Nature Heals Eco-Therapy educational program

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  Since launching our Nature Heals Eco-Therapy program, we have helped different populations, including tens of thousands of Israelis from the entire spectrum of society including: 

• Over 60,000 Israelis from displaced communities participated in free eco-therapy nature tours and activities at SPNI’s Eilat Bird Center and Gazelle Valley Park in Jerusalem, connecting them to nature’s healing power and giving them a break from the confined surroundings of their hotels.
• Over 2,000 displaced youth from communities in the Western Negev and North participated in our 3-day eco-therapy wilderness camps and shorter activities, helping relieve their stress, anxiety, and depression.
• Over 10,000 Israelis (who were not displaced but traumatized) have received respite from anxiety, stress, and depression from free in-person eco-therapy activities nationwide. This included two weeks of peak programming during the Chanukah and Passover holidays, with 2,000 Israelis participating.
• Partnering with mainstream organizations and organizing bus tours to provide eco-therapy activities to entire families.
• 2,500 participants joined our family-friendly eco-therapy activities for families at no cost. They received eco-therapy support and respite from the strains of lone-parenting during the longest period of time where part of the family were absent. 
• Over 30,000 Israelis viewed one of our online eco-therapy programs in the first months since October 2023.

After nearly a year since October 2023, Israeli society is still in the midst of a traumatic experience at both a collective and individual level. According to the Director of Mental Health Services for Israel’s Health Ministry, Dr. Gilad Bodenheimer, Israel needs innovative solutions and non-pharmacological methodologies to help support potentially millions of people. 

Over the last year, SPNI’s Nature Heals eco-therapy has proven itself to be one of these solutions, providing respite and now resilience to those suffering from the symptoms of post-traumatic stress: anxiety, depression, sleeplessness.

Nature Heals is making a difference. It is endorsed by the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians and supported by the Israeli government.

Our program evaluation reported that 97% of participating youth said it helped reduce their anxiety with 98% of parents also answering it was a significant experience for their child. 

Unfortunately, Israel’s mental health crisis shows no sign of abating. We need your help to sustain our Nature Heals eco-therapy program throughout 2025. Your help will help us reach our goal of providing eco-therapy to 50,000 Israelis over the next year. 

STATEMENT OF NEED

Israeli society has undergone and is still experiencing a collective trauma caused by the October 7 attacks. One month after the attacks, one in three Israelis exhibited symptoms of PTSD[i]. Half of people surveyed by Maccabi [one of Israel’s four major health providers] said their emotional health declined as a result of the horrific events of October 7, with an increase of over 30% in diagnoses of anxiety and depression made by mental healthcare professionals[ii]. 

A report estimates that over half a million Israelis are expected to develop PTSD from this societal and generational trauma[iii]and cost the economy $5 billion over the next five years[iv]. 

Reacting to the Ministry of Health’s call for non-pharmacological methodologies to support people at this time, we developed the Nature Heals eco-therapy program. Many studies have proven that eco-therapy is one of the most effective non-pharmacological treatments for people in distress[v]. 

Eco-therapy educational program can take several forms, but one of the most effective is spending time in nature, whether hiking, birdwatching or community nature projects. It is both obvious to SPNI, as well as scientifically proven, that being in nature has a positive impact on people suffering from depression and anxiety,[vi]as spending time in green spaces significantly reduces the body’s production of cortisol, a stress hormone, and boosts endorphin levels and dopamine production, which promote happiness[vii]. 

Our Nature Heals eco-therapy program has been inspired by initiatives in the U.S. and Canada, where doctors can prescribe their patients free passes to State and Provincial Parks as part of their mental health treatment plans[viii].

After a year, Israeli society is still experiencing ongoing trauma. Experts project it could take another year to make any conclusion to reach a post-traumatic period. While the trauma is present, they recommend that the most effective treatments for the vast majority of Israelis are experiential rather than verbal, focused on respite and building resilience rather than rehabilitation. 

Based on this advice, Nature Heals has been envisioned to have three distinct phases of programs to meet society’s current needs. These are:

1. Respite

2. Resilience

3. Rehabilitation

While we continue to offer respite activities to the general public and displaced families, this year, we are launching new resilience-building programs focused on youth. We are beginning to design appropriate rehabilitation initiatives to help communities and regions that need to rebuild. 

