Nottinghamshire-based organisation Oasis run a series of educational and therapeutic project groups to support health and wellbeing. They now have more than a dozen projects on the go, focussed on the likes of gardening, floristry, knitting, woodcraft, photography and jewellery making.

People who join the groups have been referred via social prescribing, social workers, community groups, mental health workers or through self-referral. Many need support or a social group to belong to while others want to learn arts, crafts and creative work.

People are encouraged to bring along new ideas and the group has used its two acres of gardens as inspiration for further artistic and creative work. Some items which were grown created Christmas wreaths, while pressed flowers were used in card making. All the groups came together earlier this year to showcase their work to a wider audience at the three-week long ‘Big Tent Celebration’.

“We have about 20 people volunteering their time to run these projects and work on the creative and therapeutic groups. They give lots of energy and creativity to these projects, with people of all ages and from different groups working on various aspects. These projects are really making a difference to people's lives, wellbeing and social connections as well as helping them to improve skills or learn new ones, and develop their creativity in many different ways.” Stephen Williams, Oasis - Lifeline Projects

Learn more

• Website www.oasiscommunitycentre.org
• Facebook group