Myplace Weeknotes: Week 6

Furthermore and the Myplace team at the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, have embarked on a new project with support from Catalyst and National Lottery funding.

Myplace is a green prescribing initiative run by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust which aims to increase mental wellbeing through connecting clients to the natural environment in a group setting. It is predicted that due to COVID-19, almost 20% of the population will need either new or additional mental health support making initiatives like Myplace essential in supporting community mental health provision.

The aim of the current project is to increase the number of people who move from initial enquiry or referral to actually joining Myplace and experiencing the benefits of connecting with nature via ecotherapy.

To share our journey with others we’ll be drafting weeknotes describing and reflecting on our work over the past week:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5

This week Rhoda, project manager at Myplace shares her thoughts:

Week 6 has really kicked off creativity with the whole of the Myplace team now getting involved in preparing for prototype testing in week 7. From recording personalised videos, to editing copy for our three different prototypes, it’s been exciting to see everything get that little bit more real.

A still from a project officer video. The video will be integrated into an email that prospective Myplace participants will receive before they meet their allocated project officer.

Along the way we took a look at Videoask which is a really interesting option for engaging with people, that allows for more interaction, and communication by video as well as test or voice recordings. In the short term we decided this was a step too far for our current prototype test as an added layer would make it tricky to identify what intervention had what impact. The vast majority of the team were really keen to look at this further though and it’s something we’ll take a separate look at in the coming months.

A still shot from an introduction to Myplace video that prospective participants will be able to view as part of the communication prototypes we’re testing.

Again the value of implementation alongside a digital partner came into its own as they’ve supported us to create templates for communications, we’ve learnt about b- roll footage, and are in the process of experimenting with a 360 camera and learning how we can get the best content be that sound or audio to really begin to bring nature to people.

We’ve also made a start embedding hubspot as our CRM for testing, so that we can monitor which prototype has which result. Week 7 looks like it’s going to be a very exciting part of our journey!