Sunday 27 March 2011

UK Recovery Federation Consultation 2010: Workshop Feedback

Consultation 2010: Workshop Feedback

The UK Recovery Federation (UKRF) Conference, held in Preston, Lancashire on the 7th of May, was attended by over 300 people with more than half of the attendees in Recovery or Recovering. Whilst there were presentations from a number of speakers (Mark Gilman from the NTA, Rowdy Yates from Stirling University, Tom Kirkwood from Trust the Process and Anne-Marie Ward from the UKRF) the main focus of the day was on grassroots participation and involvement.
Conference attendees were given the opportunity to express their views and thoughts on 15 key themes within Recovery (click here for the full workshop programme). 26 facilitators, drawn from the Recovery Community across the UK, ensured that 30 workshops (each workshop running twice) took place during the day.
All of the conference workshops were delivered from a strengths-basedperspective, i.e. looking at what we do well within Recovery and how we can develop our strengths and Recovery ‘Assets’.
Feedback from the day (and it was a wee bit frenetic!) has been overwhelmingly positive. We believe the day was a success because of the energy Recovery Community members brought to it and the ‘hope and optimism’ that shone through.
The conference marked the ‘launch’ of the UK Recovery Federation. However there is much work left to do. Specific Feedback from all the conference workshops will be posted on Wired In over the next few weeks and it is our hope that this will give those who were not able to attend the conference (and those who didn’t attend particular workshops) the opportunity to express their views and thoughts on the Recovery themes discussed.
As we engage in discussion and debate the UKRF will begin, over the summer, to pull together a UKRF ‘Recovery Manifesto’ which will outline theUKRF priority areas for development, key issues within the Recovery Movement and what the UKRF is going to do to address them.
We will have a 1st draft of the UKRF Recovery Manifesto ready for the UK Recovery Walk in Glasgow on the 25th of September. From September onwards the UKRF will be holding regional events around the
country (currently being organised – watch this space for further details) where we will consult further on our draft Manifesto and explore key Recovery issues within each region.
We hope that through taking this approach the final UKRF Recovery Manifesto will reflect the wide diversity of experience and thoughts and feelings that exist within the newly emerging British Recovery Movement and, as such, will be ‘owned’ by Recovery communities across the UK. The UKRFwill only be as strong as its membership and the Recovery Communities it intends to serve.

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