Feature 15 April 2026

All the right moves

From running groups to art walks, movement, public space and human connection are becoming vital infrastructures of mental health care, with grassroots groups filling the gaps left by a system in crisis

Alison Lo, FRSA

Cultural strategist, writer and curator

reading time: Six minutes

Community engagement Health and wellbeing Mental health Social connections

Summary

Run Talk Run (founded by the RSA’s Global Community Manager, Jessica Robson) and The Line’s Wellbeing Walks, created by Sarah Carrington, both offer informal environments where conversation and connection emerge through shared activity and aerobic exercise. Alison Lo, FRSA explores how grassroots initiatives are reimagining mental health support.

Photos by Derrick Wess

At 24, Londoner Jessica Robson found herself grappling with mental health challenges (including suicidal thoughts) that threatened to overwhelm her. Seeking options, she encountered two: a nine-month waiting list for an NHS therapist or paying out of pocket for private care. Neither felt viable. Out of frustration, she turned to running – not as a substitute for formal treatment, but as an activity that might offer interim relief.

The results were unexpected, to say the least. Running helped her mental state so much that, in 2017, she founded Run Talk Run, an organised running group that now has chapters across the UK and beyond.

Sarah Carrington, Director of public art trail The Line in East London, shares how her organisation landed on a similar ‘prescription’ when, in 2020, Covid swept across the globe ushering in a new era of isolation and related mental health consequences. Realising that local residents were experiencing heightened levels of anxiety, The Line launched its Wellbeing Walks programme in 2021 to encourage group activity and combat loneliness.

Today, Run Talk Run and The Line continue to reshape how mental health wellbeing is supported in everyday life. Speaking with Robson and Carrington, a shared proposition emerges: that mental balance can be cultivated through movement embedded in daily life – where connection becomes a form of care.

Shared rhythms

Run Talk Run was founded on a simple premise: that running together can make difficult conversations about mental health easier. According to Robson, shared physical rhythm diffuses intensity; silence becomes permissible, conversation less interrogative, and presence more equal.

As Robson, who is also Global Community Manager for the RSA, reflects: “It’s encouraging to see how everyone is moving forward together, despite their own difficulties.” Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Run Talk Run has grown into an international network with over 170 groups worldwide, what Robson sees as a clear response to a universal desire for non-clinical, peer-based support.

The Line’s Wellbeing Walks emerged in a different moment, but from a closely related need. “We wanted to help people return to physical activity to break out of the loneliness instigated by Covid,” Carrington explains. The programme was shaped in collaboration with advisor Christine Ohuruogu – Olympic and World Champion athlete – who was born and raised in Newham in Greater London and is passionate about the area. She believed that connecting with art and nature could contribute positively to mental health.

While walking may appear a simple act, the programme incorporates mindfulness and grounding exercises that encourage participants to slow down and observe their surroundings more closely. At this pace, reflection becomes possible. For participants, movement becomes a layered, shared experience that is both literal and perceptual.

Get involved

Learn more about Run Talk Run

Two people in matching black T-shirts and shorts are running on a paved path in a park, surrounded by greenery and trees. Both appear focused and energetic, with a few other runners visible in the background.

Beyond the clinic

Both The Line and Run Talk Run operate outside formal healthcare structures, offering alternative routes to wellbeing. Working with social prescribing link workers (also known as ‘community connectors’) and local GPs – while remaining open to self-referrals – The Line’s wellbeing walks are promoted within local health networks as an option for people experiencing stress, anxiety or recovery from illness or injury. Link workers are a critical part of these systems, as they connect individuals to community-based, non-medical support (volunteering, for example, and groups tailored to different hobbies and interests such as gardening or the arts) all to improve health and wellbeing.

“There are serious structural healthcare inequalities in Tower Hamlets and Newham, the two principal boroughs our Wellbeing Walks serve,” Carrington notes. Even so, she emphasises, “We are not replacing formal treatment, but creating space for social connection and confidence, so people can move through life with greater ease.”

