Climate, Environment and Mental Health Action Forum meetings

Meeting 9: 30th July 2025

Download notes from the meeting (relevant pages numbers from the Notes listed below in brackets).

The latest Forum session was online. It brought together a diverse range of members: charity workers, community leaders, young people, academics, local government workers and public health specialists. First, we did some fun speed networking.

Next, we built on our previous discussions about ‘task-sharing’ – an approach that integrates mental health support into everyday community activities – by thinking through how to use this model to support climate action (pp. 2-6). We discussed examples, such as London’s exciting Climate Connected Communities programme. People offered solutions to challenges, including how to prevent burnout among non-specialists (p.4) and how to address immediate needs like housing alongside providing emotional support (p.5).

We heard lots of exciting updates from members, including:

• Force of Nature shared information on their latest youth-led climate mental health programmes and asked for partnerships (p.7)
• The Women’s Environmental Network highlighted their recent funding award to expand their Climate Sisters project (p.8)
• Toby Peach from Mod is seeking partners for their playful activism games for schools.
  London Arts and Health has an upcoming opportunity for artists working at the intersection of arts, mental health and climate action.
• An opportunity to get involved in Shiwei Ooi’s research linking extreme heat and mental health.

Read the notes (pp. 8-10) to find out more and who to contact.

Opportunities shared by network

• Shape London’s Heat Plan: completing a 6-minute survey from the Greater London Authority.
• Schools Lead at Mum for Lungs: Mums for Lungs is hiring a part-time Schools Lead to expand their air pollution education program (2.5 days/week). Deadline 7th September.
• Green Careers Fair – October 6th: Camden Clean Air is organizing a careers event with 1,500+ attendees across three sessions (SEN students, mainstream students, and adults) at Vision Hall, WC1H 9AU. Contact Valeria Pensabene: vpensabene@camdencleanair.org
• Communications Manager (freelance) with Letters to the Earth: Lead communications strategy, digital content, and event promotion for nature-based projects (3-month contract, potential to extend). Deadline: 18 August.

Meeting 8: 18 June 2025

Download notes and other resources from the meeting (relevant pages numbers from the Notes listed below in brackets).

We had another good turnout for this in-person session at City Hall. We explored how to build community resilience (pp. 1-6), examining the COP² Roadmap for Care + Change (see full and brief versions in the resources) and considering its strategies for integrating mental wellbeing with climate adaptation.

We discussed ‘task-sharing’: distributing mental health and wellbeing support roles beyond specialists to include trained non-professionals such as community members (see the NYC case study and Early Adopter documents). Lots of people were interested in working on a task-sharing pilot project together.

Another key focus was making the Forum itself more inclusive (pp. 6-9). We had many useful suggestions from attendees on how to better engage marginalised communities, improve accessibility, amplify underrepresented voices, and offer more creative, youth-led and community-driven formats. Lastly, we heard some interesting member updates (p.9).

Meeting 7: 7 May 2025

Download notes and other resources from the meeting (relevant pages numbers from the notes listed below in brackets).

We had another great turnout. We started by reminding everyone of the Forum’s purpose, sharing results from a recent feedback survey (p.1).

The main item was an interesting panel on Green Social Prescribing: we heard from experts at the National Academy for Social Prescribing, Natural England and OrganicLea. They shared national and local perspectives, highlighting opportunities and challenges in embedding nature-based activities in mental health support (pp. 2–6).

We then enjoyed hearing updates from many of you on upcoming events, trainings, and opportunities (pp. 7–9). It was lovely to hear about so many exciting things coming up.

Meeting 6: 12th March 2025

Download notes and other resources from the meeting (relevant pages numbers from the notes listed below in brackets).

In this online session, we reflected on the work of the Forum to date and thought about future sessions (pp. 2-3). Joe Barker (Thrive LDN) introduced the International Transformational Resilience Coalition’s framework community-driven approaches to climate and mental health action, emphasising self-regulation, meaning-making, and developing social infrastructure (pp. 3-5). We had an engaging discussion about this, including on implementing these ideas, funding challenges, cross-sector collaboration, and evidence gaps, with suggestions for integrating resilience models into public health (pp. 3-5).

