What is Recovery Through Nature?
Recovery Through Nature is a recovery programme that uses nature and conservation as a catalyst to recovery. The project forms into a therapeutic community offering a safe and tangible learning experience that is supported by all those who access the project, in other words, the team become the method of support for each other and this is achieved in an outdoor conservation setting.
We do everything from growing our own health and delicious fruit and veg to solar power and water harvest projects, to building wildlife habitats.
It Takes Tree in Scotland
Several team members from our Derbyshire RTN team went to Glenlude on the Scottish Borders. The team, made up of staff, volunteers and service users, met up with an RTN team from Fife and the John Muir Trust.
Each year around April, Phoenix come together for an annual tree plant in the Phoenix Forest that has been growing at the rate of 250 trees per year in the Scottish Borders. Phoenix plant a tree for every person who has successfully completed treatment in community or residential services.
The forest needs to be tended to ensure the forest grows and populates the hillsides of the John Muir site at Glenlude. Sadly, being October, the weather became too inclement for the teams to safely go out onto Hillside, therefore the teams helped support the upcoming tree plant by making tree protection sets and building brash fences to keep deer out of the tree tree nurseries, which grow the saplings thatare planted to create the forests. All came together to share some inspirational stories of recovery and the odd Ghost story around the fire at the wild campsite. It was great experience for all.
Giant Sequoia at RTN
The Great reserve is on a mission to plant andprotect the planet’s most powerful carboncapture tree, The Giant Sequoia. The RTNproject at Shipley Park have jumped onboardwith this great project in our quest to supportthe reduction of carbon in our environment. Wereceived some seeds from the great reserve andhave to date managed to produce around 200giant sequoia saplings.
The Great Reserve hopes to establish a UK forest network of 100,000 Giant Sequoias, a climate safe haven for the trees and a legacy for future generations.
Giant Sequoia numbers are in sharp decline(10% per annum) in their native US habitat with only 75,000 remaining in 2021.
They also plant three native UK species for every Sequoia to promote biodiversity.
The Giant Sequoia are not the easiest tree to grow, although at the Shipley Park project we have managed to produce around 200 saplints. We expect that some of these may fall foul to several potential problems although every effort is being made to prevent this, including sending our trees to other sites to hopefully allow some to survive if one area is hit by a problem.
The whole project has been a great learning opportunity for our RTN team and we are even looking at how we document our work so it will survive the 3,000-year life span of the Giant Sequoia, one option is to use binary code to document things.
My Words
I've pretty much lived with alcoholism for all my teenage years and adult life. Even having a very near-death experience in my late 20s wasn't enough for me to quit. At the age of 50 I finally owned my addiction and sought help through the Phoenix Derbyshire Recovery Partnership. Successful key working, counselling and prescribing let me to join Recovery Through Nature.
RTN got me out of my detrimental housebound slump. Problems, which I thought were exclusively my own and to be battled alone, were not. I met people of all ages and from all walks of life - we all had a common theme; addiction. I could finally be open and be myself with absolutely no judgement within a friendly and supportive environment. Not to mention the beautifully serene and calm surroundings.
As an 'uneducated' person with very limited knowledge of nature, with thanks to RTN's onsite training I managed to achieve a Certificate in Horticulture qualification. I am currently supported by RTN in working towards a Diploma in Horticulture.
I can now see a future for myself, a bright, alcohol-free future, with the hope of gaining employment within the horticulture industry.
I am sure that with the support from my RTN family and friends, I will not only be successful in my future career, but will have successfully kicked my alcohol addiction once and for all.
CL
Broomfield College
A recent development with Broomfield College of Horticulture and Agriculture means that we now offer all who attend RTN the opportunity to obtain City and Guilds qualifications in Horticulture.
The initial qualification is at Level One and is an access qualification, which means once it is obtained, people can go on to higher levels in so many subjects from horticulture to forest management.
We have even managed to have these qualifications conducted at our Shipley Park site, which is an amazing opportunity for all involved.
From RTN To Employment - by Jacob
The Recovery Through Nature programme, is an excellent medium through which people suffering with addiction problems can work towards a collective and collaborative goal of
abstinence; whether this be through engaging with the many sustainability - based projects on offer, (e.g. wilding, planting, conservation etc.) or by simply having an area where people can freely and openly express their feelings without judgement. I can’t describe enough how much this has positively impacted my life from two years ago.
From being a disinterested, hateful, and heavily self- loathing individual who saw no way out of the dark, depraved, and disgusting place I found myself in, the RTN project has enabled me to rediscover a vibrant, confident, and appreciative version of myself – one that thrives on providing counsel and guidance for others, so they too can try and rediscover a love and
desire within life itself.
