South Scotland MSP Brian Whittle has paid a visit to River Garden Auchincruive to see the first-hand how the innovative project is taking shape.
Inspired by similar organisations in Italy, Sweden and the US, the River Garden is a residential training and social enterprise development centre offering people recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction the chance to live and work at Auchincruive for a number of years. When they join the programme, residents will receive training and support to learn new skills as they work to restore the Auchincruive Estate’s walled garden and turn it into a visitor destination.
Through this work, and with the support of staff and peer workers, residents can develop the resilience and life skills needed to avoid sliding back into addiction and prepare themselves for returning to employment and building a better life.
During the visit, the MSP met with some of the team behind the project, including Director Mark Bitel and Vice-Chair Colin Crosbie. The MSP also spoke to a team of volunteers from consultancy firm PwC’s Glasgow team who were donating their time to help restore the gardens.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“Recovering from drug or alcohol addiction is a long, slow process. Being able to live and work somewhere like the River Garden project, where residents will receive full time support and have the time to deal with their addiction and move into sustained recovery in a safe, welcoming environment.
The walled garden at Auchincruive is a real marvel and I’m delighted that not only will this project bring it back to life, but it will also open it up for the public to enjoy.
I’m excited to see how the project grows and develops over time.”
Mark Bitel said:
It was great to host Brian’s visit and to get cross-party support for our pioneering work. We are still at an early stage of the development of our centre and we have a lot of work ahead of us. So getting support and encouragement for our work is most valuable. We have already opened the gardens to the public and the support and encouragement from them has been overwhelmingly positive. Having the public visit the gardens is also part of our effort to reduce stigma against people in recovery. When the public meet our people, they realise that they are just like anyone else who has been through tough times and who are on the way up. We look forward to opening our café at the end of June which we hope will also attract more visitors to the garden as well as contribute to our financial sustainability.
Colin Crosbie added:
This was once one of the most historically important gardens in Scotland. We want to restore it back to one of the best gardens in Scotland of its kind. But this is not just a project about a garden, it’s also about people. We want to grow people so they can return back to society, healed and whole as productive citizens.
