For the last three weeks, fellow u.labber Kuladharini and her sister Karen have been on a 500 mile and 7 cities sensing journey of Scotland.  Their intention is to understand their country more deeply and make recovery from addiction even more visible in Scotland by connecting directly to the public.

Kuladharini said:

“With each step I am hoping to discover more about this country of ours.  This whole 500 mile, 7 cities campaign is a national social contact campaign where we invite our fellow citizens to explore our collective perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards people with addictions, mental distress, a history of crime and the experience of being economically marginalised.”

The team are now in the last 70 miles of their journey and have been making direct face-to-face contact with thousands of people on the route that has taken them north from Glasgow along the West Highland Way, to Inverness via the Caledonian Canal and now back south to Edinburgh on the Scottish Coastal Pathway.

In each of Scotland’s cities that the team pass on the way, there has been a major recovery awareness evening for the public.  The team have formed a partnership with other imaginative and creative social change movements in Scotland. The Violence Reduction Unit, See Me, Wevolution and the Scottish Recovery Network (mental health) are all contributing their courage to change stories to the 7 Cities night out.

All of this is helping build for the biggest recovery awareness and social contact intervention in the Scottish Recovery Consortium’s calendar: Recovery Walk Scotland 2017 in Dundee on Saturday 30^th September. Each step is taking the team closer to their vision of Scotland as a welcoming, compassionate and connected community in recovery from addiction, crime, poverty and mental distress.

There are still two events to go – Stirling tomorrow and Edinburgh on Friday which will bring the 500 mile journey to a close.  Find out about the events on their Facebook Page and more about the walk itself here.

We look forward to hearing more about Kuladharini and Karen’s experiences soon!