Manchester-based production company, Standby Productions is excited to announce its latest collaboration with Lancashire Wildlife Trust helping to promote the charity’s Myplace initiative. The project focuses on how nature can help with wellbeing, and how connecting with local environments can empower communities – in Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside.

Having worked on previous eye-opening projects already with Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Manchester video production company, Standby Productions are once again putting their creative powers to good use by creating a video to showcase how teens can benefit from nature with the Myplace project’s workshops, wildlife walks, bushcraft activities and gardening projects. Overall, the aim is to show how connecting with nature can help improve mental health and wellbeing, introducing ecotherapy.

In the film, you can hear the young participants discussing the amazing benefits of the workshops and activities they’ve been a part of, benefits which have even been lifesaving, as Julia, a member of the group, details:

“Genuinely, Myplace saved my life. I was very suicidal, and it very quickly became a reason to live. It was something to look forward to, even on the bad days. I don’t think I could have made the progress that I’ve made without nature. And I’ve made lots of friends with Myplace. It’s pretty easy to make friends with someone who gets you and gets what you’re going through.”

Many others involved recognised the relationship between nature and mental health, with one member adding, ”I think nature helps mental health because we, humans, are fundamentally connected to it. Lack of contact with nature damages us, so when we come back to it, it falls into place. It’s like a piece of a puzzle that you’ve lost, and you suddenly find it.”

Managing Director of Standby Productions, Simon Owen, was blown away by the response from the participants he documented:

“We love the project and the drive to encourage people to be in touch with nature, but what we wanted to really show in the video was the overwhelming positivity projects like these create. These young people, from different walks of life, came together for a meaningful cause, and as a result, their lives and mental health were impacted profoundly. The campaign’s message says it all – ‘Nature as part of young people’s recovery. Young people as part of nature’s recovery.’”

Emma Bartlet, Nature and Wellbeing Senior Project Officer at Lancashire Wildlife Trust said of the partnership with Standby:

“The film that Standby Productions made with us beautifully encapsulates the essence of the work of Lancashire Wildlife Trust. It shows the way that contact with the natural world can help turn young lives around. These young people are helping to conserve the natural world in return. The Standby Productions team captured all this so eloquently. This new film is helping us to communicate how nature and wellbeing are inextricably linked.”