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

PROGRAM GOALS

• To promote through the Ministry of Health, medical and mental health professional associations and trauma NGOs eco-therapy educational programs as part of a multi-tiered national response to Israel’s mental health crisis.
• To promote these programs to the widest possible Israeli audience.
• To strengthen Israelis’ mental resilience and reduce their immediate feelings of      depression, anxiety and stress through eco-therapy.
• To empower local citizens to utilize nature-based solutions to rebuild sustainable and resilient communities

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

• Eco-therapy will be officially recognized by the Ministry of Health as a mental health treatment in the next two years. 
• Israeli government, medical and mental health professional associations and trauma NGOs are partners, sponsors or public endorsers of this program.
• Participants will report feeling better or having other mental or physical health benefits after participating.
• SPNI will publicize this program through its extensive marketing lists and PR channels.
• Over 25,000 Israelis will be served by Nature Heals during 2025

TARGET AUDIENCE, LOCATION AND TIMELINE

Survivors of the October of 2023 and subsequent war who were evacuated and have since returned to their communities.

Residents of northern communities whose homes remain unsafe to return to. 

Israelis of all ages and backgrounds, religious and secular, from all ethnic backgrounds, including Jewish and Arab, around the country who are suffering from anxiety, stress, and depression will also be served. 

Our ability to create programming specific to the needs of Israel’s diverse society is dependent on funding levels. Different activities are targeted to the needs of varying age groups. These include school-aged children, older teens, university students, young professionals, families with children, and retirees.

All outdoor activities are held according to the instructions of Israel’s Homefront Command and the Ministry of Education’s Situation Room for field trips operated by SPNI. 

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES

ECO-THERAPY Educational PROGRAMS FOR THE ISRAELI PUBLIC

We will continue to offer short, but effective, guided tours at no and low cost nationwide for hundreds of Israelis every weekend. These are led by SPNI’s experienced guides who with their knowledge of Israel’s nature and environment can maximize the benefit participants gain from these experiences. 

Examples of activities that we will be offering include:

• Walking tours and activities in Jerusalem’s Gazelle Valley
• Birdwatching and guided tours of SPNI’s wetlands at Kibbutz Maagan Michael along the Carmel coast
• Guided hikes in Ein Gedi
• Night-time lantern tours at Nahal Shachmon near Eilat
• Live bird ringing demonstrations at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory
• Guided birdwatching in the Beer Sheva Park
• Birdwatching and guided tours at the International Bird Research Center Eilat

Additionally, we plan to organize five peak activity weeks during 2025. Three of these will take place during the Jewish festivals of Passover, Succot and Chanukah when schools are closed. Additionally two themed weeks promoting local nature sites and the annual bird migration will also take place. Each of these weeks will be widely promoted with different activities offered across Israel according to the instructions of Homefront Command.

RESILIENCE JOURNEYS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This four-day experience builds upon the success of our three-day Wilderness Camps to strengthen teenagers’ mental resilience and self-identity. The program was created with Israel’s leading wilderness education expert, Dr Yael. Avrahami, a Senior Lecture at the Oranim: Academic College of Education. During this intense program, youth will be equipped with emotional and social tools to not only bounce back from this trauma but able to bounce forward with the ability to imagine and create a brighter future for themselves and their communities. 

Resilience Journeys are organized through High Schools to help participants prepare and process this experience.

The Resilience Journeys program is built around the following six core principles of Social and Emotional Learning to promote a growth mindset. These are:

1. Pushing boundaries 
2. Active participation 
3. Challenges and choice 
4. Open Discourse 
5. Rituals
6. Processing the Experience

Resilience Journeys empowers participants through challenging outdoor activities like physically demanding hikes, which require teens to tap into unknown inner reserves and breathtaking views to trigger feelings of pure joy. Participants are also responsible for setting up their camps and preparing their meals, returning a sense of agency and control to them. 

To help the group process their experience, we have integrated doco-education into the program. With the help of Dr. Ohad Ofaz, one of Israel’s leading documentary makers, each group will receive instruction on filming and editing their experience. Each group is given a camera and various interview prompts, with participants taking turns both filming and being on film. Following the Resilience Journey, each group will edit their footage into a 15-minute film, helping them reflect on and share what they have gained from their Resilience Journey. 

