“We are delighted to announce that we recently received a COVID-19 grant of £24,048 from the National Lottery’s Reaching Community Fund to support the additional work that we are offering during this period of global pandemic. Many of our programmes have moved online to match the guidelines of social distancing, and we have successfully launched a new online Recovery Retreat programme. Our programmes and work with addiction recovery are now more widely available regardless of geographical location. Our latest online retreat ran in early October and our next one is scheduled for January 2021.”
The last 6 months of Write to Freedom…
As of March 2020 we moved all of our programmes into online support to fit in with the regulations around COVID-19, both for previous and new participants.
Since then we have been running fortnightly online community groups, as well as a 6 month long training in our ‘Creative Pathways to Healing and Meaning’ programme, which often saw 15-18 committed and active participants. We have also been running standalone training and education events with guest speakers.
In June we ran our first 2-day online Recovery Retreat, which saw 14 participants and 9 volunteers attend, to be followed by one in early October, and another in January 2020.
“I felt held and supported even though it was a digital gathering. In some real life circles I participated in, I have not felt this level of intimacy and trust. Everybody was heard and included. This experience gave me a good reminder that things don’t have to be complicated in recovery. Connection to people and nature, creativity and mindfulness - nothing more is needed.”
In conjunction with each retreat, we run a series of introductory and integration events for new participants, as well as ongoing and regular support for those engaged in our leadership development programme that volunteer on retreats. In July, fitting in with the appropriate social distancing guidelines we returned to our in person monthly Mentoring Days for those participants who have already been through our programmes.
There have been significant challenges in needing to adapt our programmes to meet the current global pandemic situation, and our staff and volunteer teams have fully stepped up to meet these challenges with energy and enthusiasm to create online programmes that are inclusive, relevant, engaging and connecting.
Long time participant Ali Chapman celebrates the stepping up of the community in this way in a recent blog post. Click here to read it.
In early September our creative recovery team released their second short film, To Know the Difference. It is about the choices we make and the paths we take and was produced by a mixture of industry professionals and individuals in established addiction recovery.
Following on from our award winning first short film, We Seek the Teeth, To Know the Difference explores the inspiring recovery journey of W2F participant and trainee leader, Laura Hamlyn. Following Laura's own words as she moves through the landscape of Dartmoor, this compelling, intimate, short film explores the three pillars of Write to Freedom's recovery ethos - nature connection, creative expression and the mindful life.
If you haven’t already seen either of our 2 short films (and even if you have!), have a watch here…
To match the shift in our programme delivery we have done some significant development on our website, reflecting the new programme but also adding in more engaging and interactive elements. We have a new log in section with resources and updates for those who have been through our programmes, and hopefully you have noticed the lovely visual revamp on our main news page.