RECOVERY
CENTRE OF WELLBEING
A new recovery enterprise aims to be
more than just a ‘bolt-on’ to mainstream
services, as Jamie Gratton explains
In 2020, the time of global
crisis, we expect to hear
news of companies closing
down rather than starting
up. However, Staywell Derby
CIC is bucking that trend with a
vibrant new community-focused
social enterprise, set up by a
passionate team whose members
all have lived experience of mental
health, addiction, homelessness
and trauma.
From Derby city centre,
Staywell brings together a wide
variety of people and businesses
who all have the same goal – to
create a safe space for people to
heal, grow and develop.
The idea started around ten
years ago, based on the notion of a
recovery community organisation
(RCO), which uses lived experience
of those who are in recovery from
addiction to help those who are
still struggling. We extended this
to a wider wellbeing ethos and
decided that a proactive approach
to wellbeing was vital, especially
during these difficult days.
Everything we want to achieve
is based on the seven pillars of
wellness: physical, emotional,
intellectual, social, spiritual,
environmental, and occupational.
This allows us to grow and
be a small part in not only an
individual’s wellbeing journey, but
also to help improve the wider
community’s wellbeing.
The lived experience approach
means we can incorporate
experience from our past to
empathise and understand what
people are experiencing better. As
David Gilbert says in The Patient
Revolution, ‘The magic comes
when the wisdom gained during
suffering meets the wisdom
gained when one got lost in the
first place... to create something
deeper – an enriched expertise.’
We’re passionate about
recovery and wanted to use our
lived experience to compliment
the work that services do around
the area – a proactive approach to
get people looking after their own
wellbeing. We know we can’t catch
everyone, but we can help the
over-stretched services in Derby.
We’ve already got a great
partnership with CHIME to
Thrive, a user-led organisation
which shares the same ethos on
patient leadership and community
approaches to wellbeing. Here,
lived experience practitioners
support individuals struggling
with their mental health, addiction
and trauma, while the social
enterprise provides consultancy
and training to organisations
around co-production, peer
support, trauma, and compassionled
approaches to mental health.
We have already received
amazing support from
organisations like Community
Action Derby, and Praxis Probiotics
CIC are helping us to develop the
café, with their focus on nurturing
both health and change and
their like-minded passion about
community.
Our building will be community
focused and led, with a ‘safe
space’ coffee shop and community
kitchen and Staywell Derby
ambassadors on hand. These
lived experience volunteers will
have training in everything from
wellbeing support to referrals,
and will be able to help people tell
their story in a positive way.
With the vibrant café and
wellbeing ‘get away’ space
downstairs, the first floor will
house a wellbeing academy with
A wider
wellbeing ethos
and... proactive
approach to
wellbeing is vital,
especially during
these difficult days
all kinds of different courses to
build creativity, learning skills and
confidence.
The academy will help people
to set up support groups and there
will also be a live feed to access
our courses for people who are
housebound or can’t get to the
Staywell Derby wellbeing hub.
At the top of the building a
community hub will have space
for small grassroots projects
to hire out or hot desk, with
everyone sharing the same ethos.
The project’s directors, including
Lauren Jones, Pippa Nayer, Rosa
Beue Parry and Kelly Carson, are
all passionate about bringing their
lived experience to the table to
help others.
I’ve had my own battle with
addiction and homelessness,
and have been in recovery for 20
years, so I’m passionate about
challenging stigma. Working in the
community, and also within the
public sector and services and as
a social prescriber in the NHS, has
further fuelled this.
Even without COVID-19 there’s
always been a need for a proactive
approach. There’s great work
being done throughout the city
but we want to make sure lived
experience is not just an add
on – we can give a whole new
dimension to support and help.
Lockdown has increased people’s
emotional and wellbeing issues
and we can help people who
wouldn’t normally go into services
get back on track.
Jamie Gratton is Staywell Derby’s
founder and operations director.
The group is inviting involvement
from other social enterprises and
grassroots projects, and is looking
for volunteers – visit https://
staywellderby.org.uk/
20 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2020
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM