Link up no 1 final

Phoenix Futures presents

Link—up The newsletter from Phoenix Re:United Volume 1, Issue 1

July 2013

Friends Re:United in Recovery It is a great pleasure to introduce this newsletter for all Phoenix Graduates.

I know that back in the day when I graduated it felt like such a huge achievement that I thought I had ‘made it’ – how misguided I was. The real work comes after graduation as we reintegrate back to life without dependency.

That’s why I was keen to join a group of other Graduates to help set up Phoenix Re:United a network for Phoenix Graduates whenever and wherever they completed their programmes.

While independent from Phoenix Futures we will work under its wing but the network is for graduates and will be run by

graduates. Many ideas including further Voyages of Recovery, practical help and social events have already been put on the table.

What is needed is that all graduates contact their peers to see if they are interested in sharing their experiences with the rest of us. Participation is the key to success in supporting more and more graduates find productive and happy lives after the traumas we all experienced.

We need ideas for support, events and help with reaching out to people who may have had lapses after graduation but aspire to recovery. Their experiences are so valid too!

So let’s get this show on the road and develop this support network for Phoenix Graduates new and old.

A message form Karen

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Back in the day

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Peter Martin

My Recovery tips

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Graduated 1977

Graduates on the high seas

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Contributors Wanted

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Phoenix Re:United: Our new club Over the past 40 years a key part of the process of recovery for people engaging with Phoenix Futures’ treatment programmes has been the experience of being part of a closely knit peer group. Bonds formed over the period when dramatic life changes take place are incredibly strong and maintaining those bonds is often a key factor in a persons continued recovery. By establishing a

club for Phoenix graduates we hope that a more structured network of peer support and contact under the Phoenix Futures umbrella will develop which we hope will assist people in their continuing journey of recovery.

As we all learn in the original Phoenix Philosophy, we are all “part of the whole with a share in its purpose”.

Inside this issue:

Phoenix Re:United Champions: In order to keep things moving forward and to create some local momentum we would like to appoint local Phoenix Re:United champions whose role would be to feed information and ideas into the advisory committee, take a lead on establishing local groups and networks of Phoenix Graduates and participate in local Completion/ Graduation/ Recovery Day events as a representative of Phoenix Re:United.

Bob Campbell, pictured on the ‘desk’ - Phoenix London 1977

Is this for you? If so contact me, Bob Campbell on 01142515928

Link—up

A message from Karen

This is where it all started: Phoenix House, Prospect Place, New York in the 1960’s ..groovy or what!

I’d like to offer my welcome to the first edition of Link Up, the newsletter for Phoenix Re:United members.

recovery all rooted in the Phoenix approach, a wealth of diverse experience joined together in ‘common ground’.

Since the launch of Phoenix Re:United at the New Years Honours event this year I have seen many recent graduates get their membership and become members of the club. They have told me how important it is to them in those early days of recovery to be part of something so affirming and positive. The real value of Phoenix Re:United is that it has the potential to bring together thousands of experiences of

I am privileged to regularly meet Phoenix Graduates, some who have been through treatment decades ago may not have discussed their ‘Phoenix days’ for years. I was at an event last month and on the train home I reflected on the number of Phoenix graduates that were in the room. Some knew each other, some I had met for the first time but all shared a passion and love of life that was inspiring.

I hope that through Link Up some of that ‘common ground’ is revisited but also you share your experience of life since Phoenix which after all is what we are here for.

Id like to thank Bob Campbell for working so hard to create Phoenix Re:United and Link Up. He continues to be an inspiration to many in treatment. I’d also like to thank Peter Martin who has kindly agreed to steer Phoenix Re:United in its infancy.

Karen Biggs CEO Phoenix Futures

Back in the day…

It was going to take a lot of changes before I could say “I’ve got my act together”…..

Tell us a joke!!!!!

Do you remember what it was like walking through that door into Phoenix on your first day of the rest of your life?

I never thought any of us on my drug scene would be doing anything other than using gear and getting involved in all sorts of madness. So it was something of a shock to realize that all these very together and friendly people that welcomed me with

Because he was too far out maaaan…...

