One of the critiques of Recovery Colleges in the past has been the lack of evidence to show that they have had an impact on individual’s experience of recovery and enhanced their learning experience. From the outset the Dublin North, North East Recovery College developed a robust evaluation framework that would explore both of these impacts. The framework has also been shared with the other six evolving Recovery Colleges in the South of Ireland, in the hope that we can all demonstrate positive impact on participating students.

The first part of our evaluation looks at the learning on each course from student’s perspective, to ensure that what was intended by the courses was actually being experienced by students.

A second part of the evaluation uses the CHIME recovery framework (Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning & Empowerment) to establish if these aspects of people’s lives have improved as a result of participating in the Recovery College.

The third part looks at whether peoples personal recovery has been enhanced by participating in the recovery college and the fourth part looks at how or if the ethos, structure and general set up of the Recovery College has a positive impact on people’s lives.

At the end of year a focus group is also convened to look at the overall student experience of being part of the Recovery College. The evaluation report for the first year of college life will be completed in March 2018 and initial findings are looking good.