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Walking in natural surroundings can have astonishing benefits for our health - it can even help to rebuild confidence and resilience. That's why the charity Crisis is leading walks for homeless people in the spectacular settings of the Peak District National Park. Do the walks work? Mark Hillsdon went to find out...

- Mark Hillsdon

Having missed our rendezvous at Hope station in the Peak District, it takes a good 20 minutes before I catch up with the rest of my walking group. I hurry along cool green lanes, where brambles are starting to send out their first pinky white flowers, and dog roses droop over banks of ferns.

Soon the lanes open out into steep-banked drovers' trails, rough underfoot, with tall drystone walls fronted by towering purple foxgloves on either side.

Finally, I hit open countryside and the craggy beauty of the Peak District unfolds under a cloudless sky. I have also caught up with my fellow walkers.

Steve Sylvan, the walk leader, greets me with a smile. "You found us then," he says in a soft Glaswegian accent. Steve works as a progression coach for homelessness charity Crisis and is tasked with "supporting members to overcome any barriers they face in achieving their goals".

Steve is the driving force behind Wellbeing Walks, run by the charity's Sunlight Centre in South Yorkshire. The walks offer people who are homeless, or at risk of having to sleep rough, the chance to get out and enjoy the therapeutic properties of nature, in what is today dubbed a 'green prescription'.

Today, three Crisis members, as they are called, have joined a clutch of staff and three rangers from the Peak District National Park to walk the eight miles from Hope to Edale.

The walks first started in 2015, were then put on hold during various lockdowns and started up again in May 2021. Having the right kit is an issue and Steve is grateful to several outdoor clothing companies, including Mammut and Osprey, who have donated boots, rucksacks and waterproofs, which are then loaned out to members.