Calderdale service takes another silver at Harrogate Flower Show
The Halifax-based Calderdale Substance Misuse Service (SMS) are celebrating after being awarded another silver at the Harrogate Flower Show, which took place on 14th-16th September.
It was the second year that the service has entered the show’s Border Showcase and won a silver award. The borders competition offers garden designers, colleges and other organisations the opportunity to inspire with ideas for borders.
This year’s entry from Calderdale SMS “…by any other name” illustrated the continued journey of recovery from substance use to abstinence, demonstrating that we are all different and all have a useful role and place in society but we may sometimes feel out of place. The border design drew on similarities with attitudes to weeds – a weed is just a flower out of place but by showing them in the right place or viewing them slightly differently the impression changes. The border featured a combination of flowers and weeds that blended together to make a garden of beauty.
The work was led by Contour and En Route, which are two service user led mentoring groups. Members of the group have all received help from the Calderdale Substance Misuse Service for either drugs or alcohol abuse and have gone on to offer their own support to recovering service users.
Speaking about the result Haydn Cavanagh, Calderdale Substance Misuse Service manager, said, “We are delighted to have been awarded Silver again. Last year’s entry reflected somebody’s pathway from substance misuse to recovery. This year we showed the journey onwards and how everyone has a valuable place in society. We used the analogy of weeds to show how people in recovery can feel. Returning to the Flower Show was a great opportunity to showcase the continued development of En Route and Contour members and once again we had some really positive feedback from visitors.”
A selection of plants and materials will now be re-used in the beds at the Calderdale SMS base, School House in Halifax where other service users and visitors can benefit from the planting.