Saturday 22 April 2023

That was the week that was


Twelve from Salt Lake City, Utah - plus Nick

For me, it all kicked off at Heathrow last Sunday, when I met nine of the twelve from Utah and accompanied them on the good old slow but solid Piccadilly Line into central London. The Canadians intending to come were mentioned in the previous post – Sherry Mumford, Tracey Harvey, Brenda Plant and Isaac Hernandez. They had arrived the day before were halved in number - originally four, but reduced to two by possible post-concussion problems for Brenda, and Isaac by missing a connecting flight because of delays caused by a Russian volcano. The other three from Utah are the Grenny family, the original founders of the extraordinary project to make a therapeutic village for people  who had fallen out of society: www.theothersidevillage.com . They had also arrived on Saturday, and were comfortably settled in their Park Lane hotel.


Tracey and Sherry from Vancouver
The Canadians are now in the air, somewhere over Greenland according to Flight Tracker.
Some of the Utahns are leaving later today, and some of them tomorrow. As I said in the last community meeting, I’m knackered.
This page is to acknowledge everybody who helped and participated – including our visitors in true ‘horizonalisation’, TC-style! Thank you, everybody.




British Columbia Addiction Recovery Association:

Sherry Mumford                  Tracey Harvey                      Isaac Hernandez (apols)     Brenda Plant (apols)

 

The Other Side Academy and Village, Utah, USA: 

Timothy Stay                         Joseph Grenny                     Samuel Grenny                    Celia Grenny        

Dalita Stay                             David Durocher                   Tiffany Blair                           Russell Pearson   

Robbie Myrick                      Bryan Billmire                       Moe Egan                              William Bell

                                                                               

We had dinners with the visitors on the Sunday and Monday, an all-day seminar on Monday for 25 people (including people from TCTC, CofC and EE at RCPsych CCQI), the NHS and MoJ collaboration for the Offender PD Programme, people with lived experience, researchers and others);

 

·         Nick Benefield (OPDP & RP),

·         Peter Cockersell (CHT and homelessness sector),

·         Jaymie Darrell (Nottingham University),

·         Rex Haigh (Coordinator and RP),

·         Neelam Khawani-Connett (Expert-by-experience),

·         Heather Macey (Homestead project),

·         Chris Nicholson (TCTC - apols),

·         Barbara Rawlings (TC researcher),

·         Sarah Skett (OPDP NHS Lead - apols),

·         Bethan Thibaut (RCPsych),

·         John Turberville (Community of Communities),

·         Kirk Turner (OPDP HMPPS lead)

 

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday they all went in various directions; Thursday was a full-on seminar day of presentations, games, discussions and community meetings from all those involved in various Thames Valley initiatives with sad acknowledgement of how much Steve Pearce was behind it all, and how much he would have loved to be involved in this day. There were 38 of us there in a basement room of Green Templeton College – the local participants were:

 

·         Gill Attwood (Uber-organiser)

·         Debbie Stirzacker (Uber-admin)

·         Mart (STARS)

·         Gill (STARS)

·         Kristina (STARS)

·         Fiona Blyth (Educator)

·         Stuart Whitelaw (TCEPT)

·         Lucy and Lauren (from Response Women’s house – apols; Gill A stood in)

·         Adrian Childs plus two XBXs (Elmore)

·         Dave Roberts (Mulberry Bush Organisation)

·         Geoff Dennis (Enabling Town Slough)

 

Four of us went to HMP Send on Friday (the TC prison for women with both preparation and  progression PIPEs). Now it is Saturday. Time to stop.

 And FYI - here is some of the basic information we gave the visitors, about British DTC organisations and events:


Democratic Therapeutic Communities:

 organisations and events

 

The Confederation of Therapeutic Communities (TCTC)

British professional organisation with journal, annual conference, research group and other activities. https://therapeuticcommunities.org/

Next conference: Birmingham, UK. 25-27 September 2023

Contact: Chris Nicholson cnich@essex.ac.uk (Chair)

 

International Network of Democratic Therapeutic Communities (INDTC)

Small but growing network of professionals involved in DTCs including UK, Italy, India, Portugal, Hungary, Japan. Currently being hosted by Portugal.

https://indtc.org/   Regular online events; next conference: Lisbon 2024

Contact: João G. Pereira joaogpereira@fundacaords.org (President)

 

Community of Communities (CofC)

Quality improvement network with annual peer review cycle and formal accreditation, run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI).

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/ccqi/quality-networks-accreditation/community-of-communities

Next conference: Annual Forum, London, 6 June 2023

Contact: Bethan Thibaut bethan.thibaut@rcpsych.ac.uk (Programme Manager)

 

Enabling Environments (EE)

Values-based award recognising and accrediting relational practice over a three-year cycle, also run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists CCQI.

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/ccqi/quality-networks-accreditation/enabling-environments-network-ee/what-are-they

Next conference: Annual Forum, London, 27 September 2023

Contact: Bethan Thibaut bethan.thibaut@rcpsych.ac.uk (Programme Manager)

 

Mulberry Bush Organisation

Runs international training, organisational consultancy and a therapeutic community school with outreach services. Specifically for DTCs, they run the British experiential ‘Living-Learning Experiences’ (LLEs): https://mulberrybush.org.uk/eventstraining/the-living-learning-experience-lle/ and the ‘Therapeutic Communities and Environments Practitioner Training’ (TCEPT): https://mulberrybush.org.uk/eventstraining/therapeutic-environments-practitioner-course-tcept/ in a rural setting in Gloucestershire.

Next LLEs: 26-28 May 2023; 13-15 June 2023; 12-14 September 2023 (several per year)

Next TCEPT intake: late 2024

Contacts: Dave Roberts droberts@mulberrybush.org.uk.(training);

Sarah Paget spaget@mulberrybush.org.uk (consultancy);

John Turberville jturberville@mulberrybush.org.uk (CEO).

 

International Network of Living-Learning Experiences (INLLE)

A group of DTC practitioners from across the world who can arrange the 3-day DTC experiential training in partnership with interested organisations. http://inlle.org/

Next events: Belgrade: 19-21 August 2023; Vancouver: 13-20 Sept 2023 (2 LLEs)

Contact: Shama Parkhe spark0990@gmail.com


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