The aim of Wild Oak CIC is to provide affordable counselling, mentoring and ecotherapy for people in South Devon, but with a specific focus on supporting men.

Tragically, men currently commit suicide at a rate of 13 per day in the UK; a figure that’s three times higher than it is for women. Many areas of South Devon experience significant levels of rural poverty; meaning that many men are not in a position to access desperately needed mental health support outside of the context of what NHS primary services are able to offer; with long waiting lists etc.

The Wellspring, our flagship programme, provides opportunities for local men to access mental health support through a number of different services; with a primary focus on health and wellbeing in nature.

This year we are delivering the first phase of our co-mentoring programme which will provide training and support for a group of men to become not only mentors for one another, but also experienced volunteer mentors for other men who will be supported in further phases of the programme.

We are also establishing a low cost counselling service for men as part of the Buckfastleigh Health Hub project at the Moor Imagination Centre in Buckfastleigh.

Men’s Movie Club is a collaboration with Totnes Cinema that features films that challenge and explore masculine narratives and identities and their relevance to our every day lives. At the same time as enjoying some brilliant movies together, we aim to disentangle the ways in which stereotypical male identities are represented and reinforced in popular movies, as well as showcasing movies from the fringes that challenge these stereotypes and explore different ways of understanding masculinity.