The Recovery Connector – December 2024

Peer Recovery Takeover Event

Peer support groups are a wonderful way to support recovery and maintain sobriety. You will see posters for these community groups in all of our hubs, and our keyworkers encourage everyone to attend.

It sounds easy to attend these groups, but it can also be very daunting to go to a new place, with people that you’ve never met to try a group that you know very little about. 

Our coordinator often gets told by clients “Change Grow Live is my safe space” which got us thinking... if the thought of trying a group in the community feels too big, why don’t we bring these groups into the hub for just 1 day!

In August, we did exactly that in our Maidstone hub!  We had five different organisations who each held a 30-minute taster session.

Aspire 2 Be kicked off the day and were followed by Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and SMART Recovery, with the day being rounded off with a Meet and Greet Session from LERO ROAR. Each of the group rooms were full and many chose to stay for the whole day.

We are currently planning similar sessions in our Tunbridge Wells and Gravesend hubs…. keep an eye out for more details in the New Year.

Endings and new beginnings

As the year draws to a close, we bid a fond farewell to two prominent, long serving and very much respected members of staff.

Jane, locality lead in Maidstone, left in November to explore a new career. She leaves behind the legacy of a well-rounded, high performing, caring and compassionate team who are a credit to her kindness, dedication and hard work in her leadership and as a person.

All the team wish Jane the very best of luck in her new adventure.

Kim, Team leader in Maidstone will be leaving us in December as she will be retiring after nearly 20 years in this field.

Kim has been the backbone of the Maidstone service and when staff were asked to reflect on their time working alongside her, these are some of the words, they used: legend, shield, inspiring, serene, protected, compassionate, kind, thoughtful, and dependable.

Kim and Jane’s presence will be missed in Maidstone, but their legacies will remain.

Kim has shared the story of her journey through services below.

Kim’s journey 

If anyone had told me in the Spring of 2005 that I would be working in substance misuse services by the Summer of that year I would have looked at them in disbelief and laughed.  Well... here we are nearly 20 years later with me having done exactly that.

I was looking for a job closer to home having commuted to Tilbury in Essex for almost 2 years working for the NSPCC. As you can imagine the journey across the river takes its toll. The job I applied for was for an administrator with Medway Drug Intervention Team and, long story short, I got the job.

The office was at the back of Equinox in Rochester. When I say back of, I mean in the car park!!  A small two roomed office. When I asked where the toilet was, I was directed to a brick building in the car park. My reaction… “what have I done”. My last job was in a big old police station, and this was some transition. However, the ladies I worked with were brilliant and I am still friends with them to this day. I even met two of my current colleagues, Sinclair and Andy, whilst working there.

At this time, two of my colleagues went on maternity leave and I became a “jack of all trades”.  Meeting people as they came out of prison to refer them to local services, visiting them in prison, meeting with other agencies. All a big learning curve, but one I thoroughly enjoyed. I learnt so much from people I was supporting and decided to take up the offer of completing a course at Folkestone College in Substance Misuse. Later, in 2012, I joined Change Grow Live.

There have been some great times, some difficult times, some laughs and some tears.   I have seen many successes and been amazed at the strength of people. I have been frustrated at barriers people face accessing treatment and working with other support services and have worked hard to try and rectify that. I think that is why I get up every day and WANT to go to work.

I retire on the 13th of December. I will leave behind some people that I have worked with since moving to Maidstone in 2008(Lorraine, Hayley, Steve, Tracy, Helen) as well as team members that have joined along the way.  I will miss each and every one of them and could not have got through the years without them. They have been my rock.

I also will say goodbye to clients who have been with us for that long too. I hope that they continue to gain support from the services.

I wish you all the strength to continue your journeys and to find the support that I know is there when you want and need it.

I am off to have new adventures. Over the years my children have grown into men, and I now have 4 grandsons. I will enjoy spending more time with them before they are too old to want to be around Nan. I also got married this year to my long-term partner Stewart. We plan to spend more time travelling in our motor home with our lurcher Poppy. I am looking forward to the future with good memories of the past 19 years.