Graduate Life-Long Learning Support Group
The Graduate Life Long Learning Support Group has a vision. To offer continuous (‘Life Long’) support to those who have graduated from Coolmine, both in the recent and more distant past. It is a self-supporting network developed by the Graduate Coordinator working with other graduates, on the basis of relapse prevention group, social events and fun activities.
This group was set up to meet a long-recognised need in Coolmine, for a formal support structure for clients after they graduate from the Aftercare phase of the therapeutic programme. In 2008, the post of Graduate Coordinator was created under the auspices of the Coolmine Community Employment Scheme, to provide a focus for the energy and ideas of Coolmine’s graduate body.
The Vision
The Graduate Life Long Learning Support Group has a vision. To offer continuous (‘Life Long’) support to those who have graduated from Coolmine, both in the recent and more distant past. It is a self-supporting network developed by the Graduate Coordinator working with other graduates, on the basis of relapse prevention group, social events and fun activities.
Our focus for the future is on peer support and “giving back”, two concepts fundamental to the therapeutic community philosophy. Although just in its first year, The Graduate Life Long Learning Support Group looks forward with confidence to a promising future of working to provide support for graduates by graduates.
Apart from looking after one another, a core aim of the graduates is to support current Coolmine clients through assisting the Client Coordinator, advising the Client Participation Forum, and offering the expertise of our experience on matters arising from Forum meetings.
A mentoring programme will be created to allow graduates to offer informal support to existing clients, and advice on job placements and training, as part of the Integration and Aftercare programme.
The group will also play a part in offering support to management and staff teams throughout the organisation. This support will be offered through keeping in touch in regular meetings, and our availibility for consultation, fundraising and networking.
Establishing this group is an important addition to the Coolmine experience, as it is clear to us all, as graduates of Coolmine, that once we reach the milestone of graduation, we take the next step on our path, and begin a new journey of discovery and learning. We can now share this experience on common ground with the people we know – our fellow graduates and the staff who helped us on our way – and with the people who are now at the place in which we took the first step – those who are starting out on the road to recovery in the Coolmine programme.
If you are a graduate of Coolmine, you can join our online blog. The blog is available for graduates to use as a resource for keeping in touch and supporting one another. Watch Amy’s video diary to find out what it’s like to graduate from Coolmine.