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News & Events

Student Claudia shares her journey at the College

Our inspirational student Claudia has shared her wonderful journey since joining the College with the newsletter from the Stables carer’s centre in Charlton. Read more here on Page 2: The Stables Newsletter

 

 

We’ve published our first Student Newsletter!

A group of enthusiastic students have helped the college design and create our first ever Student Newsletter called ‘Student Connection.’ In it, are a host of student news stories, exciting upcoming events, a ‘spotlight’ on a different student each term, and recipes and puzzles to create at home.

The process was a truly collaborative affair with students inputting ideas on all of the editorial. Read about students’ end of term celebration success, film and book clubs and jewellery making classes to join in on and a World Mental Health Day event to take part in.

‘Student Connection’ is available to read and download here: student-connection.

 

Tutor Conference a great success!

A Tutor conference was held on 2nd June at Recovery College Greenwich and was attended by prospective new tutors, existing tutors and peer trainers.

After a brief introduction to the College by the Manager, Tutors were asked to plan the delivery of a micro teaching session in an area of personal interest. We had a wide variety of themes explored in each micro-teaching session including:

-hair braiding
-a Charleston dance session
-how to knit
-hatha yoga
-making games using bush craft

We now have an additional eight sessional staff who will join our growing team on an ad hoc basis from September 2016 so that we can provide an enriched catalogue of courses.

New Peer Training Course delivered at the College

peer trainers

At the Recovery College Greenwich, we are currently running a newly designed peer trainer course. Peer trainers are valued and important members of the college. A peer trainer is someone with lived experience or professional experience of mental health with an interest in career progression into teaching at the college.

90% of our courses and activities at the college are already co-produced with peer trainers. Co-production is a term used to describe models of ‘…inclusion, involvement and valuing people who experience mental health…’

 The peer trainers co-design courses and activities with the tutors at the college, to great effect. Students respond to having tutors and peer trainers with lived experience or professional experience of mental health that understand the students’ situations and viewpoints which then enriches their teaching.

The peer training course we are running consists of an eight module program run over four weeks. Each module helps the peer trainer to develop an awareness of their role, the essential value systems which underpin it and the legal requirements for carrying out that role; design, organise and evaluate courses and workshops alongside tutors; adopt an innovative approach to collecting and using a wide range of teaching and learning resources and develop communication and inter-personal skills.

Recovery College Greenwich Manager, Paula Robinson-Aberdeen, said: “We have re-designed the course to really give people a realistic understanding of what it means to facilitate a class. The course delivers teaching-based, practical knowledge to give the peer trainers the best possible start in the classroom.

“Peer training is about people with lived experience or professional experience of mental health who have a real interest in teaching at the college and we then empower them to deliver quality lessons within the classroom environment.”

 

Join us to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week

This Mental Health Awareness Week (16-22nd May), the theme is healthy and supportive relationships and the importance of relationships in maintaining good mental health. The Greenwich Mental Health and Wellbeing Forum are running a series of awareness raising events promoting healthy and supportive relationships.

To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week, The Recovery College Greenwich is hosting an old-fashioned style market at their central location in Equitable House, Woolwich, on Wednesday 18th May 11am-4pm. Stall holders will be selling homemade cakes and food, plants they have grown, as well as providing local wellbeing products and services and information stalls. Visitors will also be able to indulge in having a Thai foot massage, Reiki and Reflexology!

The Forum has created inserts to be inserted within library books at libraries within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich University and Ravensbourne College, showcasing the key elements that make up healthy relationships such as communication, boundaries and trust. Organisations to contact for help maintaining healthy relationships and good mental health will be on display.

The Forum group will be encouraging the public to get involved with the conversation around healthy relationships and mental health with the hashtag #AllOfUsGreenwich, designed to raise awareness that mental health affects ‘All Of Us.’

Browse our information in the Borough and come along and enjoy our old-fashioned market, which will be held on Wednesday 18th May 11-4pm at: Recovery College Greenwich, First Floor, Equitable House, 10 Woolwich New Road, London, SE18 6AB. If you would like to rent a stall at the market, please contact: recoverycollegereception@bridgementalhealth.org

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week

Student to run 10K!

One of our students at the college, Nigel Haley, has committed to running a 10K marathon to raise vital funds for a local charity.

Nigel has chosen to support Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice which has a local shop on Plumstead Common Road. Nigel said: “As part of my recovery, I’m trying to plan constructive things to do, and I thought a 10K run would be a good idea! I wanted to run for a charity that was local and chose Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice to show my support for such a worthwhile cause.”

Please support Nigel to raise £150 for Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice at: https://www.justgiving.com/Nigel-Haley
https://www.communityhospice.org.uk/

Join our tutor conference

We’re holding a Tutor Conference on 2nd June 1.30pm-4.30pm. We welcome all wellbeing practitioners to find out more about our work at the Recovery College Greenwich and the new wellbeing hub we are launching.

The event will be an opportunity to see what we do and to attend an interview on the day.

The Recovery College in Greenwich has been delivering courses and activities to people with lived experience of mental health since 2013.

We have a successful track record of working with our students to develop courses that reflect their interests and needs and it’s a tradition that has helped us engage with over 400+ students.

We have organized this conference to start to plan our courses for the new academic year (2016-2017) with our existing Tutors, and to provide an opportunity for prospective Tutors to attend selection interviews.

Come and join us on Thursday 2nd June. Please confirm your attendance by emailing: Kelly.Prowse@bridgementalhealth.org or contact Kelly on: 020 8294 7909.

 

Join a Spring Stroll for Mental Health!

SW Coffee Morning is an organisation which arranges relaxing walks in south-west London followed by a chat and hot drinks to help promote good mental health and wellbeing. They run events every 1st Saturday & 3rd Thursday of the month. The organisation is supported by Time To Change which campaigns to de-stigmatise mental health.

