One of the differences between SMART Recovery and most other approaches to mutual aid is the need for the meeting facilitators to be trained. Although many people run good meetings with only a couple of hours training, this isn't ideal,the founders members of board in usa have advised that we provide training at least 10 to 20 hours, as other countries.  many our existing facilitators also asked for more training. In August, we ran a one off distance learning training course with the help of Tutors from the USA. That was a great success and trained 25 new facilitators. Since then we have been working hard to build our own course, which runs on our on-line / e-learning platform.  The 'Getting SMART' course, which is the first half of the Facilitator training is now running and open for ongoing registration. Click here to read is the very good evaluations so far.

Registration

If you would like to do the training and think you meet the eligibility criteria below - please complete this form.

Eligibility

The course is open to existing Facilitators, meeting Participants interested in becoming Facilitators and  people who intend to become 'Champions' under our Partnership scheme.

SMART Recovery UK strongly encourages existing facilitators who have not done the full training to take part. Although the consultation arrived at no clear decision whether this training should become  mandatory / accredited, there was a clear consensus that  Facilitators should be encouraged and expected to do the full course and Facilitators have consistently expressed a desire for more training.

Prospective Champions will be working at a project site that is already or has committed to becoming a Partnership site. If your partnership agreement is not yet signed off, we will probably restrict you to the first half of the course until all the paperwork is completed.

About the on-line course

The training site is only available if you are registered and logged in via the community.  When you are logged in, the training is available from the 'Learn' menu. 

The course is in two parts and uses a variety of learning materials. This includes over 15 videos (mostly 5 to 15 minutes long), reading material, exercises and a quiz after each section to reinforce the learning.  Most of the learning can be structured to the learners own time-table, though there may also be a few Chat based seminars, the times of these are to be confirmed.

Getting SMART provides a thorough introduction to SMART Recovery, including key underlying theory and most of the key tools. The course is designed to train Facilitators and Champions, though might also be useful to meeting participants who want to simply deepen their understanding.  This course is expected to take roughly 8-10 hours to complete.

SMART Facilitator builds on the first course and focusses specifically on the process of facilitating the meeting. With additional videos (stepping through a meeting) and reading materials, this course is aimed specifically at people who want to be Facilitators or Champions. This course is also expected to take roughly 8-10 hours to complete.  This portion of the course is not yet complete, but should be ready by Mid-December and by the time you have completed Getting SMART.

Face to Face Training

SMART Recovery is working in partnership with a not for profit training provider to develop face to face courses in how to run SMART Recovery meetings.  There will be two courses: 

• Facilitator Follow On. This is an optional one day course which follows the on-line training, focussing on in-the-room skills and how to get your meeting off the ground. 
• SMART Facilitator.  This is a two day course equivalent to (and optionally replacing) the second half of the on-line course plus the additional 'follow on' day.  Participants must have completed the first half on-line before they begin. 

 We are expecting the courses to be ready by late Summer 2012.  SMART Recovery will not be able to provide these courses without local funding, which may be available from a one of our Partners, whether DAT or treatment service.