16 September, 2025
We love receiving poetry – and we’re really pleased to be able to feature a selection this month by Mehdi Golriz Khatami, from the Life Experience Council. Keep sending us your creative sparks – whether group activities or individual works, we greatly enjoy featuring it on our pages and building our Waythrough creative community.
David Mitchell – Re Create
31 July, 2025
We were awe-struck to receive these incredible photos from Reach-Dorset this month, an amazing collaboration between the services’ Community Development team and a then service user, Larry, who is an avid photographer.
He offered his stunning photos of the Dorset coast for the creation of a ‘Mindfulness Recovery Calendar’ and to raise funds.
Each page sported one of his photographs together with an inspirational mindfulness recovery quote.
Also this month, as the months of wall-to-wall sunshine continue we’ve loved seeing you get out in your gardens and allotments. Suzy King from our Enhanced Support Project in Hampshire sent us some lovely photos of her green-fingered handywork, and mindful gardening continues to take place in Dorset as you’ll see below.
David Mitchell – Re Create
SUZY KING SENT US THESE LOVELY PICS FROM HER GARDEN IN HAMPSHIRE
MINDFUL GARDENING – REACH DORSET
Being out in nature and working the soil is a very therapeutic activity not only when in recovery, and we were delighted to hear this month from our Reach-Dorset service, whose Community Development team has supported and promoted various gardening projects.
Former service user Malcolm acquired and managed an allotment in Swanage which was maintained for a number of years by himself and service users, aiding them in their recoveries by connecting with nature. They quickly saw the fruit (and veg!) of their labour and dedication as they harvested the crops.
Malcolm, who continues to be involved in the service user-led Wareham Recovery Group which happens on Friday evenings, was presented with a certificate and trophy to thank him for his dedication to the Swanage allotment.
During 2023 a gardening group started up in the Reach Gillingham hub, initiated and led by service users and supported by a social work student on placement as well as staff. The group charted their progress on a wall display.
They proudly announced their first crop of some lovely strawberries, radishes and potatoes. The service users planned how they could use these in day to day meals, cooking from scratch, or making chutneys.
In autumn 2024, co-facilitated by the Reach Community Development team, a new project called ‘Mindful Gardening’ began in Weymouth with service users and volunteers. The Mindful Gardening takes place at an allotment plot in Weymouth where people can come and relax or just have a chat over a cuppa, enjoying the view across to the peninsula of Portland and the sea. They can get involved in planting flowers and vegetables whilst learning about the seasons.
All crops can be taken home by the service users and cooked up into a tasty and healthy meal, fresh and no artificial additives. We are planning to put together some cooking suggestions when veggies are ready. Surplus crops will be donated to the local food banks.
Inspired by the Weymouth success, now Gillingham has started a Mindful gardening group too, since May 2025.
And previously…..
June 24, 2025:
Just had to share this fantastic creation by a resident of our Braeside service in Weston-super-Mare, who made a shoe-rack for a fellow resident who is registered blind.
The product of several weeks’ work, J. Lawrance not only carved the fellow resident’s name and a personal phrase into the rack for her, but he even translated it into braille! Click on any of the images to see the full detail.
And on the right, Sara, another resident of Braeside, crocheted this beautiful blanket for dogs to sit on during their afternoon tea party.
More of your submissions are coming in even as I write this, so keep them coming, there will be another round-up next week!
– David Mitchell, RE Create.
June 1, 2025:
You certainly sprang into action in the past month as we received some fantastic entries following our theme prompt – and plenty of other great creative sparks, not necessarily related to spring, too!
The stunning pictures to the right and below were taken by Miss Cox, who is supported by our East Hampshire service. I particularly love the one of the birds flocking over the calm, still water at sunset – such contrast in the colours. Which one is your favourite?
It’s great to see the different creative group activities that are taking place in Waythrough services, too. Using a mood colour wheel to inspire a creative colour palette and think about moods, thoughts & feelings generated some fantastic pieces of art sent in by Vicki Cutts from Together: Devon, which also feature below, as do some lovely offerings from Suzy King’s garden in Hampshire!
And what a great idea from Tessa Dunkley, at Holder House in Abingdon, creating individual vision boards with the people she supports. From personal experience, getting thoughts and ideas out of my head and onto paper can so often help to crystallise them and help them make sense, giving me a goal to aim towards.
As you’ll see from our latest offerings, the theme is just a prompt, and if your service is running creative activities, or if there are individual clients or staff members who wish to share their sparks, do get in touch!
– David Mitchell, RF Create.
This month we heard from Vicki Cutts, a support worker with Together: Devon, who has been running neuro-graphic art workshops to help people unwind and encourage those who feel less “arty” to create pieces of art (see below).
“We get people to focus on a thought/feeling and use the mood colour wheel to inspire their colour palette. The idea behind our creative sessions is to create a mixed media collage based on all areas of Recovery, with the view to displaying in public spaces, allowing others to learn through art what recovery is like.”
“Hopefully this will open up conversations and encourage others to treat people in recovery differently.”
Spring
He holds the bud tight for such a long time,
until everyone is quiet in their seats.
He holds it up –
his fingers improvised from light,
his nails as clean and sharp as the wind –
Deftly he peels back the bud
then stops –
to be sure they are watching,
to be sure he is holding their breath –
then tugs gently on the pale tissue
until it comes,
green, translucent, fresh –
unfolding into the sensational breeze
bringing the crowd to their feet
– DOD, Wiltshire
Suzy King works in the Enhanced Support Project (ESP) in East Hampshire and after a long day at work this is how she relaxes in her beautiful garden.
“I have a lovely client who has recently inspired me to start planting vegetables and she said I have inspired her to make a cactus area in her garden.”
“I drew this picture of my manager’s cat using pencil and pastels. I learnt how to do this at my trauma art therapy.” – Sara, Braeside.
“During our recent community meeting at Holder House we created individual vision boards. We discussed how the saying ‘ seeing is believing ‘ makes sense because with daily reminders and prompts that are there as soon as we awake, it triggers thoughts of things we want to aim for and achieve without us even realizing. This can only be a positive thing as life events can often get in the way of the visions we have for ourselves.
“The types of visions we had for ourselves were: learning to drive, addressing negative habits, exercising more, meeting someone special, organising paperwork, taking a course, finding a job, rebuilding family relationships, organising finances.
“It also helped the residents to realise that they are all individuals with completely different vision boards but also do have a lot of wishes in common. ” Tessa Dunkley, Holder House.
Love these pics from East Hampshire sent in by Community Links Advisor Kat Carter
