Children’s charity expands its reach with new centre

Dandelion Time sets up base in Bethersden

Children who have experienced trauma or abuse are being offered a lifeline with the opening of a new centre where nature is the healer.

Dandelion Time is expanding its service for the first time since its foundation in 2003, when the Kent-based charity was set up by Dr Caroline Jessel, a GP desperate to help troubled youngsters without reaching for the prescription pad.

She wanted to harness the therapeutic power of the outdoors to help children who had become angry, anxious or depressed because of a turbulent childhood.

Dr Jessel, a GP at Sutton Valence surgery at the time, was influenced by her own childhood spent outdoors working on a farm, which she said gave her a “deep-seated connection with nature”, that had helped her in her own life.

The first Dandelion Time centre opened in West Farleigh,

Maidstone, in 2003 and this month a new centre has been opened in Bethersden.

Spokeswoman Jess Kingston-Stewart said: “We needed a centre to serve east Kent as it’s difficult for families to travel from that part of the county to Maidstone and there was a demand for our services in and around Ashford where there are also deprived areas.”

A tiny charity, with a 20-strong team of staff, the centre is operating out of Bethersden scout hut, initially for just one day a week, but has already started to help families in need.

The centres are places of calm where parents or adoptive mums and dads can cook together, spend time in nature and care for a menagerie of animals such as guinea pigs, donkeys and chickens.

Problems range from difficult family relationships and school exclusions to the horrors of domestic violence or sexual abuse but the nature-based programme is the same.

Families are supported by a team of highly-trained therapists in the journey to recovery,

In Bethersden, the charity has purchased a field opposite the scout hut, where there’s a woodworking den, stone seating area, pergola, rope walk and willow coppices, from which families can make willow wreaths together.

There’s even a pizza oven for outdoor cooking. The features have been installed by 100 hard-working volunteers from Kimberly-Clark.

Dandelion Time helps children from the ages of five to 12 years old.

Nature cure is offered at the new Dandelion Time centre in Bethersden, as this picture posed by a model shows

Dr Caroline Jessel formed Dandelion Time