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In fact I realized that I knew some of them from the ’Gate, the ‘Grove, the ‘Scrubbs and the ‘Ville, although they were almost unrecognizable in their sunny dispositions and rude good health.

So this is what it was like to be off the gear and getting your life together.

The trouble for me was that I thought that just by being there I could be like them. When I looked in the mirror later that day I still saw the gaunt and wasted creature that I had become. It was going to take a lot of changes before I could say “I’ve got my act together”…..

My Recovery Tips Hello, I’d like to introduce myself as one of the steering group for Phoenix reunited.

Why did the hippie drown….?

genuine warmth and kindness were just like me..

They weren’t just a bunch of ‘happy clappy’ dogooders but just a few weeks or months ago had all been on the scene.

My name is Leanne Smullen and I have been involved with Phoenix House/Futures for some ten years or so. As per the Phoenix Philosophy, I needed a refuge from myself, afraid of to face my fears, I was running.

With the help of the then Phoenix House in 2003, I appeared clearly to myself, with common ground and purpose I took route and grew, spread my wings and was risen from the ashes. I have never stopped rising since this time and often look back on my Time at Phoenix Sheffield as not only life changing but life saving.

Here are my three top tips for a decade in recovery……..

Honesty in word and deed……. this will keep you out of trouble!

Forgiveness of self and others – be free!

Humour….live life with laughter and cherish every minuet of your sobriety.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Graduates on the Voyage of Recovery The graduate’s leg of the Voyage of Recovery was always likely to be something special: a motley crew of graduates spanning forty years coming together in a small wooden boat for a week on the high seas! The Voyage had already sailed from Portsmouth via the west coast with service users from Phoenix projects around the country in 6 week long legs.

In September last year Rowdy Yates, our first honorary graduate, Stuart Plant whose idea it was, Jose our film cameraman and I set off from Glasgow by train to meet the rest of the crew in Fort William.

As we marvelled at the rainbow arcing over Loch

Lomond we began to realise that we were on the verge of a great adventure.

And what an adventure it turned out to be! Catching up with the rest of the gang and our boat, the Tectona at Fort William we headed up the Caledonian Canal for two days, passing through the Highlands and sailing across Loch Ness, getting to know each other and sharing experiences and stories of our lives, in and out of Phoenix. Lots of rain, sunshine , rainbows, laughter and music from Rowdy and Darren and a magical meeting with Flora and her son at Inverness, who had lived on the Tectona in the 1940’s.

Then it was the real thing: sailing up the Moray Firth with the Dolphins leaping across our bows, navigating by stars under full sail towards Fraserborough, a skirmish with lobsterpots resulting in a call out for the local RNLI, sailing with no engine in a force 8 gale around the infamous Rattray Head and finally being towed into harbour by the Peterhead Lifeboat.

A brilliant trip for all of us who had shared 196 years of recovery, gained a few more gray hairs, a few tear stained hankies and many, many more laughter lines on our faces.

BC.

“Being with other graduates, sharing and daring was, a real growing experience” R.Yates

197 years of recovery and still going strong Page 3

Phoenix Futures presents

JOIN THE CLUB: If you are interested in becoming a member of Phoenix Re:United or would like more information you can contact Bob Campbell Phoenix Futures 29-31 Collegiate Crescent Sheffield S10 2BJ Phone: 0114 251 5928 Fax: 0114 2685741 E-mail: bob.campbell@phoenix-futures.org.uk

Contributors wanted!

Link-Up is a magazine for members of Phoenix Re:United and we are keen to get as many people as possible involved in its production.

Get those fingers typing!!!

We know that there is a lot of talent out there….So if you have a story to tell….or something to say about an issue that is important to you about recovery… or if you want to tell us about an interest or a pastime… or if you have attended an event or a gig that you want to tell people about…. then why don’t you write something for Link-Up and we’ll put it in the next edition.

It would be especially good to hear what people have been doing since they left Phoenix. Maybe a regular feature with short messages ( a bit like a tweet with 140 characters) that you could send in and we could put them in a sort of montage of life after Phoenix.

Send your articles, pictures or cartoons to me, Bob Campbell, at the address/email above.

I look forward to hearing from you…..

That’s all folks…………See you next time!