NILP’s North East Recovery Learning Community Experiences Explosive Growth!

NILP’s North East Recovery Learning Community is re-convening its Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC), led by Stephanie Morrill, a youth leader in the North East Area. The CAC has begun meeting this month (October), with two basic tasks: (1) Formulating a set of bylaws and principles, including officers, frequency of meetings, and the like and (2) Designing a strategic planning process for the entire NERLC to plan its mission and vision for the next three to five years. This is an exciting undertaking, one that will invite and involve all participants to examine what the NERLC is today and engage in the envisioning of what it will become in the future in the context of its contract with the Department of Mental Health. Many new possibilities are being discussed and discovered, and new programs are getting off the ground. Stay tuned for more news from your CAC.

Please check out our monthly calendar of events on the RLC page of our website or ask Ann to mail you one frequently because there could be a brand new group starting in your town, if not today, maybe tomorrow, as we support our new peer facilitators in putting their recent training to use.

In addition, you are cordially invited, as a member of our community, to apply for a rare series of trainings to be delivered in Wakefield by the National Empowerment Center in collaboration with the RLC entitled “Finding Our Voice and Recovery Dialogue” Training. If you care deeply about individual and systems advocacy, this training is especially for you, because we really want and need your input and insight! Links to a thorough description and application form are available on the RLC page of the NILP website. Hope to see you in November!

We have just started a group called Adventures in Wellness, devoted primarily to alternative or complementary wellness practices. Outdoor Expeditions got a rousing start on October 16 with a trip to America’s oldest continuously working farm, Appleton Farm in Hamilton, to participate in a work day and hike the grassy trails. Check the calendar for future expeditions! “Photographic Foundations” will begin on November 8, and we will also have a Poetry group to round out our new Creative Expressions groups. We have employment peer support group facilitators actively developing curriculum focused on combining job seeking skills with what appeals to people’s job interests and passions.

We are hosting a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) training which began in September in Lowell, and another will begin in Gloucester starting in December. At least two more WRAP trainings will be held by the end of June 2010.

The Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) was created by Mary Ellen Copeland, Ph.D., to help people who experience mild to severe psychiatric conditions. This program is a result of her own ongoing personal search for wellness and improvement in the quality of her life, in spite of being diagnosed with manic depression, major depression, and other conditions.

WRAP is a structured system for monitoring uncomfortable and distressing symptoms, and through creating a systematic plan, reducing, modifying or eliminating those symptoms. It also includes the opportunity for each individual to plan on how to get help from others when symptoms have made it too difficult for him/her to take care of him/herself. WRAP planning helps people improve the overall quality of their lives as well as to feel prepared and safe when life feels too challenging.

The North East Green Recovery Initiative (NEGRI) is another new initiative gaining momentum by building new partnerships in the area. This work rebuilds and reinforces connection to ourselves, each other and the natural world.

In addition to providing you with information and referral services, we invite you to do your own explorations in our resource room online or within our files with staff assistance as needed. We are actively reorganizing and updating our mental health resources in the resource room at NILP and look forward to providing you with new lending options in the future, including topics related to recovery, and well-being along with sources that will inform and enhance your shared decision-making with providers. We have three computers in our resource room and we are gathering many links related to human rights, wellness, benefits, housing, and the like. It is still quite a work in progress, but one that is becoming more fun all the time!

Please mark your calendars and join us for our very interactive “Turning Peer Power into a Paycheck.”

Our second Regional Cross-Disability Peer Employment Networking Event has been re-scheduled for Wednesday, December 15 from 3:00pm-5:00pm. The location for the event is the Beverly Co-op Bank at 73 Lafayette Street in Salem, MA.  

This will be the second of two events planned this fall to launch our new Regional Peer Employment Network. This network is a partnership involving The North East Recovery Learning Community, the Transformation Center and representatives of a state initiative called Work Without Limits, administered through the University of Massachusetts. Together, we are sponsoring two regional cross-disability peer employment networking events. (The first one was held in October.) We can certainly learn from others who have broken through multiple barriers and support each other as we pursue vocational journeys that have meaning for us! If you are unable to join us in December, please contact us anyway, to learn about future events and opportunities.

Return to RLC page