By Stephen Ball
Welcome to our regular round-up, collected by our Community Development Team from their work around Devon. Here you’ll find items that support your personal recovery, volunteering, jobs, training courses, and research requests.
Have something you’d like us to add next time? Get in touch!
Happy New Year to all!
Wow, 2025!!!
Anyone remember thinking how old you would be in 2000? Incredible how fast the time goes.
Our New Years message is to keep on fighting, no matter how you might be feeling at this present moment.
Positive things can happen and we’re including all our podcasts from 2024 in this edition to show some great examples of how people have turned their lives around.
If you’ve been having one kind of therapy and you feel like it’s not going anywhere, try something else.
If you are doing something you are not really enjoying every week, stop. Do something that YOU really enjoy doing.
One positive change can lead to so much.
Enjoy group activities, indoor our outdoor. Neuroscience has shown that positive conversation with others gives you the chemical Oxytocin, an essential chemical you need in feeling well. Go and get some large doses of this.
Make a fun challenge for yourself this year, but something which is reasonable and within your grasp. Share how you are getting on with others. Once you’ve taken some small steps you’ll find you can start to make bigger steps.
Lots to look forward to with Recovery Devon. Another year of podcasts, another year of liaising with our Community Development Fund Winners. In a few months time the applications for the next round of funding will commence.
We have a permanent presence in West Devon, we are expanding our employee training role, going out to more locations to teach mental health awareness. We’ll be organising more of our popular Wellbeing fairs.
We are very excited about 2025 and can’t wait to spend a rewarding year with you all.
Sidwell Scribblers Podcast
Chronic Pain Café Podcast Part 1
Chronic Pain Café Podcast Part 2
D&C Directory of mental heath services
Culture of Care Project
The vital Culture of Care Project is continuing. Keep up the brilliant work Marie.
With the Culture of Care, both Recovery Devon and Together from Devon Partnership Trust are asking for those with lived and living experience of inpatient stays in the wards to take part to help support with co-producing the program. This is happening over 4 wards: Coombehaven, Salus, Ocean and Meadow View.
Please contact Sami: Sami@recoverydevon.co.uk or Marie: marie.ash@nhs.net
If you are interested in finding out more, there is payment for involvement.
The voice of lived and living experience is vital to this work.
Below are pictures giving a background to this exciting project
What’s happening in the community in November
Mid Devon & East Devon
The next section is for Together / EDP, Mid Devon.
Please note the Sober Open Mic Night is now at Parklife Community Hub Exeter, EX1 3DN
Together offer vital services to assist people in recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. All activities listed here are open to the general public.
For more information and points of contact, please go to their website here https://www.edp.org.uk/together/
Further activities listed here:
Andy’s Man Club
At ANDYSMANCLUB, we want to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and create a judgment-free, confidential space where men can be open about the storms in their lives. We aim to achieve this through weekly, free-to-attend peer-to-peer support groups for men aged over 18.
Several locations across Mid Devon, East Devon and South Devon.
Search here for your nearest group and for more information.
https://andysmanclub.co.uk/find-your-nearest-group
North Devon – What’s happening in the community
Together team:
Flourish in Nature
Our Flourish in Nature project has partnered with South Molton Town Council, and Vicky @ Wild things Forest School to provide woodland wellbeing mindfulness sessions in South Moltons beautiful community woodland. These are 3 x pilot sessions, that anyone in South Molton can access free of charge and experience the healing power of nature in a safe and supportive group setting. Pictures attached.
Anyone interested in finding out more, or partnering to put on activities with Flourish in Nature can email flourishinnature@together-devon.org.uk
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Please download the below document to get an overview of all the additional events and activities we regularly put on in the North Devon area.
https://www.edp.org.uk/together/
Please visit our flourish drop in which is led by 2 of our volunteers with lived experience. Every week has something different going on, and this week( (first week of October) we have a visit from Petroc college to share about what courses they offer and how adult education can be funded.
South Devon – What’s happening in the community
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Andy’s Man’s Club locations in South Devon
https://andysmanclub.co.uk/find-your-nearest-group
Wellbeing Events / Courses from Plymouth Octopus
To book on a course go to their website and to the events section
Plymouth Mental Health Reg
Plymouth Mental Health Recovery and Empowerment Group (Plymouth REG) is on a mission to inspire, empower and educate anyone in Plymouth who wants to improve their wellbeing and also anyone who has an interest in learning about mental health.
For more details please visit their website:
https://www.plymouthoctopus.org/collectives/plymouth-mental-health-recovery-and-empowerment-group/
Letter of Hope
We are delighted to share the relaunch of the Letter of Hope, a resource we have created in partnership with Devon Partnership Trust and by people in Devon with personal experience of suicide.
We have launched two new versions of the letter; Letter for Tomorrow for young people written by young people, and Hope Letter, an Easy Read version for people with learning disabilities. To find out more please click here. Or get in touch with us if you would like to order physical copies.
Join our aDoddle Community Map!
We are partners with the wonderful folk at aDoddle. They are working with you and your community to make it as easy for everyone to find help and support locally as it is to find a hotel or restaurant on Google Maps.
By Mapping UK Charities, Community Projects, Groups & Organisations together we are creating a national resource for use at a local level. It’s free to create a profile on aDoddle, and this can hold all sorts of information, making it great for small groups who can’t afford a website.
Do you have a not-for-profit community mental health offer you’d like us to share?
With thousands of social media followers and newsletter subscribers across Devon, we’d love to help you find your community. Send an email (hello@recoverydevon.co.uk) with “Roundup” in the subject header.