The Carrot Club Wild Recovery Project Delivered by Helping Hooves Derbyshire CIC has been up and running supporting individuals in Recovery since April 2022. We would like to share the following update from Bridget, project lead, on the fantastic work they have been doing with individuals in Recovery: 

'The Carrot Club WILD project has been one of the best experiences I've had whilst working with the Helping Hooves project. Recovery was an area I never aimed at working with but the more I did what I do, the more I kept coming back to the opportunities of working with people in recovery and ex offenders, the two for me seemed in many ways linked. So when I made our connection with Options for Change and knew that we could make a difference with this program i was pleased. What I didn't expect was the number of people who would find joy and peace on our farm. 

The project has brought some incredible people to our lives, and what they have achieved has been nothing short of amazing. Since April, they have created, built and improved facilities on the farm. Creating animal housing, re wired the stable block with new lighting, built and cultivated a healthy bee colony, raised and mated (we hope successfully) the goats and sheep. 

They have trained in peer support, mental health awareness and support, and we have winter plans to put them through their mental health first aid, forest school physical first aid and bush craft training for delivering the next stage of our master plan for wellbeing in Derbyshire. They have learnt to carve green wood items and keep healthy bees and harvest honey.

They have a developing allotment plan to support a better grow next year and have a growing plan for running wellbeing workshops for others in need of support. 

And all of this, whilst dealing with the daily issues we all face, slips in recovery, and some big life issues that have taken some members away from us (and brought them back). 

We celebrated our six month anniversary with a bush craft and archery weekend, cake, camp cooked food, a sleep out and this past weekend we had another bush craft and archery event, where we invited a coach from our wood carving course, they were taken aback at just how 'real' our team is, we call them team members because we are absolutely a team. New members are always welcome and i am proud to say that the team will be happy to support and involve you in their plans if you want to join us. 

We are coming to the end of our GRID 1st year funding, and with that comes a little anxiety about the programmes funding. Their plans are outlined in our current crowdfunder campaign, and we would really appreciate support to get stage 2 off the ground. If you can help in any way please do.

To refer either yourself or others into this program please e mail hello@helpinghooves.co.uk for a referral form.'