Wirral Forest: Wellbeing CIC is a community-led organisation providing free, inclusive, nature-based wellbeing walks across Wirral.

We exist because many people experience anxiety, isolation, grief, caring pressures, long-term health conditions, financial stress, or low confidence without feeling able to access traditional support services. Some do not meet clinical thresholds; others find formal systems overwhelming or feel they simply do not belong within them.

Our response is intentionally simple.

We create calm, welcoming walking spaces where people can reconnect with themselves, others, and the natural spaces around them — without pressure, labels, or expectations.

  We do not focus on quick fixes or short-term interventions. Our work is based on:

• consistency 
• trust 
• repeated contact 
• and community connection over time 

People can:

• attend without referral 
• come quietly 
• join when ready 
• return as often as they need 
• take part in their own way 

Conversation is always optional. Some people come for connection. Some come for routine. Some come simply to walk beside others without feeling alone.
 

Our work is guided by the Five Ways to Wellbeing:

• Connect 
• Be Active 
• Take Notice 
• Keep Learning 
• Give 

Not as techniques to teach, but as experiences that naturally emerge through walking together in local parks, shorelines, woodlands, and community spaces. 

We focus on gradual, meaningful change rather than rapid outcomes.

The people who walk with us often describe:

• feeling calmer 
• reconnecting socially 
• rebuilding confidence 
• regaining routine 
• feeling accepted without pressure or judgement 

These changes are often quiet and slow — but deeply important.

• 587 attendances across well-being walks during 2025 
• 66% year-on-year growth through repeat attendance and trust 
• Regular participation across weekly walks 
• Open-access support with no referral required 
• Strong partnership working with community organisations and social prescribers.

One community member has walked with us for over 18 months while living with long-term anxiety linked to difficult workplace experiences.

He attends quietly and without pressure. Some weeks he talks openly; other weeks he walks silently beside others. He describes the walks as one of the few spaces where he feels able to relax without expectation.

An autistic young man began attending walks during a period of isolation and frustration. Over time, regular attendance helped him reconnect socially and gradually rebuild confidence.

Since joining the walks, he has completed work-related training and started developing his own business ideas, supported informally through relationships built within the walking community.

A participant attending after bereavement described the walks as “a place where I didn’t have to explain myself.”

Through regular walking, gentle conversation, and familiar routines, they slowly regained confidence in being around other people again.