At the college, we offer hope for the future despite life’s challenges. We also offer opportunities, including opportunities to learn from other students' experiences and equip students with the skills to make changes to support their well-being. The college is not somewhere to obtain qualifications but to learn self-management and personal development.
Recovery colleges offer educational courses about mental well-being to support personal recovery. The ethos is to increase students’ knowledge and skills and help them take control by learning self-management strategies to improve their mental health and well-being. The concept emerged by recognising people as experts in their own care and the belief that their views should be central to their recovery journey.
New Leaf Recovery and Wellbeing College is passionate about ensuring that students are at the centre of everything we do. We build on people's strengths and support them in moving from ‘patient’ to ‘student’ and sometimes ‘teacher’ within the college. We work together collaboratively at every level, assisting the individual in their personal recovery journey to share and empower others in their personal recovery.
The college offers hope, opportunities and the tools for students to self-manage and take control. We offer students support, resources, and the time to reflect and discover how to manage their own well-being.
Our student development programme is an excellent opportunity for students to advance in their recovery and achieve their personal goals, including those considering taking up new activities, volunteering, or employment. It is for any student at the College who want to learn more about recovery, move forward despite life’s challenges and improve their self-confidence and self-esteem. It is an extended programme of learning over several terms and is particularly suitable for students that have a lived experience of mental health challenges and feel they are in a place of recovery at the moment.
The core principles of the College are:
- Partnership and co-production
- Educational: encouraging self-management
- Strengths-based and person-centred
- For everyone: people with health challenges, their relatives/carers, and staff
- Helps people identify and reach their own goals.
The College aims to foster hope, optimism and control, enabling people to strengthen and self-manage their mental health and recovery.
College Objectives are to:
- Co-produce all aspects of the College
- Provide a safe place to learn new skills and expand on existing ones through connectedness with others.
- Provide an environment that enables creative thinking of all.
- Maintain performance and quality by providing an ethos of reflection and ensuring learning for all.
The college is free to all Hertfordshire residents aged 18 and over.