed to turn a difficult day into a great one.

To keep up to date with the latest news and goings on from TCV, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The Conservation Volunteers is needed now more than ever, with lockdown proving how vital our green spaces truly are, and the interaction with our communities. Donate today and help us.

During lockdown green spaces provided a welcome relief for many, a sense of calm and escapism, a space to connect with the outside and natural world, and for some a sense of discovery as we spent more time within our local areas.

However, for many volunteers, they have missed the physical activity of caring for and protecting their local green spaces and socialising with others whilst isolating at home.

With new safety measures, and new ways of volunteering, your support is needed now more than ever.

We need your help, so you can help people like Pat.  She needs to get back to volunteering, back to her lifeline at TCV. If you can, please act and donate today.

I live on my own and it’s been a really hard struggle. Because of where I live, I couldn’t leave the house for a month.

I just felt miserable, like life just wasn’t worth it. For me to get to any green space is over a 30-minute walk travelling near Blackwall Tunnel, one of the most air polluted roads, in a very dull part of the East End of London. What was the point if all I had to do was to sit and listen to the traffic, builders on a tower block and breathe in the dust and pollution?

I’ve lost muscle and I have a bad cough, and everything looked pointless and bleak. When we were allowed more time to exercise, I was able to walk but got blisters on my feet because of lack of physical activity. I had a job at a city farm which I’ve now lost. I just felt what as the point, I was desperate to talk to people and be in a green space.

I have missed the TCV Greenwich Ecology Park like you wouldn’t believe.

TCV is the main focus of my life, it brings me so much joy and honestly, all I have is TCV, which is a lifeline to me.“

Pat – TCV Volunteer

It is vital that we support our volunteers and staff to be able to return to conserving green spaces and helping nature to thrive, just as nature enabled us to thrive in the most unprecedented of times.

Please if you can, make a donation today, you are helping many people like Pat to reconnect to help both local green spaces and themselves thrive again.

Thank you for donating.

Women in Mind are a user-led group based within Lisburn YMCA for women suffering from fibromyalgia who are currently, or have had, past experiences of poor mental health including depression and anxiety, that works with TCV Northern Ireland.

Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body. Currently, there is no cure for fibromyalgia but lifestyle changes, such as exercise programmes, have found to help reduce the pain in many patients.

The allotment has been a life saver for me. I suffer from anxiety and depression. Since I’ve been at the allotment my anxiety has reduced and my mood is great. Can’t believe how much gardening has changed my life.“

TCV Volunteer

The Project

The group have been working at the Red Gate Community Allotment for over a year. They have focused on growing food and maintaining the allotment which has included watering plants, repotting seedlings, planting out, weeding, clearing vegetation, and mulching the raised beds.

Going to the allotment has been the only reason why I get out of bed some days. I suffer from SAD but when autumn approaches you are busy clearing and prepping beds and renewing the soil for Winter.

It’s like living a piece of art. Each day you don’t know what view you are going to get, changes daily. You get lost sowing, watering and maintaining. Time flies, you’re doing something productive and your confidence rises knowing you’ve improved something, you feel you have a purpose.“

TCV Volunteer

Women in Mind are a fantastic group of supporting women who have helped one another through their health issues. Working at the allotment has been both relaxing and therapeutic which has helped improve their mental health and given them a sense of achievement.

TCV’s Impact

TCV have proudly supported the group since they acquired Red Gate Allotment and it has been extremely rewarding working with the women on maintaining and developing the allotment.

The allotment is peaceful and full of love and friendship. Always leave feeling in a much better mood. I feel it is good for my soul and is very therapeutic.“

TCV Volunteer

The group were shortlisted for the Mayor’s Community Awards 2020 in the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council area.

To keep up to date with the latest news and events from TCV Northern Ireland, make sure to follow them on Twitter or find out more about your local volunteering opportunities.  

Leaving a gift to TCV in your will this Remember A Charity Week helps us to continue our important work of connecting people and green spaces for generations to come.

Having safe and accessible green spaces are part of what makes thriving communities. Our volunteers work tirelessly to provide such spaces for their local communities.

Situated in one of the most deprived areas of York, Hull Park Road has been part of the Tang Hall community since 1927.

Due to council cutbacks the park has became plain and unloved, with only essential maintenance taking place, but this did not go unnoticed. A group of local ward councillors approached TCV York with a small pot of funding, but high hopes to regenerate the park to its former glory to be enjoyed by the residents of Tang Hall.

However, it quickly became clear that the aims far outweighed the money available. With TCV’s help, an opportunity for a project and a locally available grant were identified to help make this vision a reality.

The Project

With a group of six regular volunteers, as well as a group of eight young people from Choose2Youth, the group have planted around 1,000 native and ornamental blubs, transformed a very tired rose bed into a colourful central display, re-wood-chipped paths and removed brambles on the woodland walks, and started reinstating the original rockery in the park.

Using some of TCV York’s recruitment budget to support the work of the park volunteers and to carry out some of the bigger and more complicated aspects of the work enabled the group to work at a quick pace so people did not lose interest and heart.

Corporate volunteer groups run by City of York Council and other organisations such as Good Gym have worked with the Hull Road Park project to help out and to maximise their impact.

The project has contributed to and led events in the park including Tang Hall Family Festival and Party in the Park to launch the new community café. The group have also worked with TCV York’s Local People Project, funded by People’s Health Trust, to run smaller events for families.

TCV’s Impact

The volunteers have not only positively impacted the park, they are benefiting from social activity as well. The project has taken the lead in creating a development plan for the park working with York City council and other interested parties in the park.

Without the support from our donors and fundraisers, TCV York would not have been able to lend a helping hand to the group of local councillors who needed someone to lead the way in creating their vision of the unloved and uncared for park.

Green spaces are a vital part of any happy and healthy community but continued time and dedication is needed to ensure that they continue to thrive, and in turn help the people of their communities thrive also.

To find out more about the work of TCV York, make sure to follow their Twitter account for the latest news. For more information on other volunteering opportunities with TCV across the UK, click here.

Just imagine the effect your legacy could have by passing on something wonderful that has inspired you during your lifetime.

The Conservation Volunteers is one of over 200 charities taking part in Remember A Charity Week from 7^th – 13^th September where supporters are encouraged to pass on something wonderful by leaving a gift in their Will.

Why leave a gift to charity in your Will?

Planning for the future and considering ‘what would I like my legacy to be…’ is a challenge that is often delayed. However, if we put our thoughts down on paper and begin to prepare a Will, the realisation that you have passed on something wonderful to your loved ones which has inspired you during your lifetime becomes a powerful and comforting gift to many.

A gift to TCV in your Will could help to care for and protect green spaces helping both communities and people thrive for generations to come. After you have taken care of your family and friends, consider leaving a gift in your Will to TCV, helping thousands to others across the country to make a difference in your memory.

Now more than ever, charities across the UK including TCV are relying on gifts in Wills from supporters like you to help our work live on.

What will your gift do?

For over 60 years, TCV have worked solidly to care for and protect local green spaces. The work our community of volunteers carry out across the UK not only impacts the natural environment, but the lives of the people who live in their communities.

Remember A Charity is a consortium of almost 200 charities that aims to do what no single charity can do alone: making legacy giving a social norm. Remember A Charity Week aims to help charities to create campaigns in support of legacy giving.

By choosing to leave even a small legacy to TCV, know that together we can make a real and lasting difference to our natural environment and the lives of others.

This year has been exceptionally challenging for The Conservation Volunteers versus how we have traditionally worked with many of our corporate partners such as NatWest, intu, Sky, PwC and Wates – but to name a few.

For a charity committed to connecting people and green spaces, the impact of COVID-19 such as the lockdown and social distancing have unsurprisingly proved a real challenge to being able to work in close proximity to 1000’s of people on our community projects.

Usually by this time of the year we would have been delighted to host around 5,000 of our corporate partner employees, volunteering at TCV projects across the UK; laying paths, building fences, creating wildlife habitats, the list of work and tasks they would usually support goes on and on.

This summer our incredible partners at Wates Group would have been in full swing with no end of fundraising activity taking place across the country – not least a very ambitious water-based challenge that is now on hold, perhaps signalling what could be an even bigger and better fundraising year in 2021?

Since the start of COVID-19 and the suspension of our volunteering activities, TCV have been overwhelmed by just how supportive our corporate partners have been at a time when they, like all of us, are facing their own unique challenges.

Dialogue and communication has continued to be open and positive as we explore how we can kick start our volunteering activity, resume fundraising challenges and plan new ways of working together, such as virtual volunteering – more to follow on that one!

There is going to be lots of exciting news to share in the months ahead, all of which will continue to help TCV to connect people and green spaces, because as we transition into the easing of lockdown measures, we know there will be more demand than ever for TCV to support our local communities.

Many new ideas, projects and commitments are in the final planning stages, but one huge piece of brilliant news is confirmation from OVO Energy of 370,000 free trees for this the 2020 I Dig Trees programme.

