Better Than Well
Better Than Well (BTW), the University of Birmingham Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP), has completed its first year of operation. This is the first university-led CRP in the UK and has been supported by a philanthropic donation by the CrEdo Foundation. A total of 34 students, studying over 20 different degree subjects contacted BTW since September 2021. The growth of the BTW programme has exceeded all expectations in 2022. Based on feedback from more established programmes in the USA, our goal at the start of the year was to establish a regular weekly Celebration of Recovery supporting up to 5 students.
By the end of the academic year there were 18 students participating on a weekly basis in BTW activities.
As well as a weekly programme including daily drop-ins, recovery meetings, welcome meetings, meditation and sober socials the team have also engaged in a number of activities to promote the programme, including a feature in Old Joe magazine, attendance at Welcome week, public engagement events, collaboration with the student wellbeing team and the commissioning of short videos to profile the great work that is being done. Outside of the University the BTW team, led by Dr Ed Day, continue to raise awareness; In June they delivered a workshop about developing a Collegiate Recovery Program at the NUS SOS Conference, In July they delivered a presentation about BTW and addiction recovery on campus at the UKESAD conference in London and also delivered a presentation to Wellbeing Leads from 5 Birmingham universities at the Universities Mental Health Forum. Luke Trainor, BTW Project Manager, was selected to be a baton bearer for the University of Birmingham leg of the Commonwealth baton relay. In December Ed was invited to visit Texas Tech University, the largest Collegiate Recovery Program in the world, where he gave a speech at the annual graduation ceremony for students in recovery.
Better Than Well (BTW), the University of Birmingham Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP), has completed its first year of operation. This is the first university-led CRP in the UK and has been supported by a philanthropic donation by the CrEdo Foundation. A total of 34 students, studying over 20 different degree subjects contacted BTW since September 2021. The growth of the BTW programme has exceeded all expectations in 2022. Based on feedback from more established programmes in the USA, our goal at the start of the year was to establish a regular weekly Celebration of Recovery supporting up to 5 students.