Upcoming Meetings
How positive human connection helps wellbeing
with a cup of tea. It represents ‘connection’.
When we chose the CHIME model of recovery, it was partly because the language was easy to understand. The ‘C’ in CHIME stands for connection, and this will be the theme of our third meeting, which will take place early in October. We hope to hear people’s views and experiences about how positive connection with other people can help with recovery. Then we’ll pull that information together, supplement it with some research, and present it at the next Network Meeting (which will take place online at the beginning of February 2027). Of course we’ll do this in a way that respects everyone’s privacy.
Although the Oxfordshire Recovery Network is for everyone, we think that people who have their own experiences of recovering from severe mental distress are a particularly important group. After all, this is where the idea of recovery came from! So our next meeting will be hosted by two Network member organisations run for and by people in this situation.
Alice’s Tea Party was founded by Alice Hicks in 2007. It was, at first, just a chance to for people recovering from mental distress to meet socially with others who had been through similar things. But now with a much wider membership and group of regular contributors, it has developed into something more. The Tea Party meets regularly at East Oxford Community Centre. You can get more details here.
The Archway Foundation helps create human connection and reduce isolation within their own services and in the wider community in Oxfordshire. They provide support through a range of activities that include Telephone Support, Face-to-Face Support and Social Groups (click here for more information).
Some people find it difficult to be around a lot of people they don’t know, so this will be a closed event by invitation only. But if this sounds interesting, don’t worry! There’ll be an opportunity for everyone to join in the discussion about connection that comes out of this. To make sure you don’t miss out, join the network by giving us your details via the form at the bottom of this page.
Previous Meetings
What helps our mental wellbeing?
Our second meeting took the form of a training session at Restore’s Straw Bale building on the 9th of June. Hosted by the Oxfordshire Recovery College, the training was developed for people working or volunteering in a wide range of community projects.
In the end the meeting was attended by 10 people, most working in local voluntary sector organisations. Skillfully facilitated by Dan and Stephanie, the workshop drew on lived and professional experience of the facilitators and everyone else present. The CHIME framework made good focus for discussion. There was clearly a lot more that people could have said if time had allowed. If there is enough interest, we may well re-run the workshop (or an updated version of it) in the future. Watch this space!
Network Launch and CHIME Leaflet
Our first meeting took place online on Tuesday 10th March 2026 between 11 and 12:30.
In the first half of the meeting we were joined by some of the people involved in setting up the network, and heard about their hopes for it. The meeting was well-attended by local network participants, as well as people from Improving Adult Care Together (IMPACT), who have co-ordinated several pieces of work focussing on recovery including ours. In the first part of the meeting we heard from people about how we can make the network work for them and the people they know.
In the second half of the meeting we talked about a leaflet we’ve produced based on CHIME, an approach to recovery based on a review of the best research evidence.
We chose CHIME because of the way it communicates the concept of ‘recovery’ using language that’s easy to understand. If you fold out the leaflet, it also has QR codes and links to local organisations and groups providing specialist and non-specialist support.
You can download a copy of the leaflet here or contact us if you’d like some paper copies.
About The Network
Background
For the last year, we have been hosting an Impact Network on recovery-based approaches to mental health. The network consisted of people with lived experience of mental distress as well as staff and volunteers from statutory and voluntary organisations, and met four times over a six-month period. During this time we discussed the many issues facing local people experiencing mental distress, and considered how the idea of ‘recovery’ could be useful in improving things. You can read the full mission statement that the original group developed here.
Over the early autumn of 2025, we consulted widely to see if there was an appetite for a local network. People wanted about 3 meetings a year that were about and hour and a half to two hours long with breaks in the middle. The consensus was for a blend of on-line and face-to-face meetings with a strong practical focus.
Community Glue has a strong focus on development and collaboration; we are not an appropriate organisation to host projects in the long term. However we have agreed to host the network on a short-term basis until it can find its feet. We will be updating this page until another host can be found.
Purpose
The network aims to bring together three main groups for mutual support and planning:
- The wide range of community groups that may be providing support to people recovering from mental distress, but which do not consider themselves to be mental health ‘specialists’. This may include, for example community larders and food projects, warm spaces, community arts and so on.
- People working in voluntary and statutory mental health services who want to develop stronger links with local community groups
- Anyone managing their own recovery, or helping other people with theirs (peer support groups, friends, family members, or neighbours).
Joining the Oxfordshire Recovery Network
If you or your organisation would like to receive notes from meetings and details of future events, just add your details below.
Click here for a link to our privacy policy (TL;DR – we won’t keep your information longer than we need to, pass it on to others or SPAM you).