Thank you for covering the ongoing dispute in Botton. The effect on the villagers, those with learning disabilities, is very worrying.
I am glad that they now have a chance of their voices being heard. The Camphill Village Trust talks about bad acts of faith. I think it is bad acts of faith to “reassure” the families that it is not “about getting rid of co-workers” and then doing just that. We now find out that this was their plan all along.
As to not closing the workshops, we don’t know. It is hard to believe anything Camphill Village Trust says.
At one of their communities in the south, there is very little in the way of workshops now. The ethos of a working community is gone, the villagers are told that they don’t have to go to work and so don’t, then the workshops are closed. The whole idea of doing valued work that creates self-worth and wellbeing goes out of the window.
Work is now called day-time activities and in the other communities consists more often than not of outings to nearby towns to have an ice cream or the endless shopping trips.
Jackie Riis-Johannessen, Ryedale
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