Welcome to the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community
LOOKING FOR OUR CURRENT LIST OF CLOSURES AND CANCELLATIONS??
CLICK HERE!
LOOKING FOR OUR CURRENT LIST OF ON-LINE & PHONE SUPPORTS??
CLICK HERE!
The Western Mass Recovery Learning Community (RLC) supports healing and empowerment for our broader communities and people who have been impacted by psychiatric diagnosis, trauma, extreme states, homelessness, problems with substances, and other life-interrupting challenges through:
- Peer-to-peer support & genuine human relationships
- Alternative Healing Practices
- Learning Opportunities
- Advocacy
Essential to our work is recognizing and undoing systemic injustices such as racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, transmisogyny, and psychiatric oppression.
The RLC is made up of PEOPLE (not places) and is wherever and however YOU and others from the community may choose to connect. Together, we offer a variety of events, workshops, trainings, advocacy and leadership councils, as well as a peer support line, three resource centers (Springfield, Greenfield, and Holyoke) and a Peer Respite in Northampton. Above all else, we create space for anyone who has a genuine interest in taking part in our community and holding its values to share and find connection, information, ideas and opportunities to make change in their own lives and/or the community around them. Our shared experiences and ‘humanness’ are what unite us. Our stories, collective wisdom and strength are what guide us and our community forward.
The Recovery Learning Community (RLC) is a peer-run project providing supports to individuals with lived experience. One of the founding concepts behind the RLC is that human relationships with people are healing, particularly when those people have similar experiences. And so, above all else, the RLC strives to create forums through which human relationships, community and a regional network of supports can develop. On a day-to-day basis, that effort may take the form of a community meeting, a support group, a computer workshop and/or simply offering a safe space where people can communicate with others or simply be. The RLC also acts a clearing house for information about other resources in the community.
The Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community is funded, in part, by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, the United Way of Franklin County, and a variety of private foundations and donations.
Survey: Have you Stayed at Afiya?
New Holyoke Writing Group - Write For Your Life
The "Writing Towards Recovery" group is guided by the framework that we can all benefit from writing as form of therapeutic expression. Each group starts with a 10 minute free-write where individuals are encouraged to write non-stop about anything and everything that comes to mind, as a sort of cleansing ritual that readies the participant for the challenges ahead.
The rest of the group is a combination of focused writing prompts and sharing among the group. The prompts range from creative, to non-fiction, from poetry to group-thinks. All participants are encouraged to share their writing, though no one will be forced if they feel uncomfortable. While it's not mandatory to share each time, the group is a safe space where sharing is an integral part of the process.
The ultimate goal of the group is to create an environment where participants feel motivated to write, journal, and share their words outside of the group and within the space of their own lives.
UPDATES: Operation Save RLC Greenfield
when the fifth cycle of the Greenfield Community Development Block grant the RLC has shared with Recover Project comes to an end. This funding has gone primarily toward supporting our space at 74 Federal Street, as well as some additional hours for team members. (A handful of other team member hours based in Greenfield will continue to be funded through the Department of Mental Health.)
While the RLC is firm in its belief that our community is about people and not spaces, our Greenfield Center has served as an important gathering point. It has been a place for us to come together to cocreate a healing environment in which we can gather strength with and from one another.
The space itself is also a visual representation of the power of our community when it comes together. Indeed, it was members of our community in collaboration with members of the Recover Project community (often one and the same) who came together to turn an old broken-down comic book shop with holes in the wall, and stained carpet, into the beautiful space that it has since become.
Introducing This Year’s Career Initiatives Grantees
The Western Mass RLC’s 2015/2016 Career Initiatives Grants were awarded and officially began in September, 2015. These grants are intended to support individuals who might otherwise not have access to the needed resources to pursue independent projects or start small businesses. This year’s awards are as follows:
Andrea A (Franklin County)—Andrea is continuing her project to raise awareness of lifestyle and community spirit through photography. This project is an artistic and professional photography pursuit with an intensive concentration on photo-editing and creating prints.
Psychiatry Under the Influence
Tuesday, December 1 Murphy Bill Update - One Murphy Bill Becomes Two
- Expanding forced treatment in the form of Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (often referred to as ‘Assisted Outpatient Treatment’ or AOT)
- Seeking to control and limit the ability of people working in peer roles
- Seeking to reduce or eliminate funding for anything that is not considered ‘evidence based’ (a status that can be challenging to come by for anyone offering an alternative approach)
- Seeking to exclude the voice of individuals for whom the mental health system has not worked effectively by using language that requires peer specialists and others speaking from personal experience to have been in ‘active treatment for the last two years,’ etc.
