Rowan city students enjoying the great outdoors

Rowan was awarded £2500 from Cambridge City Council in March 2023 to deliver outdoor forest school sessions and creative workshops to support adults with learning disabilities from the local community.

Since 1984 Rowan has provided a safe, creative, and enriching environment where the arts are used as a tool to bring people together and tackle social exclusion. In 2020 Rowan Rangers was launched, a new forest school which enables students to be creative and connect with nature. The Rowan Rangers are encouraged to connect with their environment and each other through a wide range of activities including storytelling, den building, fire lighting, green woodwork, wildlife spotting and creating artwork inspired by nature.

Rowan Ranger Ash was asked about his time at forest school “Forest School is great. I got to celebrate my birthday with everyone here. There were games and a quiz at lunchtime and doughnuts.” Ash travels independently from the Cambridge city centre to forest school every Friday. “I leave the house at 8.41 and go to the bus stop. I pay for my ticket and travel from Cambridge to Histon. I then walk by myself to Forest School and see Russell and Lorraine and help set up the Forest School. I feel cool that I do it (go on the bus) by myself.”

“We would like to thank Cambridge City Council for supporting the Rowan Rangers at forest school and our creative workshops at the arts centre”. Says Chief Executive Officer Cherie Evans, “It costs over £600,000 pa to run our creative workshops and forest school and we rely on the support of the local community. To see Rowan students thriving in such a supportive environment is wonderful. It’s great to be able to work together to improve the lives of local adults with learning disability. Thank you once again.”

Cllr Mairéad Healy, Executive Councillor for Communities at Cambridge City Council, said: “I’m so grateful to hear feedback from some of the Cambridge-based Rangers about the positive impact Forest School is having on their lives. We all benefit from spending time in nature, whether on our own or with others, so it’s important to us that we use council grant funding to help organisations like Rowan to run schemes like this, to help people enjoy spending time in nature and building social connections. Thank you to the team at Rowan for the vital work you are doing.”