Helen Fairest

Helen is the co-founder and co-ordinator of Bramblewood CIC, which is now in it’s sixth year.  In that short time the project has expanded from a Forest School on Saturdays to becoming a community hub in the centre of Worcester city running many health and well-being programmes for various groups of adults, young people and children. It is now seen as a ‘breathing’ space for both the wild and various local human communities in the city.

She is a trained Forest School leader and running Forest School for groups since 2012.  Helen also is a Wellbeing in Nature practitioner level 3.  Helen has worked in informal education for 35 years, in residential summer camps and training for the charity Active Training and Education and is the lead trainer for the Summer Camps Trust.  Starting out in the NHS as a speech and language specialist, Helen has worked with a range of children and adults with various communication difficulties and adults with learning difficulties.  She has delivered training for acute hospitals to help improve access and services for people with learning disability.

As well as a passion for play, building shelters and compost toilets, she loves all things non-human, especially beetles, ash trees, and teasels. Helen has been a pioneer in the region for Bramblewood’s own brand of consent based learning  –  an underlying ethos for ALL the communities that Bramblewood holds – where people can be themselves within an accepting, invitational diverse place and space.