The Sorted Project adapts during the coronavirus crisis
Karen Bradford, project manager of the Sorted Project, describes how the project has adapted to continue to support its clients.
ON MONDAY, March 16 we took the incredibly difficult decision to temporarily close our service, close our boat and start to work in a completely different way.
Our priority was to keep everyone involved with the Sorted Project safe. We had been following the international news quite closely and with cases of Covid-19 being reported in the UK we knew it was the right thing to do.
Panacea arrived in Scotland in October 2019 so this was going to be our first spring, our first summer and we had some great bookings to look forward to with community groups and with Edinburgh Festival Arts.
We were looking forward to the canal festivals in Edinburgh and Falkirk and there was a sense of excitement and anticipation for what was ahead.
We were also preparing for our Passenger Certificate Inspection with the MCA and were in discussion with the RYA as we were considering becoming a training centre. To go from being a bustling project full of optimism to this new and extremely worrying state of affairs was particularly challenging for our team. Having full support from our fast-responding board members, the decision was made. We had to move to a temporary closure.
The hardest thing to do was to break the news of our temporary closure to the people we support. We support men and women in recovery from alcohol and substance dependency and associated mental health issues. They tell us regularly how much they value what we do and they are passionate about the boat.
To provide an alternative way of keeping in touch was our next priority. Since then we have become social media regulars, Skype chatters, we make regular phone calls, send emails and have text updates with our participants, crew and sessional team. Through Facebook we have shared lots of information about recovery organisations, providing all kinds of Zoom-based meetings from recovery discussions to yoga.
We mostly use Messenger for chats with our sessional team and this is proving to be very helpful for day-to-day updates and for boosting morale. We have signed up with Open University online for free professional development courses, and Scottish
Drugs Forum for online learning.
James, a member of our sessional team, visits our boat, Panacea, regularly so that she is clean, started regularly and cared for. We have also had a very kind offer from our local community in Ratho should we need help to look after the boat. People are being very supportive and their kindness is much appreciated.
There is a meeting this month with Scottish Waterways for All. This brings together Scottish Canals and waterways organisations from across Scotland. We usually meet at the Falkirk Wheel, however, this time we will be using a platform called GoToMeeting. Wish us luck!
We miss our routine and we miss our weekly volunteering and training with Linlithgow Union Canal Society. This has brought into sharp focus just how much everyone from our wide network brings to what we do. Community, support, development, learning, new experiences, nature and of course being on the water. And supporting us through all of this are our two funders: the National Lottery Community Fund and the Robertson Trust. They put our minds at rest immediately to let us know they would support us through this crisis.
So for now, we work, plan and engage through our screens and our phones. We aim to be realistic as we move forward keeping everyone’s health and well-being as our number one priority. We realise we will need to make adjustments as we move forward when lockdown starts to be relaxed in gradual stages. However, at this point we can only speculate what that will look like, so we await guidance from our Government as this develops. In the long term we are confident we will be able to return to the model that we worked to.
Sending solidarity to boaters and boating organisations. Stay safe, stay well and see you when all this is over.