Nature Healing Walk - Truth Reconciliation Reparations Access to Nature

H.E.R.O. (Healing Empathy Redemption Oasis) Nurturing center, along with our co-sponsors*, invites YOU to our Nature Healing Walk in conjunction with the National day of Truth and Reconciliation.

We walk to manifest our fight for and commitment to: Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Equal Access to Nature and Climate Justice Making nature prescriptive (see petition here: https://chng.it/2vkTkH8q)

Please wear comfortable shoes and bring your own water bottle. The Nature Healing Walk, conducted by H.E.R.O. Nurturing Center founder and president Judith Foster, takes approximately 40 minutes and will be followed by a program, music and refreshments.

Warmly Welcome!

*This event is co-sponsored by:

BCAN, Boston Climate Action Network

Black Voters Matter

CREW, Communities Responding to Extreme Weather

Hyde Park Lions Club

MAPA, Massachusetts Peace Action

Mudd Mann

Speak for the trees

Please email Jenny Bonham-Carter/Judith Foster with any questions: info@heronurturingcenter.com

About H.E.R.O. H.E.R.O. Nurturing Center (a 501 listed non-profit, website: www.heronurturingcenter.com) was founded in 2014 with a mission to heal invisible scars on an individual and societal level, to use nature as a conduit to foster healing from trauma and to provide an array of activities that promotes mindfulness and literacy in holistic living. The acronym H.E.R.O. stands for Healing, Empathy, Redemption, Oasis. These concepts are cornerstones in the process of positive change on a deep level, as personally experienced by H.E.R.O.’s founder Judith Foster.

Dynamic programming such as the Nature Healing Walks are designed to enhance one's relationship with the environment while spurring the crucial understanding of our human interconnectedness as we walk together. H.E.R.O. 's mission and work go far beyond individual healing; we tirelessly advocate for a policy change regarding the prescription of nature and equal access to nature.

H.E.R.O.’s work consists of the Accessing Nature’s Healing Program and our advocacy work. The main ingredient in the Accessing Nature’s Healing Program is the Nature Healing Walks that we organize on a regular basis, normally in the Blue Hills or at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan (see news report from 2017: https://youtu.be/p0Fds7M16IM ). The walks are based on a thoroughly crafted curriculum going through the physical, emotional and mental/spiritual aspects of healing. The walks are sometimes modified for school age children or for other reasons (as founder Judith says: There’s no “one size fits all!” - also when it comes to healing).

We organize events on-line and in person promoting the healing qualities of nature and the importance of making societal and individual changes to access these. Through our H.E.R.O.’s Hugs2Heal- and Art2Heart campaigns we emphasize togetherness, the need to care for one another and the significance of different artforms for our well-being and transformation. Some of these events take place in the Hope Garden situated on Geneva Avenue in Dorchester. The H.E.R.O. Hope garden was created in collaboration with community partners and inaugurated in 2020 (see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7DEINQhdOk&t= ).

Make Nature prescriptive Trauma is all around, on an individual and collective level. We might not see it, or want to see it, but deep down we know that there are so many invisible scars and an overall need for healing – individually and together.

Intertwined all throughout H.E.R.O.’s philosophy and work is the knowledge of Nature as the space where healing and nurturing best takes place. Nature's healing qualities are not news, it builds on old wisdom embedded in us all - and yet, our daily lives and surrounding structures are so far from it! Science proves over and over again the great health benefits of spending time in nature and yet so many people are deprived from this. H.E.R.O. considers climate justice integral to all we do and stand for. The very nature of our programming is nature itself, noticing it, being in relationship with it, respecting it. And therefore, living and promoting a way of looking after nature and each other.

H.E.R.O. is advocating for the possibility to prescribe nature, not instead of, but as a supplement to medicine. In several countries doctors are able to prescribe time in nature – so why can’t this be done here in the richest country in the world?

In these days of amplified mental and financial hardship due to Covid, climate change, climate angst and other stressors (being poor is a trauma in itself!) such a legislation couldn’t be more necessary. Spending time in nature is both a healing and resilience building activity. On a broader level, it’s also a beautiful measure to fight climate change – through connecting with nature comes a hopeful wish to care for it, to save it, to fight for clean air and green spaces. Given continuous uncertainties surrounding Covid transmission it’s even more timely to promote being outside. Nature is also – or should be! – free and doesn’t require consumption. And just like mankind is diverse, so is nature, showing us that we’re all needed and connected.