Member updates featured youth engagement projects, creative health initiatives, and funding opportunities, including artist commissions and events from London Arts and Health, and a call-out for co-applicants for the Wellcome Climate Impact Awards (p.5-7). The session closed with reflections on what people want from this Forum in future, with working towards collaborative action coming out as a key theme (pp. 7-8).

Meeting 5: 30th January 2025

Download notes and other resources from the meeting (relevant page numbers from the notes listed below in brackets).

Our first in-person meeting of the Forum was filled with energy and enthusiasm. We met at a lovely (and eco-friendly) venue in The Phoenix Garden. Attendees loved the chance to connect face-to-face, making discussions even more engaging and collaborative.

After an introduction, we did a mindfulness exercise together (p.2) before a lively ‘World Café’ session, which got people talking to each other (p.2). Storytelling discussions explored the emotional and systemic impacts of the climate crisis (pp. 2-3), followed by reflections on creating lasting change together (pp.4-6). We ended with inspiring mini-presentations from members on youth empowerment, climate literacy, nature-based wellbeing, community engagement, and more (p.6-8), plus slides in the resources). Overall, it was an inspiring session, and we got positive feedback from attendees!

Meeting 4: 11th December 2024

Download notes and other resources from the meeting (relevant pages numbers from the notes listed below in brackets).

Our guest speaker Abiola Okubanjo from Adventures in Compassionate Commerce thoughtfully discussed engaging Black-led organisations in climate action, highlighting challenges and strategies like relationship-building and generating community-led evidence (pp. 7-9 of the Notes).
Thrive LDN shared our new webpage on mental health in the climate crisis, and we appreciated getting using feedback from attendees on its design and content (pp. 9-14).

We also had valuable discussions about improving the accessibility and inclusiveness of the Forum, covering issues such as meeting times, meeting focuses, and remuneration. We shared a survey to allow people to give further feedback. We also loved hearing updates from members, including UKHSA and Stanley Arts (pp. 2-7, and 14).

Meeting 3: 2nd October 2024

Download Notes from the meeting. It was great to see lots of engagement from attendees on digital tools for climate and mental health – the meeting’s main topic. We shared Thrive LDN’s plans in this area and found people’s insights extremely helpful. We want to co-develop a new digital tool with partners, so get in touch if you are interested. To find out more, see pages 2-6 of the Notes document and the ‘Digital tools’ presentation slides.

We heard a fascinating presentation from Charles Ogunbode, Affiliate Member at Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). Charles covered emerging research into climate perceptions, emotions, and the implications for wellbeing among UK people of colour; and there was time for a quick Q&A. See pages 6-7 of the Notes and Charles’ presentation slides. Contact Charles to follow up on anything.

Finally, as always, we loved hearing from you about events and resources in the ‘Member’s Updates’ meeting slot (see page 8 of the Notes).

Meeting 2: 24th July 2024

Download Notes from the meeting. It was great to see lots of enthusiasm at the meeting, and loads of ideas for collaborating around Climate, Environment, and Mental Health across London. We really enjoyed hearing Tracy Holtham – a gardener, interdisciplinary artist, and mental health advocate – talk about her work on nature, mental health, art, and the connections between all these – see pages 10-12 of the Notes document for more info.

The ‘Resources for Collaboration’ document shares the rich variety of ideas that came out of the meeting. The document covers: partner updates; a concise summary of projects for collaboration; and suggested collaborative clusters. Use people’s contact details (given in the document) to get in touch and find out more about initiatives. We loved hearing from the group about many events and brilliant resources – see at the ‘Updates from you’ section on pages 12-15 of the Notes document.

Meeting 1: 12th June 2024

Download Notes and Resources from the meeting. 66 people attended our first Forum meeting, and there was so much positive energy.

We introduced the Forum, started to get to know each other, took part in interactive activities to find out what people want from the Forum (‘collaboration’ was a top response, see pages 1-3), and heard from Zarina Ahmad at the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) about some of WEN’s amazing work (pages 3-5). We were also delighted to hear about many events taking place and brilliant resources in existence (pages 6-8).