Crimsham Farm Veterans Hub was born as the result of the suicide of a close personal friend, with a single aim, to save one life. We achieved this. Now, we want to save more. We already provide therapeutic services from our 4.2 acre smallholding located in West Sussex, using group sessions around the fire and breakfast clubs on a farm full of amazing animals and birds of prey as a means to engage the hardest to reach and support people.
We have self funded and established Charlie Charlie 1 coffee shop, a drop in hub located in the town centre, where people can gather for a coffee or chat, come to get assistance and signposting to housing services, financial services, counselling and drug and alcohol rehabilitation link ups. Now, we want to utilise the power of the outdoors, to help heal too.We all know the benefits of nature, sitting under the stars contemplating life and all its nuances, we (the directors of the farm) live with these benefits and now we want everyone else too as well.
This project aims to provide free at the point of delivery camping and wilderness respite breaks to Veterans and serving members of the armed forces community, and ultimately their dependants, who also suffer as a result of poor mental health.The vision is that anyone can arrive at Crimsham Farm with nothing more than the clothes on their back, hop into one of the farms vehicles, and enjoy a weekend in the wild. Capitalising on the shared skill set of not only our staff, but our team of volunteers, we will undertake foraging, bushcraft, fire skills, fishing and cooking, as well as many other outdoor activities all delivered by experienced and seasoned veterans from the Bushcraft world.
This is where we need YOUR help. As a CIC we have invested heavily in the farm and its capacity to deliver education to the most vulnerable children and adults in our community, these activities subsidise the Veterans activities, but, and its a big but, we cannot rely wholly on self funding just yet. We are looking to raise £20,000 to purchase a vehicle, trailer, hot tents, log burners, cookers, sleeping bags, beds, self inflating mattresses and a whole range of other camping equipment as well as a host of bushcraft equipment so that we are able to deliver on this next phase of our plan!
Everyone nowadays, unfortunately knows someone who has suffered from mental health issues, some of us are unfortunate enough to know someone who has lost the battle with their own demons and stepped across the river styx to the FRV, some of us have lost friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children and we all know, that if they had reached out, if they had a network of people they trusted and people on whom they could rely, then this would never have happened. We want to help people create those networks.
The wilderness is the best counsellor out there, we can talk to it, we can immerse in it and we can come out of it feeling alive again, with purpose and direction, friends and trusted contacts to reach out to. Help us help others to make that realisation.
Please share this far and wide, we will update the page regularly and aim to be live with this project in its infancy stages on the farm by October 4th for trials.
You're all amazing, you all care, show us just how much and help us save a life today!!!!