Leitrim Shared Platform Event
Leitrim Addictions Awareness will be hosting a shared platform on Monday, August 30 in the Bee Park Manorhamilton. The event will begin at 7.30pm.
Due to the success of previous shared platform events in county Leitrim which were held county wide, Leitrim Addictions Awareness has decided to return to the Bee Park, Manorhamilton, in order to provide addiction related information regarding supports available locally from the various peer support groups.
Leitrim County Council has recognised the importance of this initiative by providing financial support for these shared platform events, something which is much appreciated by the voluntary group organising the shared platform events. Leitrim County Council has agreed to provide up to €1,000 via the Community & Voluntary Sector Grants Scheme 2010.
The "shared platform" gives people the opportunity to find out what services are on offer for the community and to listen to speakers who have benefitted from the support of any of the various fellowships such as AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), GA (Gamblers Anonymous), NA (Narcotics Anonymous), FAA (Food Addicts Anonymous), Al Anon and CoDA (Co-Dependents Anonymous). The shared platform provides a whole new way of looking at addiction and recovery.
For anyone looking to find out more about the support provided by the various fellowships, who better to ask than someone who has been there and walked the walk? Several people who are now in recovery, and who would credit their recovery to their membership of one or more of the fellowships, will be available for members of the public to seek advice or information.
The "platform" is when a member of a fellowship talks those gathered through their own personal journey with addiction, and their eventual peer assisted recovery, and this would normally take place at a closed meeting of just one fellowship. By bringing members from the various fellowships together, the message regarding addiction is all the stronger.
The "shared platform" is the coming together of members of various peer support fellowship members in order to raise awareness around the issues connected with addictions. These recovering addicts then take turns in sharing their own very personal experience with addiction.
This can, and does involve some very personal information being disclosed and this can carry some risk for the person in recovery if the information is not kept confidential, hence the common theme of anonymity across the fellowships.
The various fellowship members who choose to share at an open meeting of the "shared platform" do so in order to get the message out there that support is available for those suffering from addiction, and their friends and family.
It is often said that addiction can be compared to a stone being thrown into a still pond and the ripples then spreading across a great distance, in the same way as addiction can have an effect on anyone coming into contact with the addict, as close friends, work colleagues and family can all suffer in some way.
The first of these types of events were held in neighbouring Sligo in 2009 and have proved to be very popular with recovering addicts, their friends and families, as well as service providers and interested members of the public who just wanted to find out more about how members of the fellowships work to help each other in the process of recovery.
All members of the community are invited to these evenings, people recovering from addictions, their families and friends, students, professionals and any member of the public who would just like to know a little bit more about the services and supports which are available locally.
This shared platform will assist in breaking down taboos around addiction and in the words of the Sligo Bill W club coordinator Aubrey Melville, "it will bring addiction issues out of the darkness and into the light", which can help stimulate open discussion around this difficult topic.
Leitrim Addictions Awareness would like to encourage all members of the public to attend and learn more about how the fellowships work to support those in need.
Refreshments will be served afterwards to allow for networking and for interested members of the public to seek confidential advice if required.
"God grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
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Weather for Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Thursday 17 May 2012
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