Membermichael m

And the winner is…..

Great news this past couple of weeks at the Serenity Cafe. We won TWO awards! Last week we won an award from Edinburgh Inspiring Volunteers and then last night we won the National Scottish Award for Community Action.

Its been smart suits, posh frocks and gold envelopes up here, we’re proud as punch. It really is a shot in the arm for all the volunteers who give so much of their time energy to this fantastic project.

All the great and the good from the charitable sector were at last nights event and to win this big award, with competition from some really wonderful projects, will raise our profile and help inspire us to bigger and better things.

Thanks so much for all your kind word of support this last year….Oh, did I forget to mention its our 1st birthday too.

6 comments - First published on: 12/06/2010

Shocked

Project Prevention have been outside health centres in Scotland offering £300 and sterilisation to women who they suspect of being drug addicted. I’m just so shocked at this I don’t really know what else to say right now.

9 comments - First published on: 24/05/2010

Sometimes it’s tough

It’s 2:30am and I’m wide awake, my head is racing, I’m not in the best frame of mind. Yesterday was hard, bad news.

Another letter from a potential funder hit our doormat at the Serenity Cafe. Again after a huge amount of work I’m afraid no money will be forthcoming. We are losing a vital member of our group because she has to go work for someone who can pay her for her talent and commitment.

This gets really difficult sometimes.

The need is here, our local Recovery community is growing in numbers, we have a fantastic 12 step treatment centre and a strong fellowship, but there is need. Needs we can help with.

Many people in Recovery here need support, opportunities, training. They can come to us, be part of team, contribute, make friends, meet challenges and expand and express themselves. Gain confidence, take on responsibilities, be supported to full fill those tasks and build there self esteem.

Or they can come just to eat cake and dance.

We have big plans for the Serenity Cafe, we need permanent premises where we can put down roots. We hope to be a hub, a centre point for all kinds of activities and groups. We already have a football team playing in a local league and a woman’s group with a creche. But this is just the start, there’s so much to do and I’m afraid without money it’s just impossible.

At it’s centre the Serenity Cafe is a small group of people who give so much of their time and energy, often forsaking family and friends in order to help with the Cafe, we do endless funding applications, jump through countless hoops and get through miles of red tape and when another funder says they can’t help right now it some times feels like a punch in the stomach, it’s hard not to get a bit despondent.

In fact right now I’m asking myself where is this wave of Recovery we are riding in the U.K. Is it real? Or is it just a lot of talk?

Right now we need some real help here, help you can put in the bank !

We are all the things I hear talked of here and elsewhere, we are community led, we are in Recovery, we work with our local partners, we celebrate and promote Recovery, we sustain and support Recovery, we show our community that Recovery is real and possible for all who want it.

And we choking on a financial leash! When, oh when will this Recovery wave hit our shores?

If your reading this with a cup of coffee in the morning, sorry if my moaning is the first thing you listen to today. I’m going to try and get some sleep, in the morning I’m sure I’ll be fine and ready to go back in the ring.

Freedom and Joy Michael

5 comments - First published on: 15/05/2010

No big deal?

Saturday was my birthday. Not the anniversary of my actual birth but the calender day on which a few years ago I had my last drink. Until this day I have, through some miracle and a great deal of help, remained clean and sober.

Around this time I always say to myself, “It’s no big deal, it’s just another day.” But I find myself in a very reflective mood. I consider my life, what it was, what I had become and who I am now. This really blows my mind!

I had drunk with abandon ever since I discovered alcohol, using every substance that came my way. I took to them all like a duck to water. Forever thinking that this might be just what I need, this will change the way I feel deep down, this will change who I am, this might fix me.

I think, perhaps I always carried with me a deep sense of loss, felt a grief deep within that I couldn’t explain or turn to face. A fear of life and all its trouble. For I felt that life was sure to be trouble for me. Of course no-one could ever know these feelings, so they were buried, deep, and covered over with drink and drugs, with lies, falsehood, shame….and money and girls and pride and every thing I could find to weigh them down.

But like fear filled bubbles these feelings rose to the top. I became a boiling mess of pain and anger no amount of drink could still.

And then I broke. And by some miracle found myself among people like myself, people like you, who knew how to get by. For at first it was getting by, those baby steps to the future became stronger and more assured and I was on my feet.

Today the miracle of having two lives in one lifetime is a wonder beyond anything I could have imagined. I am happy, healthy and free.

If you asked me today, “What is recovery?”, I’d say freedom.

Life is sometimes difficult, sometimes painful and often confusing but that’s just life.

Thank you for all the work you put in to make this place happen, its so very needed and appreciated.

Yours. M.

8 comments - First published on: 08/02/2010