In the News
This Week at the Latah Recovery Community Center
May is National Mental Health Month. There is ALOT going on in Moscow!
Please RSVP for Suicide Prevention: Question, Persuade and Refer on May 6, 4pm at the LRCC. Contact LatahRecoveryCenter@gmail.com to register.
We are excited to share Engaging in Healthy Conflict: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/engaging-in-healthy-conflict-tickets-59196329816
The Latah Alliance on Mental Illness has updated their list of Mental Health resources on the Palouse: https://latahrecoverycenter.org/local-behavioral-health-resources/
Have you heard Recovery Radio? Thursdays, 1pm on KRFP. Or get the podcast! New episodes were uploaded last week.
The latest writing prompt:
Please RSVP for Suicide Prevention: Question, Persuade and Refer on May 6, 4pm at the LRCC. Contact LatahRecoveryCenter@gmail.com to register.
Have you heard Recovery Radio? Thursdays, 1pm on KRFP. Or get the podcast!
One of the trainings we try to have all of our volunteers take is Mental Health First Aid. It is a great training. We’re pleased to see that Empower Idaho and U of I have teamed up to bring this to town on May 1. There is usually a cost, but this appears to be free. We encourage everyone reading this to register. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-health-first-aid-tickets-59125977390
The latest for our aspiring writers: https://latahrecoverycenter.org/2019/04/22/write-for-you-sometimes-the-sky-is-red/
We are filling an AmeriCorps/VISTA position. Application is currently up.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do;jsessionid=lZTFdf-nIfSYDjp17xNICaWngeQW1bb_xU8n6mKs8Px8Au-eXgoB!-1941309053?id=87113&fromSearch=true
Pertinent details: 12 month term, can be renewed up to 5 times. Vacation leave is 10 personal days and 10 sick per year. 40 hours per week. Living allowance of $1026/month. $12312/year gross. $6k student loan/very flexible education benefit per year served. End of service stipend of $1800. Also gives you advantage in federal hiring via noncompetitive eligibility for a year after service. Already receiving federal benefits? Get income disregard so you continue to receive them while serving.
We plan our VISTA to focus on outreach to rural and veteran populations; and marketing.
Starts May 13. Must enroll by April 22.
Here’s our April calendar.
Write for You: Sometimes the Sky is Red
by Nancy Casey
Today, when you write your page, begin with the sentence, “Sometimes the sky is red.” Continue writing 4-6 more lines. How you “continue” is up to you.
Maybe that little thought about a red sky will spark a memory or call an image to mind. Maybe it causes you to imagine or invent a story. Maybe it will make you want to explain something. Writing that tells a story or explains something can be called narrative or literal.
After you write that the sky is red sometimes, you don’t have to continue in a narrative or literal manner. You can use wordplay instead. With wordplay, you don’t pay much attention to “making sense” and instead just fool around with the way words sound. You can repeat words as you write, make rhymes, repeat certain letters, or make up words. When you put wordplay into your writing, it’s often fun to read out loud.
However you continue after the sentence about the red sky, pause after you have written 4-6 lines. Reread your work. Pick out a sentence or a phrase that you like. (4-6 words long.) Skip a line and copy it down. That’s your new beginning. Continue (narratively, literally, or with wordplay) for 4-6 more lines. Then pause, reread and pick out a new sentence or phrase, skip a line, copy it and continue…
Work your way down the page this way–write a chunk, pluck a phrase, use it to start a new chunk. Stop when there is just enough room to write one more line at the bottom. On that line write, “Sometimes the sky is red.” Then read back over your work.
Finally, think up a title. But don’t use the words sometimes, sky or red in your title. Drawing or doodling on the page often helps you come up with a title you like. What you have written might be disjointed. It might seem like it’s not “about” anything. After a bit of fooling around with a relaxed mind, a title that somehow connects it all up might pop into your head.
Add more decoration and color to the page if you would like. Make sure the date is on the page somewhere, too. Here is an example of what a person could write.
You can share what you have written by posting it as a comment below. To do that, you can type in your work. Or post a picture of it.
NEWS FLASH! Summer writing groups and classes will start May 16. You can come just for fun. Or you can jump through all the hoops and earn a Writing Certificate. Classes will meet Thursday evenings. Here is all the information.
Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She offers (free!) writing help to anyone in recovery. This can be for any kind of writing project—resumes, letters, stories, novels, homework, etc. She will be teaching writing classes at the Recovery Center on Thursday evenings, starting May 16. To sign up or get more information, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Community Center.
Recovery Radio 4/4/2019
Recovery Radio 4 11 2019-Interview with Steve Otto from the Hope Center
This Week at the Latah Recovery Community Center
Please RSVP for Suicide Prevention: Question, Persuade and Refer on May 6, 4pm at the LRCC. Contact LatahRecoveryCenter@gmail.com to register.
Have you heard Recovery Radio? Thursdays, 1pm on KRFP. Or get the podcast!
One of the trainings we try to have all of our volunteers take is Mental Health First Aid. It is a great training. We’re pleased to see that Empower Idaho and U of I have teamed up to bring this to town on May 1. There is usually a cost, but this appears to be free. We encourage everyone reading this to register. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-health-first-aid-tickets-59125977390
The latest writing prompt from Write for You is here: https://latahrecoverycenter.org/2019/04/08/write-for-you-the-first-chapter/
We are filling an AmeriCorps/VISTA position. Application is currently up.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do;jsessionid=lZTFdf-nIfSYDjp17xNICaWngeQW1bb_xU8n6mKs8Px8Au-eXgoB!-1941309053?id=87113&fromSearch=true
Pertinent details: 12 month term, can be renewed up to 5 times. Vacation leave is 10 personal days and 10 sick per year. 40 hours per week. Living allowance of $1026/month. $12312/year gross. $6k student loan/very flexible education benefit per year served. End of service stipend of $1800. Also gives you advantage in federal hiring via noncompetitive eligibility for a year after service. Already receiving federal benefits? Get income disregard so you continue to receive them while serving.
We plan our VISTA to focus on outreach to rural and veteran populations; and marketing.
Starts May 13. Must enroll by April 22.
Here’s our April calendar.
Write for You: The Summer Ahead
by Nancy Casey
When a cold wet spring rides into town on the heels of a long snowy winter, the whole idea of summer can seem really far away.
Imagine summer for a moment. How air on your skin can make you warm instead of making you shiver. The long evenings with heat radiating up from the sidewalk. People’s yards, bursting with shrubbery and flowers.
Once the summer is actually upon us, plans, obligations and routines put limitations on our time and energy. While the season is still mostly imaginary, anything can happen. Or might.
Today, write about what the summer might bring. Begin with the phrase, “Summer might bring _______.” Write about some of the different things that could happen this summer. If you feel stuck, write out the phrase, “Summer might bring ______.” That might bring you an idea. You can also draw or doodle on the page and wait for ideas to come to you that way.
The nice thing about the word “might” is that it allows you to think freely and gently about the future.
You might already have some plans, perhaps a lot of them. Plans can go awry. Life is always intervening in one thing or another. If you use the word “might” when you write about your plans, you’ll put a little less pressure on your future self.
If you use the word “might” to write about all your hopes and dreams and aspirations, you don’t have to worry about being greedy and putting in too many. You can ignore the reality that every possible good thing that can happen to you isn’t going to fit in one summer. Even though lot of them might.
The word “might” also comes in handy for discussing miracles. Are there things that one part of your mind says are impossible, while another part of you thinks they would be a good idea anyway? They might happen.
Another thing you can do with the word “might” is worry. When you start to think about what might happen, your mind doesn’t limit itself to events that are joyous. Dreadful things can float into the imagination, too. Fortunately the word “might” always walks with its friend “might not.” When you reread the page, you can squeeze in the word “not” anyplace you like.
Launch yourself into the summer in your writing today. All of its ups and downs, thrills and challenges.
What might the summer bring? More than you can imagine.
When you have filled a page, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add further decoration and color to the page as needed. Here is an example of what a person could write.
You can share what you have written by posting it as a comment below. You can type in your work. Or post a picture of it.
Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She offers (free!) writing help to anyone in recovery. This can be for any kind of writing project—resumes, letters, stories, novels, homework, etc. She will be offering writing classes at the Recovery Center starting the second week in May. Email latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com for more information.
This Week at the Latah Recovery Community Center
Have you heard Recovery Radio? Thursdays, 1pm on KRFP. Or get the podcast!
