Expressing recovery

It has been quite an eventful week for the Recovery Capital project in Peterborough which accounts for the semi-radio silence on the blog front.  But as the week draws to a close I thought I would share some of the excitement and ease you into the weekend.

On Monday I took six people in recovery to the Key Theatre in Peterborough to meet the writer, Director, producers and actors of a play being developed for Eastern Angles called ‘I heart Peterborough’.  The play tackles issues of addiction and recovery in Peterborough and they wanted to make sure that they portray a true and not wholly sensationalised version of it.  The cast and crew are committed to not perpetuating the stereotypical ‘addict’ who cares for nothing and would be happy to mug a granny, and to use the play to educate a broad audience.

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We spent nearly three hours talking through a few of the scenes, with the cast asking lots of questions about the realities of using and recovering in Peterborough.  It was amazing to see how quickly changes were able to be made to the script to incorporate the ideas and suggestions put forward. The script is still being developed and we look forward to contributing further and seeing the final play. You never know, it might come to a theatre near you one day...

On Wednesday we had the first ‘Expressing Recovery’ activity which is designed to get people in recovery talking to one another in an informal setting; start to build relationships and strengthen the links between one another; provide the space and time for participants to think about their own recovery, talk about it and express it in a variety of ways including through painting (check out the pictures); somewhere to come into the warmth and have a cup of coffee; provide information and a Q&A session about the new CRi Recovery Service coming in January 2012; and then end with a recovery peer group meeting with the local Recovery Champion.

This is the first of three initial events. If they’re popular then we will look to continue them. I certainly enjoyed myself and got to meet some incredible people who are chomping at the bit to be at the forefront of the developing Recovery Community in the city.

I can't wait to see what next week brings!