Bringing lived experience to Peterborough’s new recovery organisation
We are incredibly proud to share that Intuitive Thinking Skills (ITS) has been awarded the contract by Peterborough City Council to support the development of a new Lived Experience Recovery Organisation (LERO) for Peterborough.
This is an exciting opportunity for us at ITS, but more importantly, it is an opportunity to work alongside people with lived experience across Peterborough to establish something that genuinely belongs to the community.
Our aim in the coming years will be to bring together people with lived experience, local communities and partners to develop a strong and visible recovery network, creating opportunities for peer support, volunteering, employment and skills, social connection, reducing stigma, providing harm reduction and developing a stronger voice for people accessing local services.
Our Peterborough service will work alongside treatment and statutory services while maintaining its own identity and independence, providing support that extends beyond formal treatment and helps people build connections, confidence and opportunities within their community.
Our role is not simply to establish or just deliver another service. The longer-term ambition is to support Peterborough in developing a genuinely independent, community-led and sustainable LERO by 2030, shaped and led by the people who understand addiction and recovery, because they have lived it.
We are really looking forward to working with Peterborough City Council, CGL as the local treatment service, wider partners and stakeholders, and most importantly, Peterborough’s lived experience community to bring that ambition to life and create a special service with a lasting legacy.
This contract feels particularly special for us, mainly because lived experience has been at the heart of who we are and what we do from the very beginning.
What excites me most is that we aren’t coming into Peterborough to simply deliver another service. Our role is to work alongside the local community, create opportunities for people to use their own experiences to support others, and help build something that ultimately belongs within the Peterborough community.
Success for us will be seeing a strong, sustainable and genuinely independent LERO in place, led by local people with lived experience and continuing to make a difference long after our role in helping to establish it is complete.
