Between 2017 and 2018, our organization implemented a project of the Community Center for Recovery (more about the project here). This is directly followed by Development and Improvement of the Community Centre project, which focuses on extending the existing activities of the Community Center and on developing new activities leading to the integration of people with mental illness into everyday life of society and strengthening social cohesion. The principle of the center is the participation of people with experience of mental illness (the so-called peer lecturers) in the activities they carry out and also public involvement. The content of the community center is based on the concept of recovery, which motivates us to actively participate in everyday life, care for ourselves, learning to manage our difficulties and which leads to a full life with illness.

 

Recovery College offers a wide range of courses on mental illness recovery that can help you achieve better wellbeing and live a happier and more fulfilled life with your illness.

The courses are designed for people with mental illness experiences and their loved ones whose role can be crucial in the recovery process. We offer hope, support and motivation on the road to recovery. We strengthen the art of building on the strengths of the individual and focusing on the future.

The team of lecturers consists of peer lecturers who are recovering from mental illness themselves and mental health experts. We are happy to share with you our personal experiences of living with illness and the story of our own path to recovery, as well as the experience from the other side as professionals working with people with mental illness.

In the second year of the Recovery College we have added three new courses - a total of 12 courses have been prepared for you: Hearing voices - Photo Story - Safety Plan - Recovery Group – Recovery - Self-management - Story of my Recovery - Finance as Part of Recovery - Self-presentation - Mental Health on the Internet - Stigma and Self-stigma - Interpersonal Relationships as Part of Recovery - How to Communicate with a Doctor about Medication.

We want the Recovery College to be open to everyone, so the courses are free. If you are interested in some of them, you can apply without obligation through the link and our study advisors will then contact you by e-mail. Participation in the course is preceded by a personal meeting, where we will answer your questions, help you choose the courses you want to attend and together fill in the application form.

Theater and Literary Workshop

In Recovery College we organize also the theater and literary workshops to provide a creative space for people with mental illness and other members of the public to meet and supporte participants in creative development and self-knowledge through art.

The main goals of the theater workshop are self-knowledge through acting, acquiring stage performance and developing acting skills through training for the development of prompt action. Working together allows for personal development, self-presentation and work with one's own imagination and story. On the other hand, it will strengthen interplay, empathy and mutual inspiration, from which the workshop will result in the preparation of public performances. Such creative activity also helps to build and maintain a psychosomatic condition, self-awareness in movement, acquiring the right breath, relying on one's own life experience, self-reflection and relaxation. The maximum capacity of the workshop is 10 participants, the workshop meetings take place once a week for three hours. The workshop is provided by two lecturers - one peer lecturer and the other a professional - a theater artist.

Literary workshop is all those interested in literature. Under the leadership of two lecturers, Tomáš Vaněk and Jan Škrob, the participants here, as in the past year, focus on poetry and prose, write, read, talk about writing and share. Workshops take place every 14 days for three hours in one of Prague's literary cafes and every three months there is a literary evening with readings by the participants of literary workshops. The invitation is always accepted by one special guest (poet, novelist, essayist). The results of the work of the participants of the literary workshops and their own activities are the basis for the newly created magazine Zámezí, which is published every 3 months in electronic form.

 

# The New Year begins in Recovery College with the publication of the fourth issue of the Zámezí magazine. This time, the editors and authors looked at the tooth of “Humor”. "The new issue of Zámezí will give you a glimpse of humor as a weapon in the fight against sadness and life difficulties, but also of its kind a source of sadness and life difficulties." (Editor-in-chief of Jan Jiri Novak)

The magazine can be read at this link.

# Autumn semester courses started at the Recovery College. We could only start with a course called "Recovery". We learned from the student feedback that they had received "lots of useful advice and suggestions for reflection". If you would also like to attend our free courses, please register HERE. We look forward to meeting you!

# On Tuesday, September 3, there was a very pleasant meeting of the employees of the Recovery College and the team of our Center with Conny Ariëns, the founder of Eagle Shelter in the Netherlands. The basic idea for our meeting was to share the concept of this community center, which acts as a safe haven for meeting others, for hope, growth, recovery, creativity and the use of your talent. Everyone at the center is welcome - without stigmatization and "putting labels". We thank Conny for sharing your rich experience in building Eagle Shelter and look forward to meeting you again in the future!

# Hello to all of you from Recovery College! We would like to invite you to the Recovery Group meetings, which will be held from 26 August every Monday between 5pm and 7pm. You can look forward to 12 meetings in which we will focus on hope, courage, patience, faith and other "helpers" on the road to recovery in a narrow shared circle.

# You can find the offer of courses within the Recovery College here. If you are interested in any of them, you can sign in without obligation and we will contact you by email. We look forward to meeting you!

# We published a summer double issue of the magazine Zámezí with the theme “Home”. For example, you can enjoy the paintings of Glenn Brady, an Australian painter who has experience in psychiatric care himself, or learn from an interview with Emil Jira what it's like to live on the street. The magazine can be read under this link.

# On Thursday, July 18, another Literary Evening took place, this time in Žižkov in a breathtaking prostor39. The evening was held when the summer issue of the magazine ZÁMEZÍ was released. The evening was accompanied by Jan Škrob and a special guest was the poet Olga Pek.

# We published an article in the Social Work magazine about the process of introducing peer lecturers positions and how peer lecturers themselves relate to their roles. We are very happy about it! Read HERE.

# On Tuesday, April 23, 2019, this year's first Literary Evening was organized by members of the Literary Workshop. The literary reading took place in the pleasant atmosphere of the (A)VOID Floating Gallery and the special guest of the evening was the poet Jonáš Zbořil.

# We are pleased to share with you the first volume of the newly created Zámezí magazine, which presents the results of the work of the Literary Workers participants and their own activities. You can read the magazine via this link.