Tackling Loneliness through nature-based solutions: at RECETAS, we take #RandomActsofConnection outside

From June 10 to 16, we celebrate Loneliness Awareness Week, which aims at raising awareness about loneliness and its impact on mental health and wellbeing. This annual campaign is organized by the Marmalade Trust, a UK-based charity whose goal is to tackle loneliness and social isolation.

The RECETAS project is happy to support the Marmalade Trust as our actions and research fully aligns with the spirit of Loneliness Awareness Week. Thanks to this initiative, people get to talk about these issues, participating in reducing the stigma associated with feeling lonely, encouraging others to talk about it and connecting us together. The RECETAS Project indeed studies the connections between loneliness and activities done within nature in urban and peri-urban areas, with six pilot cities in which this activities are carried out and tested.

Throughout Loneliness Awareness Week, diverse activities are organized to promote the message that everyone can feel lonely, because of a variety of different factors, and that breaking out of the vicious circle of silence is crucial.

Each year, Loneliness Awareness Week features a specific theme. This year, the focus is on Random Acts of Connection. The idea is simple: encouraging people to increase the everyday moments of connection that make us feel better and less lonely. These connections can take many forms: having coffee breaks with co-workers, hosting a street party, chatting with someone in a queue, or simply calling a friend to catch up….

Our methodology, the “Friends in Nature” methodology, is an extension of the Finnish “Circle of Frends methodology”, and aims at reducing loneliness through nature-based activities in groups (gardening, species observation, walking in forests, etc).

The end goal of the project is to provide tangible scientific data on the matter but also to raise awareness among policy makers in order to influence policies in urban planning, environment, social issues and mental health in the right direction.

RECETAS is a project funded by the Horizon 2020 program.
To find more information on the RECETAS project, check our website: https://www.recetasproject.eu/
To learn more about Loneliness Awareness Week and the Marmalade Trust, and to get involved: https://www.lonelinessawarenessweek.org/about
#RandomActsOfConnection

RECETAS featured in HaDEA’s new article: « European Mental Health Awareness Week: Horizon 2020 promotes natural spaces in cities to combat loneliness »

In light of #EuropeanMentalHealthWeek , RECETAS has been featured in an article by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency!

Find out more about addressing loneliness through nature-based solutions with details about our pilot sites, fundings, our methodology, etc.

👉 Read the article!

• 28 February 2023, at 11am
  
• Online
  

The webinar – organised by the HEART project, member of the European Urban Health Cluster– will explore the impacts of urban environment on health outcomes at both collective and individual level. Panellists will address questions such as ‘How are urban policies currently designed?’, ‘Which evidence do policy-makers need to take decisions about urban planning and infrastructure?’, ‘How can we ensure universal access to blue and green spaces?’.

« In 2021, 75% of the total population of the European Union lived in urban areas. Urban areas can have both positive and negative effects on human health. Citizens living in urban areas have better access to care facilities but are also exposed to higher infrastructure density, heavier air pollution, and increased stress. Cities whose urban planning policies are steered by health priorities are obviously more advanced in disease prevention and wellbeing promotion. There is also growing evidence that blue and green spaces have beneficial and restorative effects on mental and physical health. The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of contact with blue and green spaces to reduce stress, carry out physical activity, and provide opportunities for social interaction. Expecting further increase in the urban population in the coming decades, we should reflect on what kind of urban policy design will make current and future generations thrive and if universal access to blue and green spaces in the city can help to reduce health inequalities by their positive impact on wellbeing. »

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