Making Miles Matter

Hello, we are Amy, Katy and Alice and we work at Tortworth Forest Centre, a beautiful arboretum in South Gloucestershire. On Monday we will take the day off work to....Walk to work!

Why?
Our projects support people in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and struggling with poor mental health and social isolation. To ensure that people without access to a car can still get support we offer a free minibus from various locations in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Unfortunately, our minibus is on it's last legs (or wheels!) and in desperate need of replacement.

To show how inaccessible Tortworth is without the minibus the three of us are walking to the arboretum from Bristol on Monday 11th December.

If we didn't have a minibus, 9 out of 13 of our current Hawthorn Project participants wouldn't be able to get to Tortworth for their weekly group.

Here's what our participants have to say about why the minibus is important to them:

"I would be lost without the minibus, I couldn’t come. I’ve been coming here for 10 years and this project changed my life. I look forward to getting on that bus every Wednesday."

"I wouldn’t be able to come without the minibus, I really struggle to get on public transport when I'm feeling unwell."

"I wouldn’t be able to come without the minibus. It’s tree heaven, I don’t want to leave, it’s amazing, it’s home."

"It's very useful and participants wouldn't otherwise be able to get there. Very beneficial for inner city patients to access green space outside the city and I have been aware of very few projects who offer this in the past, so it's a really excellent service." A social prescriber who refers participants to our groups.

The plan
The minibus route from Bristol to the arboretum is around 15 miles along busy roads with no footpaths.

To ensure the safety of the team we'll be going cross country as much as possible, which adds around two hours to the total travel time and makes a route of 18.6 miles. There are fewer than 8 hours of daylight in December, so it really would be an impossible task for volunteers, project participants and staff to get to and from the weekly wellbeing groups safely without the minibus.

All donations, shares and messages of support welcome!