2019 Shortlist | Friends of St Nicholas Fields
Friends of St Nicholas Fields
Shortlist – Improving Impact – charities with 4-25 paid staff
Who they are
St Nick’s is York’s centre for nature and green living, bridging the gap between environmental awareness and action. Its vision is for York to be a city where people value wildlife, the environment and each other equally, and to sustain a rich and healthy life for all. St Nick’s improves nature conservation, biodiversity and habitat development, enhancing the educational and recreational value of green space, both on- and off-site. The organisation is a source of information, innovation and inspiration for sustainable living.
What they’ve achieved
The Friends of St Nicholas board of trustees recruited new members – including representatives from among their service audiences – with relevant expertise and skills, enabling them to successfully launch improved programmes to meet the charity’s objectives of addressing social issues in tandem with its environmental priorities. Trustees led the way to implementing a new mental health service, Ecotherapy, to support target audiences through an evidence-based, holistic approach to mental wellbeing. The service went from supporting 6 participants to 171 participants in three months. Those participants benefited from more than 17,000 hours of creative and physical activities helping to connect them to their environment (‘mindful movement’), and 5,640 of those hours were spent directly improving the environment (through activities like scything or tree planting). The organisation was also able to support participants with higher needs (such as inpatients from a medium secure psychiatric hospital). More than 90% of participants reported improvements to mental wellbeing, including increased confidence and resilience. The work – and evidence of its impact – has contributed to national policy development and led to a new partnership with University of York.
Why they were shortlisted
Judges were impressed with the Board’s clarity of focus on what it wanted to achieve, and the compelling evidence of improved impact. Following a thoughtful and honest skills audit, the board purposefully recruited trustees with the skills and experiences it lacked and sought professional training for trustees, leading to innovative ways of working and reporting. Trustees feel more confident and better equipped to meet their responsibilities armed with effective evaluation procedures and meaningful metrics, an annual organisational ‘health check’ procedure, new management accounting procedures and policies for risk management. The inclusion of service users as trustees has also helped the board strengthen relationships within the community and develop a better understanding of how it can support the people of the community.
