By Ali Chapman.
I was invited to apply for a place on a Write to Freedom residential in 2016, not long after my 14 weeks in rehab after 31 years of alcohol addiction. I didn’t know what to expect, but was keen to try everything and anything. Over the ensuing three days I was introduced to nature immersion, story, myth, journaling, poetry and mindfulness. For the first time in many years I regained a great connection with the land, myself and the community of people I was with. I began to trust. A little at first. This beginning allowed me to start believing in myself, and that I had a new community of people that kept their word. Over the last 4 years, Write to Freedom has become my other family. I have grown up with it, rekindled my love of nature, and found my purpose, in sharing this passion with others. It has supported me through all the tricky times in recovery when I have had to look at the gnarly sides of my behaviours and actions. Unlike other recovery experiences I have had, Write to Freedom continues to offer new areas for growth and development.
Through 2020 we were due to run a series of residentials on Dartmoor, which were cancelled due to Covid-19.
As a community we were already meeting regularly online, but there was a great impetus to still reach out to new people in recovery, but how? We were guided by the staff at Write to Freedom to consider if we could offer an immersive retreat online, recreating as much as we could of our life-changing residentials.
As soon as that seed was sown, the community worked closer and more diligently than I have ever seen. Within a month, with the guidance of the charity’s creative director Caspar Walsh, we had created a totally unique online programme. Each volunteer chose to work in one area, either nature connection, creativity, or mindfulness. They then developed that part of the programme, practiced and refined their workshop ideas with the rest of the team, before delivering live to the participants of the retreat. You could feel the passion, commitment and enthusiasm. We also had a team that focused on publicising the retreat, as it felt so important in a time of isolation to connect as many people with our work as possible.
This event took place on June 13th/ 14th, with 9 volunteers and 2 staff members. 12 participants attended, from all over the UK and into Europe.
I want to celebrate the 262 hours that were volunteered by the 9 volunteers over that month. I have never felt such a sense of pride for my Write to Freedom family! Off the back of this success, we are repeating our online retreat again this October.