This incredible pledge brings the total number of new trees in the UK through I Dig Trees to almost 1.5 million in the past 6 years.

While the past 6 months has undoubtedly been a struggle, we are looking forward and we do feel extremely positive for the rest of 2020, with big plans for 2021.

How do you engage people to protect and care for their local green spaces and wildlife in the middle of a global pandemic, when people are only allowed to leave their homes for one hour a day?

These were the challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdown that started in March, and led to The Conservation Volunteers suspending our volunteering sessions for the first time in over 60 years.

However, our team in Scotland rose to the challenge, with some help from the British Ecological Society’s Regional Fund.

The funding was granted to organisations who were seeking new and innovative ways of public engagement from home during this time. TCV Scotland saw an opportunity collaborate with another TCV project funded by the British Ecological Society, HogWatch.

HogWatch aims to understand more about the decline in hedgehog species in Scotland with a focus on receiving new records and footage of hedgehogs. However, as an elusive nocturnal species, a few tools are often needed to capture these sightings, which led to the creation of HogWatch at Home.

HogWatch At Home

With the funding received, HogWatch at Home has set up a lending library which lends cameras to volunteers, starting with groups from the TCV Community Network, to borrow for a period of time to gather information on the wildlife visiting each group.

We hope to reduce barriers to potentially costly equipment and to open up our wildlife lending library to all.

Kirsty Crawford, TCV Senior Project Officer – Citizen Science.

Cameras come with a streaming service so participants have the option to share footage with others. There are also cameras set up at some of the TCV Scotland’s shared sites, such as the Jupiter Urban Wildlife Centre, so that members of the public can join in with HogWatch at Home if they don’t have access to a green space to set up a camera.

Ready to Join In, Feel Good?

All in Scotland are welcome to borrow from the lending library. There are also mammal footprint tunnels (complete with wildlife-friendly ink and identification guide) and remote monitoring cameras (which work by connecting to WiFi).

For more information on HogWatch at Home, please contact Kirsty Crawford.

To keep up to date with all our citizen science projects, follow @TCVCitSci on Twitter and TCV Scotland on Facebook.

National Allotments Week, originating in 2002, is a week-long campaign to raise awareness of allotments and the role they play in helping people to live healthier lifestyles, grow their own food, develop friendships, and bolster communities.

This year’s theme is Growing Food for Health and Well-being and aims to highlight the benefits of growing, cooking and eating your own fruit and vegetables.

Across the UK, The Conservation Volunteers help people to learn how to grow their own produce and maintain green spaces that allow people to do so.

TCV Leicester Community Food Growing Support Programme

One of these projects is TCV Leicester’s Community Food Growing Support Programme that provides free support and advice to schools, early learning settings, community groups and allotments, creating a vibrant network of food growing projects across the city.

The project is funded by Leicester City Council, who also provide Get Growing grants to provide new growers a small boost to get started.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, some allotments such as Evington Hilltop Allotments stayed open to provide an opportunity for exercise and safe social interaction for plot-holders. Whilst they were able to continue to plant and care for their plots, the social aspect of the site wasn’t the same.

However, the group came together and created a WhatsApp group to stay in touch during the lockdown period and have come up with lots of plans for bringing the community together once it is safe to do so.

TCV Birmingham Health for Life

Health for Life is a community programme which aims to make a sustained difference to healthy lifestyles in local communities across Birmingham.

The programme provides facilities and support to establish activities which engaged people in growing food, physical activity, healthy eating and cooking.

Funded by Mondelēz International and delivered by TCV and, through schools, Services for Education, Health for Life works in community gardens and delivers TCV Green Gym sessions to encourage people to grow their own food and to provide people with the skills and knowledge to do so.

Growing our own fruit and vegetables is a great source of physical exercise and is also good for the environment as it reduces your carbon footprint as well. With plenty of allotments and community gardens across the UK, and with many fruits, vegetables and herbs being able to grow in planters on a windowsill, getting involved is easy.

Read on for information on Community Food Growing Support Programme and Health for Life.

Make sure to follow us @TCVtweets for updates on our return to volunteering.

HogWatch Scotland is TCV Scotland’s hedgehog conservation project, which has been funded by The British Hedgehog Preservation Society until 2021.

HogWatch Scotland aims to understand more about the declining species of hedgehogs in Scotland by conducting torchlight surveys, a variety of events and training courses, working with schools, and implementing hedgehog friendly changes in the landscape.

