We are Volunteers, Peer Mentors and Service Users of the
Together service who have all had a history of drug and/or alcohol
addiction.  Many of us have been injecting drug users, homeless, committed crimes, hurt our family and friends, impacted on our children and overall not been upstanding members of our local communities in Devon. However, we have been fortunate enough to have the support we needed to turn our lives around and stop these behaviours and become the people we were always meant to be. We have had a variety of support from Recovery Work Sessions, Prescriptions and Residential Rehab but one of the main aspects that has had has the biggest impact has been connecting with others, activity and the outdoors. Flourish in Nature has been a project that has kept us all sane during lock-down, the simple act of being able to do something active, in the fresh air with people of a similar  background has been the reason many of us are still abstinent and our mental health is still strong, and now we want to give back.

For people in active addiction and early recovery, like ourselves, it is vital to understand that recovery is far more than giving up a  substance. It’s about learning to live, rather than to just simply exist. Reducing or stopping substances leaves a huge void in your life and so it is vital to find somewhere you feel at home and safe, build new positive relationships, find hobbies and things you are passionate about and overall feel you have a sense of purpose and place within this new world. As you can imagine, it is common that we do not have the funds to make these things happen. We want to register for courses, improve our mental and physical health and create a more
sustainable and enjoyable recovery but we simply do not have the money to so.

Which is why Together is creating a Recovery Fund which will allow the people we are supporting to obtain grants to do these things.

To make this fund a real success we need to raise as much
money as we can, which we are hoping is something you might be able to support with. We are going to be hosting an Adventure Challenge from the 13^th – 17^th of September across Devon.

Whilst the Adventure Challenge may sound like a lot of fun, and we are hoping it will be, it is really important to remember the complex community this is aimed at, particularly after a over year of lock-down. Active addiction is often unbelievably lonely and soul destroying meaning it can be terrifying to go out a meet new people, we often don’t do any planned physical exercise and have massive self-confidence and self-esteem issues which means we rarely put ourselves out there and try something new. Therefore, this week of
fundraising will be a very real challenge to lots of those who will be joining us, and another reason for why this fund and projects such as Flourish in Nature are so vital to our community.

Thank you for a donation of any amount, this Recovery Fund will Change Lives and therefore Save Lives.