One-day workshops for skills and social connection

Cultivate and Connect

One-day nature-based workshops offering practical skills and meaningful connection. Cultivate and Connect is a series of  one-day, open-access workshops  for members of the Armed Forces community. They offer an accessible introduction to gardening and outdoor activity, alongside opportunities to meet others with shared experience.

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Who It’s For 

Open to: 

  • Serving personnel 

  • Veterans 

  • Family members and carers 

  • The wider Armed Forces Community 

No prior gardening experience is required. 

What to Expect 

Each workshop includes: 

  • Hands-on gardening or outdoor activity 

  • Informal, welcoming facilitation 

  • Time to connect with others 

  • A supportive, inclusive environment 

Outcomes & Impact

Practical skills

Participants leave with skills they can use at home or in their community.

Social connection

Reduced isolation and increased confidence to engage with others.

Gateway to further support

Many participants go on to join longer programmes.

A woman and a man standing next to a wooden bird feeder with the words "TGS Autumn 2024" engraved on it, outdoors in a wooded area.

Booking & Commissioning

Workshops are delivered year-round at partner sites and can be commissioned as part of wellbeing events, Armed Forces Covenant activity or community programmes.

CONTACT US

  • "I’ve been struggling with the fact I can’t do all the activities that they do. It frustrated me because I can’t bend down. But they adapt in an equitable way, which is handy. I fill in jobs others won’t do... stuff that I don’t need to kneel for. They’ve got high planters, 15ft long and I can weed away. Someone’s got to do it."

    —Veteran, Autumn 2024

  • "It does not matter if gardening is not your ‘thing’, it gives you time and space to work out what your ‘thing’ is."

    —Veteran, Spring 2022

  • "You can sit in a quiet area, and you’re not forced to do anything. It’s excellent. For a lot of people with mental health problems, having no pressure makes all the difference."

    —DGS Delivery Team

  • "I think the programme has caught my anxiety down already, to a 7, if the same things happen again by the end of [the programme], I will be a 3..it will be a miracle. The invisible medication. It's a distraction…it distracts me from my thoughts and makes me feel at one with nature and meeting lovely people."

    —Veteran, Spring 2024