The next SW Coffee Morning is on Saturday 2nd April at the beautiful Morden Hall Park in South-West London. Join fellow strollers for mental health.

They will meet at 10am outside Morden station for a relaxed stroll in the National Trust managed park followed by a refreshing hot drink and chat!

http://www.meetup.com/depression-450/events/229689577/

Event arranged courtesy of Akilah Denise Davies.

Park

Come Join the Recovery College Greenwich

We still have spaces for our courses this term for current students – come and join us for courses! Check out our prospectus on this website and come and enjoy a course of your choice. Call us on: 0208 294 7909.

Up Up And Away!

At our World Mental Health Day celebration in October 2015 in central Woolwich, South East London, one of the organisations we worked in partnership with to host the event, Greenwich Area Involvement Network (GAIN), commissioned to be an independent voice for mental health service users, handed out balloons with tags.

Passers-by were encouraged to let the balloons go high into the air and they had a great time doing so. Three months later, the Recovery College Greenwich received a letter from a gentleman residing in the Lake District who kindly let us know he found one of the labels high up in the hills! It was found high on a ridge at 54.45774 degrees North, 2.88602 degrees West about five miles south of Hartsop. Gain has written to the gentleman to thank him.

Wonders will never cease!

 

Greenwich Got Talking about mental health for World Mental Health Day

Students watching the film they participated in -it was an emotional experience for them 2

This October, the Greenwich mental health and wellbeing forum, a group of organisations from across the Borough, delivered a series of events and workshops to raise awareness of good mental health. It culminated in a great event in General Gordon Square, Woolwich, to celebrate this year’s World Mental Health Day on Saturday October 10th.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich and NHS Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group joined with providers such as Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Greenwich Mind, Greenwich Time to Talk, Bridge Mental Health, Big White Wall, Thamesmead Health Champions, Family Mosaic, Lifeline Basis, University of Greenwich, Metro Centre, Volunteer Centre Greenwich, CRI and Recovery College Greenwich, to mark the occasion.

An online conversation getting everyone talking openly about mental health took place on Twitter at #AllofUsGreenwich.

The Mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich Norman Adams attended the event, along with Sylvia Nyame, lead GP for mental health at NHS Greenwich CCG. MP Teresa Pearce introduced the Greenwich Mind Choir to the crowds and local Councillors met with the community.

The event was a fantastic success, with the local community out in force engaging in the wide range of activities on offer. The sun shone on General Gordon Square as the event started. Stalls were hosted by local providers, reflexology and massages were given and there was celebration music from local musicians, Oxleas Band, and singer Septimus Prime.

Local children loved taking part in exercise with Greenwich Get Active who hosted Disney Shake up for Kids and a wonderful display of Tai Chi in the square took place. Tea and cakes were served in the nearby Recovery College Greenwich with a band entertaining guests and students.

To help reduce stigma, a special film had been made called ‘All of Us’, detailing people’s experience of mental health and how it affects all of us, which was displayed on the large screen in the Square to great applause.

Rachel, who took part in the film, said: “Everyone has mental health, regardless of whether it’s something you struggle with on a day-to-day basis or whether it affects you once in your life.”

Local companies Waitrose, Tesco’s and Frankie & Benny’s sponsored the event and gave out raffle prizes to the crowds.

New Term gets off to a great start!

recovery college photos july and august 2015 049

Students enrolled on our September term time are thoroughly enjoying the experience. Some students also enjoyed a wealth of summer courses such as arts and crafts and animal handling. For our September term, we have an exciting prospectus packed full of new courses: Simple Steps to Living Well, Writing for Wellbeing, Food for Thought and Mindfulness and Meditation courses to name but a few. Food for Thought was a very popular course with the students. They learnt how to make healthy easy-to-cook food, explore different options for enhancing their food and made burritos and chicken dishes. One student said: “I can’t wait for the next recipe!”

Other popular classes include Tai Chi which students find relaxing and improves their mental wellbeing. Students on our Everyday Numbers course loved the class today and said they are now ‘less scared’ of using Maths in their everyday life.

The September term time is fully booked, but please contact the Recovery College to book courses for our Winter Term on: 020 8294 7909, email: info@recoverycollegegreenwich.org.

Recovery Café to open

Bridge Mental Health has secured planning permission for their first ever Recovery Café to be opened in central Woolwich later this year.

The cafe will be a vibrant addition to the community, a large venue which will serve food and drink as well as host events.

Students from Recovery College Greenwich will benefit from the café, which will become a social hub for students and the wider community.

Students meet local Councillor

councillor visit 020

Our students had a great morning meeting Cllr Sizwe James, Cabinet Member, Business, Employment & Skills, who came in to visit the Recovery College Greenwich on September 16th.

Cllr James chatted to staff and students over tea and biscuits and enjoyed learning more about the great work done by the college. Students told him how much they loved attending courses at the college and about their recovery journeys. Cllr James praised students ‘enthusiasm’ and said he thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Student sets up community Café

arts and craft day at recovery college 009

Student Jacqui has worked incredibly hard to set up a community café, Safety Net, in Thamsmead, to help those with mental ill-health have a place to drop in and chat over tea, coffee and biscuits.

Jacqui secured funding herself from Trust Thamesmead as well as donations from local retailers to open the café.

Safety Net runs every Thursday from 11am-2pm and all are welcome. Jacqui said: “Regulars say the cafe has a really friendly, warm atmosphere and we often have a good laugh. We’re always there for a chat over a cup of tea, talking about things can do wonders for our mental health.”

Safety Net runs every Thursday 11am-2pm from Birchmere Community Hub in Birchmere Park, Thamesmead SE28 8AP. Access from Disraeli Close or Byron Road.

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