Student Engagement

Student Voice

The Recovery College welcomes you to attend our Student Voice meetings, currently held online. 

These are a great opportunity for you to be involved in shaping the future of the college and be part of its success! Exploring and developing ideas whilst connecting with fellow students. All participation is voluntary.

In our meetings we encourage students to:

• Share feedback on current courses and ideas for new courses.
• Practice recovery-focussed skills learned from courses in a safe and supportive environment.
• Voluntarily contribute written articles about their Recovery College journeys as well as photography and other creative skills. These can be shared in the prospectus and our newsletters.
• Attend our Student Voice Socials, which are held every three months. These are theme based and are an ideal way to further interact with the college and other students.

If you are interested and would like to join us at meetings and socials, then please email: hiowh.recoverycollege@nhs.net

The Recovery College Extra

Every three months, we host The Recovery College Extra online. 

It is a great opportunity to meet and engage with other Recovery College students. Sharing and learning about a chosen theme which is held outside of a course environment.

Each of our Recovery College Extra’s consists of a theme, which is collaboratively chosen during our Student Voice Meetings, which are also held every three months. Previous themes have consisted of wellness tools, journaling and mindfulness.

There is always at least one member of staff present at The Recovery College Extra.

Keep an eye out in our timetable and for an email from our admin team, informing you when our next Recovery College Extra will be taking place.

We look forward to seeing you there!

If you are interested and would like to join us at the next Recovery College Extra, then please email: hiowh.recoverycollege@nhs.net

The Recovery College Newsletter

Our Recovery College Newsletters are published quarterly. They include highlights of some of the key developments at the college, as well as reflections from our courses and upcoming events. Ideas for the newsletter will be explored with our students in the Student Voice meeting.

The Recovery College Learning Plan

The Recovery College Learning Plan is available to all students at any point of their journey with the College, but to maximise their effectiveness, we’d recommend completing one as early as possible after your induction/enrolment.

A learning plan is a really useful tool to help you identify your learning goals and then create your own course pathway to help you achieve these goals. In this way, you can keep track of your progress with the college, celebrate your achievements and really get the most out of your college experience.

The Learning Plan can be completed independently so you can download your own copy or you can have support from our Learning Plan Assistant. Please contact The Recovery College to book your session with them.

Student Support Plans

We recognise that becoming a student at the college may be nerve-racking. It may be the first time back in an educational setting or mixing socially with new people. For these and other reasons, our trainers offer individual student support plan meetings to discuss concerns you may have with attending our courses.  

In these safe and supportive meetings we can help you explore: 

• What to expect from attending courses and issues around using IT
• Things that you consider may affect your learning including physical and mental wellbeing or learning difficulties
• What skills and strategies you feel would help, to support yourself and your learning and how the college trainers could support you with these during the courses.   

Once completed, this support plan is then sent to you and shared with our trainers so that they can action the support needs identified during the courses you attend.

If you feel that a support plan would be helpful for you at any point during your attendance at the college please contact us hiowh.recoverycollege@nhs.net

Research and Studies

We are proud to be apart of a study that is exploring the impact of Recovery Colleges across the UK.

We are encouraging recently enrolled students to take part in the two part study. You will be asked to complete a set of questionnaires at 4 time-points; once when you agree to participate in RECOLLECT, then 4, 8 and 12 months later. You will be compensated with a £15 voucher for every set of questionnaires you complete. 

If you would like to participate in study 1 or 2, you must:

• Be aged 18 or older
• Be using a local secondary NHS mental health service (eg., a community mental health team or assertive outreach team)
• Have attended no more than one, Step 1 Recovery College course 

If you have any questions or would like to be involved, you can complete the expression of interest form here
Recollect Expression of Interest Form

You can also email us at research@southernhealth.nhs.uk or talk to a member of staff at your Recovery College