Balancing acts in a Recovery College when values are brought into practice

Introduction: Recovery Colleges (RCs) facilitate a peer-supported learning environment that is co-created bottom-up for and by people with mental vulnerabilities. The philosophy of RCs comes with key values such as equality, reciprocity, connectedness, empowerment and free space. We scrutinize how these values are brought into practice. Methods: We adopted triangulation by combining participatory observations with twin-interview data and diary data. All aspects of this study (i.e., design, recruitment, data collection and analysis) were co-created with experiential researchers who are RC participants. First, twenty-six RC participants (course students, retreat students, visitors, volunteers, employees and ex-participants) were interviewed by an academic and experiential researchers duo (hence twin-interviews). Second, five participants took part in the follow-up diary study, filling out diaries every other day for maximal two months. Third, the principal researcher conducted participatory observations from 2022 up till and beyond the time of writing, including attending courses, team meetings, volunteering and visiting the social meeting ground. Results: Two balancing acts were identified in the practice of an RC that is shaped by its key values. The balancing acts are closely intertwined and together form a dual axis model. One axis represents the constant balancing between stimulating self-direction, empowerment and autonomy (individualization) vs. facilitating a peer supported community (collectivism). The second axis represents a balancing act between providing a place of normalization, stimulating integration of the RC in the community vs. a safe niche facilitating a peer supported community focused on mental vulnerabilities. We also discuss the impact of organizational growth on these balancing acts. Discussion: Bringing key values into practice can be challenging in a growing bottom-up co-created organization.