We have already raised the funds required for fund 25 Resilience Journeys during the 2024/5 academic year. We are now raising funds to organize 35 Resilience Journeys during the 2025/6 academic year.

PROMOTING ECO-THERAPY EDUCATIONAL Programs AS A MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

Multiple international studies have proven the health effects of eco-therapy. We will continue to promote eco-therapy and its benefits to the government and medical professionals, with the goal of having the Ministry of Health recognize it as an official treatment. This will enable Israeli doctors to prescribe eco-therapy to their patients as part of their Mental Health plan, replicating programs in the US and Canada.

To achieve this, we plan to work strategically with different stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health, publish a literature review of international studies about the effectiveness of eco-therapy, promote it among decision-makers, medical professionals and the media, and hold a professional conference on eco-therapy for Israeli medical professionals.

REHABILITATION: DEVELOPING THE THIRD STAGE OF NATURE HEALS

The third phase of the Nature Heals eco-therapy is rehabilitation of devastated communities on the social and physical level. Our goal is to empower residents to have an active voice in their communities’ rehabilitation process able to use nature’s healing power to make them more resilient and sustainable, as well as create new communal spaces where residents can go to breathe in nature.

Additionally, with residents displaced from their homes we will develop programs to emotionally reconnect different target audiences with their communities and local areas to help strengthen Israel’s periphery.

EVALUATION

Nature Heals will be evaluated based on the aforementioned measurable goals and objectives as well as through qualitative and quantitative feedback from participants and other stakeholders. 

During the respite phase of Nature Israel, our flagship program for youth was three-day Wilderness Camps for Displaced Teens. Over 2,000 teens from 15 different municipalities and regional councils participated in these activities. With the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, we developed an evaluative framework to understand its impact. The results were:

However, we were able to implement a formal evaluative framework for our Nature Heals’ educational program flagship youth program, our Wilderness Camps for Displaced Youth, that found:

• 97% of participants said the wilderness camps reduced their anxiety and stress.
• 75% of parents said the Wilderness Camp experience reduced their child’s anxiety and stress 
• 98% of parents responded that they think it is important to send their children to other eco-therapy activities

PROJECTED PROGRAM BUDGET FOR 2025

The following budget is based on our projections of the scope of our current program and funds raised to date for the 2024 calendar year. If only some of the funds are received, programs can be run at reduced frequency or with fewer people. 

The components of Nature Heals will continue to evolve according to current events as we develop new eco-therapy approaches tailored to the needs of different audiences and longer-term programs. 

Since launching the program in 2023 we have raised over $1,160,000 from foundations and private donors including the Israeli Government, the Jewish Federations of North America Emergency Fund, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Gottesman Fund, the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, the Azrieli Foundation, Bank Hapoalim and hundreds of Israeli and international private donors.

The full program budget follows on the next page.

References

[i]https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-03/ty-article/.premium/study-one-in-three-israelis-exhibits-ptsd-symptoms-a-month-after-hamas-deadly-attack/0000018c-2f74-dc03-a9ec-3f7f185a0000

[ii] Israelis' physical, emotional health has deteriorated significantly since Oct. 7 -- survey | The Times of Israel

[iii] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.25.24303235v1.full

[iv] https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/mind-and-spirit/article-812999

[v] Turunen AW, Halonen J, Korpela K, et al Cross-sectional associations of different types of nature exposure with psychotropic, antihypertensive and asthma medication. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2023; 80:111-118.

[vi] Craft & perner (2004) footnote Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry. 2004; 6(3): 104–111

[vii] Meredith GR, Rakow DA, Eldermire ERB, Madsen CG, Shelley SP, Sachs NA. Minimum Time Dose in Nature to Positively Impact the Mental Health of College-Aged Students, and How to Measure It: A Scoping Review. Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 14;10:2942. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02942. PMID: 31993007; PMCID: PMC6970969.

[viii] Nguyen PY, Astell-Burt T, Rahimi-Ardabili H, Feng X. Effect of nature prescriptions on cardiometabolic and mental health, and physical activity: a systematic review. Lancet Planet Health. 2023 Apr;7(4):e313-e328. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00025-6. PMID: 37019572.