What impact does Venture Trust and the Living Wild programme have?
This is Scott’s story.
“I’ve gotten more out of this 10-day journey than I did the years spent in prison.”
For a long time, Scott had struggled with substance and alcohol abuse, picking up several charges as a result, including a custodial sentence. After his latest charge, he found himself on a community payback order and wanted to make changes to start using his time positively, looking to bring structure and meaning to his everyday life. With an affinity for the outdoors, he wanted to find a way to manage and move on from the problems he faced in the past, alleviating the trapped feeling he was experiencing through his living conditions.
Ready to build confidence and work on his social anxiety, he was referred to Venture Trust through his Support Worker at Sacro, a Scottish community justice organisation. With this referral, Scott was ready and eager to be signed up to take part in our Living Wild programme, which he successfully completed earlier this year. The journey came at just the right time, allowing him to learn and absorb new ideas and experiences.
Living Wild is our ten-day programme which supports people on Community Payback and other criminal justice orders who want to make positive and sustained life changes. Being outdoors in the wilder parts of Scotland offers everyone who goes on the journey both challenges and the opportunity to reflect, learn and adapt in a new environment. Our services provide support for up to 9 months – helping people make and keep connections to services, training, education, or community volunteering opportunities.
The time Scott spent away on the Living Wild programme gave him space, a sense of clarity and a new perspective on his life, helping him realise how he wanted to move forwards. Before his journey, Scott shared that he struggled with anxiety, resulting in him over-thinking situations which would often lead into a downward spiral of negative self-talk. The space and time away helped Scott feel more grounded, and better understand how to manage his emotions when confronted with triggering situations.
He had known for a while what changes he could make but hadn’t had the confidence or sense of certainty to make them yet. Before his journey, thinking of his own needs was something Scott seemed unfamiliar with, and he would often put the needs of others before his own. Through working with Venture Trust, he realised he had to prioritise his own wellbeing too, and in his final development session he shared that he was “excited to go and do things for myself, enjoy myself again, and even reward myself.”
Throughout his journey Scott rediscovered that he was capable of taking on challenges and overcoming them. He rediscovered that he could confidently jump in and take part, and that he could make changes in his life – setting goals and defining the actions to get him there.
Scott’s Living Wild group could see the difference in him by the end of the ten days. As the journey progressed, he visually became brighter faced, happier and his confidence improved, which was noticed by staff, his fellow participants and Scott himself. Throughout the course, Scott’s enthusiasm grew, and he built positive relationships with others, serving as a brilliant role model. By the final days he was volunteering himself first for activities, and confidently delivering presentations to his group.
“I enjoyed every minute of my time on the course, the instructors were amazing people and they felt more like friends by the end of our journey. The physical aspect of the course and the scenery was fantastic. What I loved most was our one-on-one time, I’ve learned to remember how to enjoy myself again without the use of alcohol, and my self-worth has increased 100%. I came away a new man.”
Scott’s story with us doesn’t end with his Living Wild experience. He’s gone on to make brilliant changes in his life and continued to work with Venture Trust. Following his journey Scott was keen to explore his creative side and has since taken up drawing again. He has also started volunteering at his local gardening project and joined some other Venture Trust participants and staff at the Arc’teryx Climbing Academy weekend in the Lake District.
“To anyone thinking of taking part in Venture Trust, I would say jump straight in and don’t think twice! It was the most beneficial thing I have ever done for myself. I am a stronger, better, and more confident person. Ready to take on any challenge. I’m so grateful to the whole team.”
Everyone at Venture Trust wishes Scott the best in his brighter future.
If you’d like to make a one-off donation to Venture Trust to support our work and participants like Scott, click here.
To refer yourself or someone you know to one of our programmes, click here.
