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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Launching Friends of St Ann’s Green Spaces – stAGS Spring 2021 News
Volunteer SINC Saturday, Nature and Health, Walk and Talk Trees, Connecting with Nature… ...and more from stAGS
We are stAGS – a new Friends Group helping to care for the green spaces at St Ann's Hospital in the London borough of Haringey. Across the site are many rare and exotic trees, some nearly 100 years old. Stretching all the way along the southern perimeter, parallel with the Gospel Oak to Barking railway line, runs “the wild place”, a woodland strip which is both a commuter link and home to the rich variety of wildlife travelling into Tottenham from the Lea Valley. It’s a special conservation area or “SINC” – a Site of Importance to Nature Conservation.
Volunteer SINC Saturday 15 May, 10.30am – 2pm
Some of our members, with help from London Wildlife Trust, have raised funds to look after the SINC and to create a woodland path for Hospital service users, staff and visitors. On Saturday 15 May, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) from Railway Fields are running a Covid safe onsite SINC volunteer session for us. We'll be litter picking and clearing brambles to allow wild flowers to thrive.
 
If you'd like to join us, please enter your details here. TCV will contact you to confirm if you have a place. Spaces are limited due to current Covid restrictions but there will be more sessions in future. If you have any questions about SINC volunteering, please contact Mat m.pendergast@tcv.org.uk
 Nature and Health – Mental Health Awareness Week 2021
SINC Saturday is one of the activities stAGS are organising in response to an invitation from our partners Greener St Ann’s. We’re delighted to join the Hospital staff green group in marking national Mental Health Awareness week 10 - 16 May. This year’s theme is “Connect with Nature”. Follow this link to find out about fantastic events organised by the Hospital and other groups. 

These days the Hospital is located within an “Area of Deficiency in Access to Nature” according to the Mayor’s new London Plan (March 2021) – that shows how crucial our green spaces are for the local community. In 2018 the Greater London Authority (GLA) bought just over half the Hospital site to build new housing. The developer Catalyst is managing the construction. The Hospital too is in Phase 2 of a new development, modernising inpatient wards and facilities.

Camilla Cox of Greener St Ann’s – Occupational Therapy and Therapy Lead explains: “During this last year we were able to move into a new hospital building, co-designed and built with sustainability in mind. As we settle into our new surroundings we’re discovering a new relationship with the natural surroundings of the site.”
 

StAGS want to make sure that, despite the current changes, St Ann’s green spaces are conserved and enhanced for all users in the future through long-term, whole-site partnership – Chestnuts Park too on the opposite side of St Ann’s Road, cared for by our sister group Friends of Chestnuts Park (FoCP) whose support we much appreciate.
Walk and Talk Trees, Monday 24 May, 2 – 3.30pm
Free, limited spaces. Book now
Together with FoCP we’ve invited the London tree expert and writer Paul Wood to guide a special walk through the site. We’ve scheduled a later date so that more people can join the walk – from 17 May we expect Covid restrictions to relax some more.

Paul writes: “The walk will focus on looking closely at the trees, and understanding how rare and special they are, and what a special place it makes St Ann’s. There’s a wonderful mystery here in that they must have been selected by someone who clearly knew about the therapeutic properties of nurturing trees...”
Connecting with Nature conversation 
Friday 14 May, 6.30 – 8pm
Online, free. Book now
Paul likes his walks to demonstrate how connecting with nature can bring mental and physical wellbeing. The benefits of access to green space for hospital service users too are increasingly recognised. At St Ann’s Hospital, green spaces can play an essential role as it continues to specialise in the care and treatment of mental illness – for people experiencing it for the first time, as intermittent episodes or in the long-term.

The new Green Walking groups initiative in mental health recovery is just one of the approaches recommended by Ben Whittaker, Senior Occupational Therapist and programme lead at the Centre of Sustainable Healthcare. On Friday 14 May we’re excited to bring Ben and Paul Wood together in conversation with Camilla Cox on Zoom.

What would you like to ask them about trees, climate emergency, and the wellbeing of St Ann’s Hospital and the Haringey Community? What does it mean to connect with nature? We invite you to bring your curiosity and questions to the virtual table. Our favourite question wins a signed copy of Paul’s brilliant new book London Tree Walks. 
If you like what we’re doing, come and join us! Follow us on Facebook. We have overlapping membership with Friends of Chestnuts Park (FoCP), Greener St Ann’s, St Ann’s Redevelopment Trust (stART), Healthy Streets St Ann’s and Gardens Residents Association (GRA).

And look out for our Summer newsletter with Tree of the Season new feature – coming soon!
 
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