One of the trainings we try to have all of our volunteers take is Mental Health First Aid. It is a great training. We’re pleased to see that Empower Idaho and U of I have teamed up to bring this to town on May 1. There is usually a cost, but this appears to be free. We encourage everyone reading this to register. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-health-first-aid-tickets-59125977390
The latest writing prompt from Write for You is here: https://latahrecoverycenter.org/2019/04/08/write-for-you-the-first-chapter/
We are filling an AmeriCorps/VISTA position. Application is currently up.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do;jsessionid=lZTFdf-nIfSYDjp17xNICaWngeQW1bb_xU8n6mKs8Px8Au-eXgoB!-1941309053?id=87113&fromSearch=true
Pertinent details: 12 month term, can be renewed up to 5 times. Vacation leave is 10 personal days and 10 sick per year. 40 hours per week. Living allowance of $1026/month. $12312/year gross. $6k student loan/very flexible education benefit per year served. End of service stipend of $1800. Also gives you advantage in federal hiring via noncompetitive eligibility for a year after service. Already receiving federal benefits? Get income disregard so you continue to receive them while serving.
We plan our VISTA to focus on outreach to rural and veteran populations; and marketing.
Starts May 13. Must enroll by April 22.
Here’s our April calendar.
Write for You: The First Chapter…
by Nancy Casey
I stopped by the Latah Recovery Community Center the other day, to ask around about what people might be looking for in a writing class. Someone told me that the best writing class they took that had fun assignments like, “Write the first chapter of a story using only words that are one syllable long.”
“How totally cool.” I thought. “I should try that.”
And so should you!
You don’t necessarily have to write the first chapter of a story, but you can. You might decide instead to write about an event or an experience, something you remember, or something that you invent.
Write a page about anything at all, as long as you only use one-syllable words.
If you have trouble deciding what to write about, just begin in the immediate present and describe what’s in front of you. Then go where your imagination carries you—around the room or all over the universe.
This can seem impossible at first. How are you supposed to write about what’s in front of you if you look out the window and see a shovel in the garden? You can’t write window, shovel, or garden! But you can write the clear glass in the wall. You can write the thing I dig with. You can write the place where the plants grow.
You get the idea (or rather, the thought.)
When you have filled a page, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add further decoration and color to the page as needed. Here is an example of what a person could write. There, you can also see an example of a page written with only two-syllable words.
You can share what you have written by posting it as a comment below. You can type in your work. Or post a picture of it.
Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She offers (free!) writing help to anyone in recovery. This can be for any kind of writing project—resumes, letters, stories, novels, homework, etc. She will be teaching writing classes at the Recovery Center starting in May. Email Nancy or the Recovery Center for more information or to make a suggestion about the type of class to offer.
April at the Latah Recovery Community Center
We had a little excitement last week at the legislature. THe Joint Finance Committee approved a plan to fund the states 9 Recovery Community Centers to do some rural outreach. Governor still needs to sign, before official. In our case, this funding will be used to outreach our recovery programs to either the Potlatch or Troy areas. If you’d like to know more, contact Darrell at latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com.
The latest writing prompt from Write for You: https://latahrecoverycenter.org/2019/04/01/write-for-you-one-thing-now-another/
Check out Recovery Radio! Thursdays at 1pm on KRFP, or get the podcast!!!
We are filling an AmeriCorps/VISTA position. Application is currently up.
https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do;jsessionid=lZTFdf-nIfSYDjp17xNICaWngeQW1bb_xU8n6mKs8Px8Au-eXgoB!-1941309053?id=87113&fromSearch=true
Pertinent details: 12 month term, can be renewed up to 5 times. Vacation leave is 10 personal days and 10 sick per year. 40 hours per week. Living allowance of $1026/month. $12312/year gross. $6k student loan/very flexible education benefit per year served. End of service stipend of $1800. Also gives you advantage in federal hiring via noncompetitive eligibility for a year after service. Already receiving federal benefits? Get income disregard so you continue to receive them while serving.
We plan our VISTA to focus on outreach to rural and veteran populations; and marketing.
Starts May 13. Must enroll by April 22.
Here’s our April calendar.
Latah Recovery Community Center, Inc. 