SAYING GOODBYE TO STEVE CRAWLEY
Steve Crawley who served as National Coordinator for England has left UK SMART Recovery to pursue his own business interests. He first came to the organisation as volunteer Meeting Facilitator in 2010 and went onto impress at the interview for the National Coordinator post. He brought a commitment to SMART Recovery, a passion to see peer led meetings developed and an eye for detail. He is multi talented and was generous with his time in pursuit of seeing choice in mutual aid become a reality. In the early days he spent much of his time at conferences and events promoting SMART Recovery and making links with other recovery organisations. Latterly he had to spend more time in the office, responding to requests for advice and support. For many people he was the first port of call in their recovery journey, as they searched for a SMART meeting, or needed help with their Getting SMART assignment. He made a big contribution to UK SMART Recovery and will undoubtedly be missed. We wish him well for the future.
IT’S A SELL OUT …
UK SMART Recovery’s inaugural conference is officially a sell out with over 200 places booked. International visitors from the USA, Canada, Denmark and Ireland are expected, as well as delegates from Scotland and Wales who will be getting up very early indeed to catch the SMART Recovery coach to the event.
SMARTies will have the opportunity to hear Dr Joe Gerstein, SMART founder and Dr Tom Horvath, President who are generously travelling at their own expense to support this first conference, and of course SMART’s own Trustees Professor Robin Davidson and Professor Marcantonio Spada.
Other opportunities include taking part in an art workshop, helping to make a SMART promotional video and purchasing SMART handbooks, manuals and merchandise.
Our thanks to Alcohol Research for a grant towards the costs.
Please don’t plan to attend unless you have already booked, paid and had a confirmation email from Therese.
PEER TRAINING FOR WALES
Leigh Proctor has been hard at work providing face to face training for peers, thanks to financial support from Welsh Government. It has been so successful that SMART Recovery applied for a grant to enable a further 60 peers to be trained to facilitate either SMART Recovery meetings or Family and Friends meetings.
We just heard that this application has been successful and are delighted that people seeking recovery from addictive behaviours in Wales will benefit from more peer led SMART meetings.
TRISH ALLAN APPEARS WITH THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN!
When Trish Allan, National Coordinator for Scotland delivered the first SMART Recovery face to face Facilitator Training to seven men at HMP Addiewell she didn’t foresee the effect it would have. For some prisoners passing the SMART Recovery training course and receiving a certificate was the first time they had ever had recognition for doing something positive and it was a very powerful moment in their recovery journey.
The governor at HMP Addiewell was so impressed that they hosted a graduation event in recognition of their achievements and SMART Recovery was featured in the Scottish Prison Service magazine Gallery.