In 2018, it was revealed that hedgehog numbers had fallen by about 50% since the turn of the century. The report also suggested that hedgehogs are disappearing more rapidly in the countryside, as hedgerows and field margins are lost to intensive farming.

While lockdown restrictions in 2020 has meant that some of the work on TCV projects have come to a temporary stop, this is one area of conservation that people of all ages can carry out at home.

The HogWatch Scotland team have put together this resource pack which has lots of fun and simple activities to encourage hedgehog populations in your area and protecting their habitat.

We are grateful to hedgehog volunteers across the country who continue to send their sightings to the project for us to better understand hedgehog populations, we have over 300 already this year.

Lots of people have been keeping active creating hedgehog houses, feeding stations and Hedgehog Highways – cutting a small hole in their fence to allow wildlife to pass through and open up the landscape.

Kirsty Crawford – TCV Senior Project Officer – Citizen Science

Looking after our native species is vitally important, and there is so much that we can do from our own homes to protect these well-loved mammals.

There are just 4 easy steps to get involved in HogWatch:

1. Volunteer on the Hedgehog Safari
2. Submit a sighting
3. HogWatch at Home – monitor in your own garden
4. Become a hedgehog champion

We may think of hedgehogs of being relatively common and widespread, but there with the decline in both rural and urban habitats, the numbers of these little creatures are declining – worldwide, they are declining faster than tigers worldwide!

For more information and how to get involved, visit the HogWatch Scotland website.

It is a well-known fact that at The Conservation Volunteers, we are committed to caring for and protecting our local green spaces to create happy and healthy communities across the UK.

Green spaces provide communities with places to connect with nature and the positive benefits on people’s physical and mental health from spending time in nature are plentiful.

However, it is not just parks and green spaces that we care for; blue spaces are as important and need as much care and attention.

Ponds provide homes for a huge number of species: plants and fungi, fish, birds, invertebrates, amphibians and even mammals. This blue space also has a positive impact on our mental health, much in the same way that green space can.

From January 2018 – March 2020, with generous funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, TCV Croydon Ponds Project worked with volunteers, community groups, ecologists, and historians to reinvigorate the public profile of the 40+ ponds in the London Borough of Croydon.

Naturally occurring ponds have been part of our landscape for millions of years, and man-made ponds for millennia. Much of our native wildlife has come to depend on them for a source of fresh water.

With increases in intensive agriculture and urbanisation, there has been a marked decrease in our number of ponds across the UK over the last few centuries, making it more important now than ever to protect these havens for wildlife.

We take a look at the work that goes into preserving blue spaces, and why this work is so vital.

Protecting the Wildlife

Ponds are home to a plethora of species, therefore not every pond is the same and requires various conservation methods to ensure that the correct measures are taken to improve and protect them.

Sometimes this can mean dredging slit from a pond, or extending its margins, but managing ponds for wildlife is not always about actively working in and around the pond.

Surveying the wildlife and carefully selecting ways to help encourage it is often more beneficial than any major disruption to the pond itself.

This can take the form of removing invasive species or building ‘hibernaculum’ nearby – a pile of stones, wood and mud – which can be used by amphibians visiting the pond.

Ecological Surveys

The species of plant and animals that are living in the green spaces surrounding ponds is an important way to inform how they should be managed.

During the summers of 2018 and 2019, TCV volunteers surveyed 42 public ponds across Croydon recording the plants both in the ponds and around the water’s edge, as well ‘pond dipping’ to find out what animals were living in the water.

The last surveys had been taken in 1994, therefore the information needed updating if these ponds were going to be given the opportunity to flourish.

It appears that comparing the 1994 and 2019/20 surveys that the ponds that have received management work from TCV and other community groups have improved their species count.

Whilst there have been some that have declined, the reasons for this are unclear. Further habitat management work that has been undertaken through the Croydon Ponds Project and continued improvement work will help these ponds to improve over time.

Invasive Species

Invasive species are non-native plants brought into the UK in the last few centuries that can outcompete our native pond life.

While measures are taken to avoid their spread, pond owners, gardeners and anglers can unwittingly assist in their spread by carrying tiny fragments of the plants on their equipment, shoes or clothing, or by emptying fish tanks or plant holders into wild ponds.

During surveying the ponds, volunteers used the following advice to avoid spreading any invasive plants:

• Check your equipment and clothing for living organisms
• Clean and wash all equipment, footwear and clothing
• Dry all equipment and clothing – some species can live for many days in moist conditions.

TCV Croydon produced an overview of the project, including historical information about the ponds involved in the project, which can be found here.

A write up for the surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019 can be found here, alongside the full dataset from the surveys.