The Wellderness C.I.C

Improving people’s lives through nature by Lynn Smith

Founded in January 2021 by Matt Dumbleton and Mark Cropley, The Wellderness is a non-profit community interest company, bringing people together in nature for workshops, courses and events, to improve physical and mental wellbeing through wilderness rehabilitation.

The idea for The Wellderness came, Matt and Mark say, on the back of 2020 and lockdown. Both men, by separate routes, realised just how important the influence of nature and the outside world had been to their mental health and wellbeing during that unprecedented time.

Offering space for those essential parts of what helps our species thrive

Mark believes that COVID helped other people rediscover the joy of being outside too. “We were almost prisoners in our own homes and … one hour a day everyone went outside, and they discovered new places around them.”

Matt goes onto say, “Lockdown itself brought a pandemic of loneliness … a need to connect with each other. I mean, we’d been allowed to be outside but (not) outside with other people. We're social pack animals. The Wellderness … offers a space for those essential parts of what make our species thrive.”

These benefits have been validated by science; recent discoveries show that infra-red from a blazing fire and phytoncides, organic compounds produced by trees, have beneficial effects on our bodies too.

Having met when they worked together at another CIC, (Dad La Soul), Matt and Mark began to share ideas for something they could do together that would make a difference to people’s lives. “Literally, we poured our brains out on to a notepad,” Matt says, “We knew we wanted to be a community interest company. We knew that it was about being not for profit … to be selfsupporting as much as possible.”

Having realised just how important the outdoors and nature was to them both, “The stars,” Matt says, “aligned … and wellbeing, wellness and the wilderness became The Wellderness.”

Working to create a 1,000-year legacy

The Wellderness is, Matt says, “Working to create a 1000-year legacy through three core principles that hold up The Wellderness.” Which Mark lists as, “Reconnection to nature, new skills and experiences. It’s really important that we do stuff out in nature, but it's also important that we’re learning something new that we can take away and teach someone else.” Social connection is, he says, a vital component of the process. “We can go out and we can feel the benefits on our own, but the benefits are accelerated when we’re there as a community.”

To improve and positively affect the lives of 10 million people worldwide through wilderness rehabilitation and connection to nature

Currently The Wellderness operates in Wild Heart Hill in Findon, Furzefield Campsite in Dappers Lane, Angmering and Streamside Campsite over in Lancing. There are also, volunteering days in and around the South Downs National Park and beach cleans on Worthing beach.

Next year, The Wellderness is hoping to expand further, with permission granted by Friends of Hurtwood, in Surrey, for them to use the woodland with a small donation, which has been put forward by a business local to the area.

This brings us to what’s next for the Wellderness and how the company’s expansion will be accommodated. Currently, Matt and Mark host all of the organisation’s events and, Mark says, there will come a point when this is no longer possible. “So, I think the next stage is to bring in people to run the already established groups and then us to move on to set up the new groups.” Mark envisages developing a package for people to use, possibly through a licensing programme, enabling other The Welldernesses to be set up across the country - to become a “local national organisation.

The Wellderness would also like, “Land to call home,” Matt says. Possibly on a long term lease, with The Wellderness community working with a landowner to help manage the land, or even through their own land purchase, eventually.

Providing access for adults and children – avoiding a disconnect from nature

So, is there a target audience for The Wellderness’ services?

Matt says. “At a structural level now, schools have outdoor learning as part of their curriculum. The world is waking up to the fact that that nature's really beneficial and important for people and it's quite rightly working to build a deep connection between children and young people in the outdoors.”

Mark points out that there is a caveat - that no matter how deeply connected, the kids aren't going to access it (the outdoors) if the grownups aren't inspired to support them accessing it. So the target audience has to be grownups.” He goes onto say that their classification of an adult is maybe over sixteen, i.e. school leaving age, as it’s at this age that children tend to lose their tie to nature.

Most people become more involved once they’ve attended something– a desire “to give something back to the organisation and share something with the community.”

The Wellderness also collaborates and partners with other groups and organisations, giving access to service users from different demographics whom they might not otherwise be able to reach. They are particularly keen to work with men’s groups – approximately seventy percent of The Wellderness’ service users are female, and to make it easier for those of a lower socio-economic status to attend events, by providing a number of free tickets to each event, where possible. This model is made possible, Mark says, as premium events, like the recent Wim Hof Icebox event, command higher ticket process and generate sufficient income to cover the cost of a small number of free tickets. However, Matt says, they’re reluctant to put all of the costs onto ticket purchasers as they don’t want to put off those who might struggle to afford events. Having had previous experiences of CICs, both Matt and Mark are conscious of competition for funding and have been reluctant to make the organisation’s viability dependent upon community funding –although, Matt isn’t ruling out the possibility of funding applications in 2023. Currently, the organisation is supported by a team of Volunteers and by, Funders and Supporters, who make it possible for The Wellderness to continue its work.

Queen’s Green Canopy Tree of Trees

Between October 2021 and March 2022, The Wellderness community planted 1,100 trees in the South Downs National Park and in October last year, The Wellderness announced that it had been chosen as custodians of one of the trees from the Queen’s Green Canopy Inititative. This honour was celebrated at Wild Heart Hill Campsite on 26th November, in a special tree planting event attended by Lady Emma Barnard, the Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex, and local dignitaries. The Wellderness is also keen to fund -raise with other organisations whose ideas align with its own core principles. In September they joined the “Waterproofs and Wellies” campaign via the Outdoor Guide Foundation, raising money to put waterproof clothing kits into primary schools.

Contact: The Wellderness C.I.C, A2 Yeoman Gate, Yeoman Way, Worthing BN13 3QX Tel: 07818 414 758 www.thewellderness.org.uk