UKRF Update
We’ve been meaning to put together a UKRF update blog for a while now but been very busy and the days have slipped by. There’s no time like the present though so here are the current UKRF headlines.
2011 Recovery Walk:
To assist in the promotion of the walk that will take place in Cardiff on the 10th of September we’ve hurried up a bit with our UKRF website plans and (fingers crossed) this will go up in two weeks time. You’ll be able to find us athttp://www.ukrf.org.uk as from the 1st of April. Hopefully we won’t look too foolish. Mike Ng who works with Carl Cundall at the Sheffield ARC is doing all the website building work for us and for this we will be eternally grateful. We will also be promoting the walk at a number of conferences that we are speaking at over the next few months and in a number of articles in the ‘trade’ press.
Events:
The UKRF is supporting the South East Recovery Network (an emerging collective) with its South-East Recovery Network Conference on the 7th of April. Alistair Sinclair is working with facilitators from the Recovery Community and Conference organisers to develop a number of workshops that will explore asset/strength based ways of working and community development. For more details see:
We will be attending a Social Work conference on ‘Alcohol & Drug Treatment’ in Birmingham on the 27th of April and presenting the work of the UKRF at anEATA event in Manchester on the 9th of May, a HIT conference in Edinburgh on the 10th of May and a HIT conference in Liverpool on the 11th of May. We will be presenting at the National RCGP conference which takes place on the 12th and 13th of May and will be doing another UKRF presentation at anEATA event in the South-West sometime in the summer.
The next National UKRF conference is provisionally planned (fingers crossed again) for the 9th of September in Cardiff the day before the Recovery Walk. This will be delivered in partnership with the SMMGP as part of our developing relationship with them. Keep your eyes peeled on our new website for more details on this.
Articles
We are in the process of finishing off an article on the UKRF which will go in the next SMMGP newsletter and we have plans for further articles in DrugLink and Drink & Drug News. All articles will be posted on the new website. We’ve had some pretty exciting interaction around articles with Bill White recently. More details to follow – again on the new website.
Recovery Networks
We are currently working with recovery activists on Merseyside to explore the establishment of a Merseyside Recovery Network. A planning meeting will be looking at this in a few weeks. We hope to support this network in establishing close links with other Networks and build on the work we have been doing with recovery activists, the NTA, DAAT’s and Services in the South-East and the Eastern Region of the UK. Early discussions have taken place in Lancashire and Cumbria around the establishment of local Recovery Networks and we hope to make some pretty concrete progress very soon. Again, check out our website for details as they emerge. Annemarie finishes up in her NHS post on the 31st March so for you Scots out there wanting to hook up, get in touch and she will get over and support you all.
UKRF Advisory Group
This group has now been established and held its first meeting in Liverpool on the 31st of January. Whilst principally made up of people from the Recovery Community this group also has representatives from the National Users Network, the UK Harm Reduction Association and the International Harm Reduction Association sitting on it. All are committed to the development of diverse new Recovery Networks across the UK. The mins of the advisory group meetings will be on the website for your perusal as each of the meetings happens and will be updated regularly with progress reports.
The new UKRF Website
Promotion and celebration of the National Recovery Walks will sit at the core of this website and it will be the UKRF’s new ‘shop front’, enabling us to promote our Recovery Principles in an easily accessible and interactive way. This website will link to self-moderating Forums (not blogs) and provide links to a variety of blog sites.
We will place a great deal of emphasis on providing information regarding the many recovery assets on the ground (broken up into regions/localities) facilitating networking across diverse areas and the supporting of Recovery Networks. We intend to build a diverse UKRF membership at an individual level (those that subscribe to the UKRF Recovery Principles), group/network/Federation level, Services (once they have demonstrated they are recovery-oriented) and businesses (social enterprises and CIC’s that support recovery in the Community).
That’s the plan anyway.
Fingers crossed again.
There will also be something of an international link on the website. Very exciting! We’ll keep you posted on this.
Training and Education
The UKRF has been working closely with Re-Up: Training & Consultancy Services, another CIC set up by UKRF members, which will be launching a new website sometime in April. Re-Up will be the first CIC to join the UKRFand any profits from this company will be used to support the general aims of the UKRF. We have also been working with people from a Recovery Community in Lancaster to develop recovery-oriented standards for a local rehab and hope to post some details on the new website in the early summer. Training has been delivered in Hertfordshire and further training is planned in Bedfordshire in either May or June. We met with Recovery activists from the North-East last week who are keen to assist the UKRF in the development of a Social Enterprise Development Strategy which will enable the UKRF to coherently support people from the Recovery Community who want to establish social enterprises/Community Interest Companies.
Lots of work to do but we’re getting there. In “Recovery Time” as Bill White would say.
If you’d like more details on this stuff you can contact us at:
We make the Path by walking it.
Take care all.
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