Looking beyond… Then seeing it through…
Tectona Voyages of Recovery
The Tectona project is evolving steadily, and the world of care for drug mis-users is changing. The emphasis is coming more towards the idea of
Recovery as a life-long process, where personal development is the key. This is good news for us; our approach all along has been that
traditional rehab often does not address the underlying issues that caused someone's drug problem in the first place.
For us, the sea is the power we are harnessing. We are growing our understanding of how people become enabled and empowered through sail training and use this knowledge to optimise the experience we deliver.
Currently we are working to develop our provision with people who have not necessarily been through residential Rehab.
When they hear they could get on one of our voyages, the enthusiasm of these people is striking. Our task is to help them become a team before
they get onto Tectona and in this way to get the very most out of their week.
Why do our voyages last for a week? Well, we know that 3-4 days may be too short an experience for people. We also can't go very far is such a short time. Perhaps the real driver for voyage duration is simply that the professional sea staff need time to recover between voyages: their responsibiity is 24/7 and though they may sleep, it is not proper rest when on passage.
Tectona's partner charity - The Island Trust.
Tectona is loaned free of charge to The Island Trust who employ the staff and also meet the costs of maintaining the vessel. Tectona's operational
plan gives the Tectona Trust up to 8 weeks of a 'normal' 28-week season to use her for Recovery Voyages.
Key to our success are the Sea Staff on board Tectona: Ben (Skipper), Laura (1st mate) and Andrew (2nd Mate) are outstanding people doing a demanding job. They are employed by the Island Trust, and spend the lion's share of the sailing season (March to October) sailing Tectona with crews of young people from local schools and colleges, The Princes Trust, Marine Academy Plymouth, Exmouth Community College, etc. We are very grateful to them and the Island Trust for the superb work they do.
See: www.theislandtrust.org.uk
Our Envelope of Care.
Our 'envelope of care' involves Recovery
people working towards their time on Tectona, including the need to show they are abstinent,
in the lead-up to the voyage itself. This is an exciting time because other people's stories help you to see you are going to really enjoy it!
Based on what we've learned from our Research we now have a pre-voyage process including several meetings to get to know each other before the voyage
and get some grass roots information direct from people who have done it before..
After the voyage there may well be an emotional dip where extra support is needed to avoid relapsing. In fact we want Recovery people to
stick with the project in whatever way they can.
Sailing on a Tectona Recovery Voyage means you have joined a unique group of people who have had some special times together and can work and sail with us again in the future. Thanks to our Donors, the Tectona Trust provides financial support for people's travel and accommodation for these activities. For more info, contact us at: info@tectona.org.uk.