Robson similarly frames Run Talk Run as complementary to clinical care. For many participants, the informality of meeting through movement removes the stigma often attached to mental health spaces.

“Run Talk Run works hand in hand with treatment and addresses the needs that are unmet by the formal healthcare system,” she says. “It offers a relaxed way to talk about mental health, even about clinical experiences. Secondly, we signpost running and talking as potential outlets to relieve their mental strains. Last but not least, safeguarding sits at the heart of our work – we protect vulnerable participants and look out for warning signs.”

Moved to connect

Run Talk Run centres connection on the relational – listening while moving or simply being present for one another. Robson speaks passionately about attention as something cultivated between people, and how self-worth can grow through caring for others.

“I used to suffer from social anxiety,” she recalls. “For the first six months I started Run Talk Run, I hesitated to walk to the meeting point – I was shaking. But I decided that if I couldn’t live for myself, I would still live for other people. Showing up for someone else gave me confidence and a sense of purpose.”

The Line’s Wellbeing Walks extend that connection outward. The walkers experience public art, landscape, biodiversity and local history as companions along the route, as well as catalysts for conversation. Participants often describe the walks as places to breathe, feel grounded and reconnect with both self and surroundings.

“Instead of starting with ‘How are you today?’,” Carrington observes, “conversations are inspired by what people notice – opening new ways to connect with art, nature and each other.”

I hesitated to walk to the meeting point – I was shaking. But I decided that if I couldn’t live for myself, I would still live for other people. Showing up for someone else gave me confidence and a sense of purpose

Jessica Robson

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Anxiety to empowerment

A defining feature of both initiatives is their participatory structure, allowing leadership to emerge in response to anxieties that surface differently across generations. At The Line, youth empowerment has been embedded in Wellbeing Walks from inception. Young people are recruited and trained each summer as youth guides, developing employability skills while supporting the programme.

“Our participants often include people at or beyond retirement age,” Carrington notes. “The presence of youth guides creates meaningful exchange across age groups.”

Robson similarly observes how different generations arrive at Run Talk Run carrying distinct anxieties – from bereavement and ageing to financial pressures, to questions around identity and belonging. Somehow, the shared movement transforms these tensions into confidence and connection.

“About half of our run leaders started as participants,” Robson explains. “As their confidence grew, they wanted to take ownership. Seeing that transition is magical.”

There are serious structural healthcare inequalities in Tower Hamlets and Newham… We are not replacing formal treatment, but creating space for social connection and confidence, so people can move through life with greater ease

Sarah Carrington

Circular support

Robson reflects on how attitudes towards mental health have shifted since Run Talk Run began. In 2017, she remembers, people were far more guarded; Covid accelerated a broader willingness to acknowledge vulnerability. “There’s been a big shift in me too,” she admits. “I’m much clearer about who I am and what matters. Run Talk Run supports me as much as I support it – it’s a circle.”

At The Line, impact is often expressed through personal stories. Carrington recalls participants describing the walks as lifelines after bereavement, confidence-builders for navigating the city, or ways of transforming familiar routes through encounters with art. “The walks truly reflect our mission – democratising access to art while supporting wellbeing,” she says.

London is often described as one of the loneliest cities in the world. Yet its streets, waterways and public spaces hold untapped potential for connection. Taken together, these and similar initiatives point towards a broader reimagining of urban life – one in which mental wellbeing is supported not only through services and systems, but through how public space is activated and shared.

As Robson reflects, “We don’t need qualifications in mental health to care for one another. Human beings are designed to be a community.”

A group of women walk and talk along a riverside path, passing under a colourful archway. Modern buildings and cranes are visible across the water, and the image has a light blue border.

Alison Lo, FRSA is a freelance cultural strategist, writer and curator; she currently holds positions as Independent Advisor at Schoeni Projects and Curator at Rosetti Firmenich Art Advisory. She is also part of the Oxford Cultural Leaders alumni network.

Derrick Wess is a London-based photographer who captures natural, authentic, storytelling moments with compelling people.

Knowledge grows when shared.

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