Happy Recovery Month!

On this, the 1st of June, I would like to wish all those on their recovery journey as well as those supporting it, a very Happy Recovery Month!

Martyn (our Maidstone Recovery Community Organiser) and I have been setting up a programme of events across West Kent (in collaboration with CRi and the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) to bring communities around the 3 hubs together to celebrate recovery and raise awareness that people can and do recover.

These events are part of the Public Events Programme we have created within our Whole Person Recovery Programme. They include activities for service users and the wider recovery community, for the friends and families of those on their recovery journeys, and for the wider community.

In Maidstone we have a Peer Support Awareness Day which has brought together the well-known 12-step groups such as AA, NA and CA with other community organisations and peer support groups, in one place to talk to service users and their families about what support they can get in and around Maidstone. This will be followed by a fantastic free community day in a local park with local bands, performance artists, BBQ, face-painting, balloon launch and speakers.

In Tonbridge we are de-camping to a local park for a community picnic with games and [hopefully] sunshine. This will be followed by a community day in Tunbridge Wells with a balloon launch, recovery tree, information desk, performance art and refreshments.

In Gravesend we are setting up home in an empty shop right on the high street thanks to 3Space. Here we will have all sorts of group activities, arts and crafts, information and awareness days, and a volunteering fair.

These are just some of the ways we’re celebrating recovery through June… We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Follow us on Twitter @RSArecovery or #WPRrecoverymonth to keep up to date with the opportunities to get more involved and to see how it progresses over the month.