However, I will admit, for me personally,the journey to now has not been easy – I won’t sugar-coat it! To begin with, I wasincredibly apprehensive about the wholeproject, constantly finding ways to avoid attending it, because it was out of my then-perceived comfort zone. Meeting new people?! Outside, no matter the weather?! Being in nature?! Good one, but no thanks. These genuine first thoughts were something that plagued me to begin with,as I wasn’t ready to take self-control of my addiction, being alcohol and cocaine, and instead kept reverting back to old behaviours and patterns that were incredibly self-destructive.
I had to change. I had to have someone, individual or collectively, believe that I was worth something.
Thankfully, and eventually, this occurred. As I more openly expressed my struggles and demons, realising not everyone is out to cause harm, and engaged more collaboratively with ongoing projects, something changed. I became more positive, more aware, and more confident as a result.
I wasn't the demonic being I had painted myself out to be. Instead, people saw me as a thoughtful and caring individual whose own struggle was authentically real and therefore aimed to guide me to see this for myself.
Admittedly these demons do affect me every day. I'd be outright lying if I expressed that it all becomes easy overnight - it doesn't However, by slowly altering my perceptions towards other people and the RTN project, I was able to understand the importance of it in my recovery. I accredit and owe everything that I am now in this stage of my recovery to it.
To anyone who may be unsure about the project, from my experience, just give it a go.
I understand completely the anxieties and dissuasions that will evidently try and steer you away from it, I experienced them myself. Despite this, everyone was more than welcome and fully willing to embrace myself as they have done for countless others. This selflessness intertwined within community is really what inspired me to then try and pursue a volunteering role.
It wasn’t something I had even considered at that point. Again, I thought there was no way I’d be good enough. I can barely understand how to plant a seed, let alone have responsibility and care for others. Despite this, I continued attending RTN as my authentic self, showcasing my shortcomings in group conversation, whereby others could offer their opinions and beliefs, highlighting their own struggles too. Consistently engaging with other service-users, with new-found confidence and empathy, from a place of genuine concern, encouraged those who ran the project, Mark and Sean, to suggest the idea of volunteering too me.
Again, initially, I wasvery self-doubting and jovially dismissive. But they persisted and believed in my skills assomeone who could have a positive impact on the RTN project in helping others become more accepting and confident. Their reassurance provided me that belief inmyself and my capabilities to progress.
I can’t emphasise enough how much that means for me, and again, how impact being involved within a ‘Therapeutic Community’ is for someone who regularly battles with their own demons and abstinence.
RTN is a space where no prejudice about one’s past is exposed thus emphasising a safe collective environment, where people can create new relationships and engage with
new projects to support their own recovery.
Consequently, it enables people, me included, a foundation from which they can personally and also occupationally advance. As a result of the RTN project and the immense support
offered from it, I am currently applying for a trainee role as a key worker to provide aid and counsel more pertinently to those suffering with addiction. Honestly, this career is something I never considered possible because of my own negative self-perception; I pained myself as a dark and uncontrollable wreck against a backdrop of light and positivity.
However, through relentless empathy and belief from others, with my own growing self-confidence sprinkled in for good measure, I now realise that I can use my own experiences of that same darkness and hatred within addiction, to be the light and hope that others want for themselves.
Recovery Through Nature in the News - The Derbyshire nature project nurturing people back from addiction
Composting has always been a big thing with people gardening and more so now with the
issues around climate change.
Compost containing peat has been seen to be a big contributor to climate issues.
More and more gardeners have moved away from peat.
That’s great but the fact remains that peat as a necessary organic matter in compost was amazing. So what do we do about this issue?
Over at Shipley Park the solution was obvious -
let's build an experimental composting centre so we can try different more environmentally friendly compost mixes and see what does best.
The idea is we make mixes such as sheep wool, cardboard, green waste etc and see what fares better with some control experiments growing several batches of the same veg or fruit.
To help us mix this some of the team have put together an amazing compost mixer to aid the process.
If you would like to join an RTN team, speak with your keyworker today. We have sites at Shipley Country Park, which is the mothership of our projects in Derbyshire, offering a range of conservation activities from growing fresh fruit and veg to water harvesting, experimental composting, solar power and alternate power projects and hedge laying to name a few; Stand Road, Chesterfield, which is a double allotment site offering a great opportunity to be involved in self-suistained veg and fruit growing, and no-dig growing as well as standard practices.
We are also involved in the "adopt a station" project with Chesterfield and Ilkeston Railway Stations.
This is real visible recovery at its best, as we are not only making our surroundings at the station look great, we are developing skills and showing people that we matter.
Coming in December is a new RTN project in Buxton, which will offer conservation-based activity as well as the growing of fruit and veg.
The best thing about an RTN project is the community that attends as together we are strong, and together we make a difference in your recovery.
Don't forget that at all our sites, you can be involved in obtaining a Level One City and Guilds in horticulture. You can also obtain our prestigious conservation awards.
If you need support getting to a project, please speak with one of our recovery connectors.
We are often looking for volunteers to help support our project leads. If you think you may have the skills to support our projects and the people we serve, please check Phoenix Futures' careers page.