It is with grateful thanks to ten County Councillors - Mark Watkin, John Lloyd, Matthew Hurst, Audrey Oaten, Nigel Bell, Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Seamus Quilty, Deirdre Anne Gates, Barbara Lamb and Morris Bright - that The Recovery In-Sight Centre is able to relocate from its premises in the Hatfield Business Park to The Old Free School, George Street, Watford, WD18 0BX from 31st August 2010, when its prize from the University of Hertfordshire for Best Business Plan in its 2009 FLARE competition concludes.

It is also with grateful thanks to obtaining a successful Grassroots grant, managed by the Hertfordshire Community Foundation, that this move is able to take place.

The Recovery In-Sight Centre, after spending one year in the Maclaurin Building, close to Business Link, Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce and Exemplas, as well as Graduate Futures, has been able to establish itself, doing excellent work in the field of recovery - and will now be partnering up with the firm Retail Human Resources who owns The Old Free School, a building of over 300 years old as well as other offices in the UK.

Looking back over the year’s achievements - University accreditation for the Recovery In-Sight course with Middlesex University, PTTLS training for all the trainers, website establishment with new e-learning page, films made that are linked in to Vimeo and Facebook sites, exclusive launch with 8 top UK and international speakers in the field of involvement and recovery, and business advice from Ruth Badger from The Apprentice fame, as well as competently delivering 3 courses and running two self-help groups in Hertfordshire - the team is now able to strengthen its base and the activities it delivers in the wider Hertfordshire community,  in taking up offices in this prestigious listed building.

Built as the first free school in Watford by Dame Elizabeth Fuller who later founded the Watford Grammar Schools, the team is delighted to be able to work in such an historical building located in a quiet oasis in the heart of Watford. With three offices, it is also able to engage more volunteers, people who are looking to build up their job and their recovery skills in a supportive user-run work environment, before returning to the wider job market with confidence and resilience in this phase of recession. If you are interested in taking up a Pre-Back-To-Work voluntary opportunity such as this, then do let us know.

Many of The Recovery In-Sight Centre team members and volunteers come from the South West Herts area, especially Hemel Hempstead and Watford where the first Recovery In-Sight Bipolar Support Group was founded in January 2006 at The Quakers in Watford, and a couple are past pupils of the Watford Grammar Schools, so Founder’s Days spent in St Mary’s Church, walking past the Alms Houses and The Old Free School, bring back happy memories.

The services that The Recovery In-Sight Centre delivers - recovery and job skills training, self-help and peer mentoring, research services, conference presentations and workshops, and voluntary opportunities will therefore be able to sustain and develop is this new supportive environment which will enable the team to grow.

It is wonderful to know that the new workplace also comes with its own (friendly) ghost … !

Also that the Old Free School will be returned to its former glory and aim - that of providing free training to the community’s most needy but most deserving.

As the team finalises its status of Social Entreprise formally over the Summer,  it is with great joy that The Recovery In-Sight Centre will move into The Old Free School in Watford on 31st August.

The Recovery In-Sight Centre is welcoming further support from County Councillors and from the Hertfordshire Community Foundation so that running and training/supervisory costs may be met for this project which the team believes is a service of the future, today. Information packs have been sent to County Coucillors to engage their support for this worthy and much-needed project to enable people in their recovery.

Following on from the findings of the Hertfordshire Day Opportunities Review, it appears that The Recovery In-Sight Centre is ticking all the boxes of what service users express their needs to be: coping with their mental illness and interpersonal skills (through the Recovery In-Sight training), self-help and group support (through the 2 groups that the Centre runs); meaningful voluntary opportunities and job skills as a way to return to employment (that the Centre provides through its job skills training and supervision in its offices).

Much more than that, The Recovery In-Sight Centre enables people with mental health challenges to take up new paid work opportunities in the services that it delivers: self-help group facilitation, training, research and advisory services in mental health.

If you wish to make a contribution to enable this project to sustain and to develop, please contact The Recovery In-Sight Centre on its new telephone number: 01923-297122.

Please click here to download a map and a picture of The Old Free School  the-old-free-school-watford1

We hope to welcome all our supporters and all our members to The Old Free School in the Autumn, when we will be organising an Autumn “office warming”.

People who have expressed an interest in attending include many County Councillors who have generously given from their Locality Budgets this year and last year, and supporters such as Dorothy Thornhill Mayor of Watford, and Richard Harrington MP for Watford, who has been extremely supportive of this project.

Actor Joe McGann also lends his continued support of the development of The Recovery In-Sight Centre.

More details will follow. If you are a past In-Sight trainee, or self-help group attendee, then do get in touch to register your interest in attending what will be a ‘main event’ in the calendar of recovery from mental ill health in the Herts area.

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