Esperance educators – Gregg Clarke (on screen), Pam Gardner, Jayde Guest, WARCA Education Coordinator, Andy Preiato, and Tracy Hill.
Four years ago, the WA Recovery College established itself with the aim of providing education about life, experience and purpose to communities in every corner of the state.
As part of that mission, the College is looking to find local educators in Esperance who have lived experience, value their community and want to be a part of a team that helps answer the question:
“How do we help people thrive?” is a question that, according to College Principal, Naomi Carter, is core to the philosophy of the WA Recovery College.
What is the College?
“An orchid is not going to grow in the desert,” Ms Carter said.
“We need to change the conditions that plant is existing in. What do we do to nourish the soil? What are the nutrients that plant is going to need to thrive?”
Ms Carter said the free courses run by the Recovery College aimed to challenge the misconception that the path to well-being was an individual journey and connect people in the community who could relate to different experiences.
All the courses are created by the educators who present them and can focus on specific skills like learning how to make Excel spreadsheets to things as broad as navigating life with a criminal record.
The call for educators
Anyone over the age of 18 can be an educator.
“There is no criteria to be an educator other than you want to learn and you want to share what you know,” Ms Carter said.
“There are unspoken rules in our society are that only certain people get to have an opinion and get to have wisdom. We say everybody can.”
WARCA are running a free educator course at the Sinclair TAFE campus with eight sessions from October 30 to November 21.
Ms Carter said it was an opportunity for people to give others some comfort and assurance during their trying times while themselves are empowered by learning about mental health, recovery, wellbeing and how to deliver this knowledge to others in an engaging way.
“Part of the process is exploring and understanding what it is that you have that’s of value,” Ms Carter said.
“Everybody has something to offer.”
Head to the Western Australian Recovery College Alliance website to find sign up information for the year’s educator course.
Course time frames are flexible, and the College encourages anyone interested to get in touch.
