Nairn charity Blue Space Highland looks ahead as they launch 2025 activities programme
A Nairn-based charity born to support people’s mental and physical health through water-based activities is launching its second year of activities.
Blue Space Highland was born in 2023 with the goal of reconnecting people with blue spaces, to build resilience and mental focus by facilitating access to watersports and related activities, from an idea of local kayak and paddleboard instructors Ali Garrow and Leeanne MacKay.
With a growing team of seven volunteers and five trustees, the charity has now announced the opening of its new season of activities, as they hope to make their offering wider and more inclusive.
By working with local providers, Blue Space Highland allows people through referral, or who are self-referred, to join a variety of activities ranging from paddleboarding, wild swimming and kayaking to beach yoga and water-focused arts workshops.
Ms MacKay said they have been learning from the past season and are hoping to encourage more people to take part this year.
She said: “‘We can clearly see that more and more people are embracing blue spaces to support their mental health and develop positive social connections. We want to provide a safe-space and support to try out a variety of blue space activities and signpost them to further opportunities.
“Last year we had about 20 people coming through either referral or self-referral, and many engaged well with our activities - however we had some dropouts for various reasons, so this year we wanted to make our programme of activities even more inclusive and make sure that we had something for everyone.
“Maybe people are not quite ready to get into the water or around it. But it's that blue space theme, it all ties in.
“We have also changed our focus from when we first started – if initially, we were catering mostly for people who were struggling with their mental health, now we want to focus on prevention and be there before someone reaches a crisis point. So, Blue Space is really for everyone.”
With £5,570 in funding from Haventus Ardersier Port Community Benefit Fund and more from the National Lottery Community Fund, this year the charity is set to offer 80 to 100 sessions, including 40 dedicated for pupils at Nairn Academy.
“I think that's probably a big factor for us,” Mr Garrow explained.
“We were not focusing on young people last year but it was important for us that we did this year. We're getting quite a lot of inquiries about other schools that might be enrolled and might be interested in this kind of program, as well as Young Carers as well.
“And that's that age group that really needs that's support in, and the skills and techniques for their wellness.”
He added that since the programme launched on Friday, they already had around 10 people interested.
“It’s been great, but we need to be careful as we have limited funding so far and we need to be able to space the activities throughout the season. But we’ll learn as we go along and we think we will be looking at further grants and fundraising so we can increase the number of sessions we can provide.”
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Alongside the sessions, the charity will carry out research into the benefits of the activities and develop a five-year plan based on the outcomes.
“We hope we can support more and more people,” he said.
“On the long term, we hope we will find other funding sources — potentially looking also at funding from NHS Highland.”
Blue Space Highland’s first activities start on April 25.
To learn more about the charity, self-refer, get involved or make a donation you can visit bluespacehighland.org.
