Sam Cribb Email and Phone Number

As a Director at this small Community Interest Company, the team and I are passionate about promoting mental wellbeing, connection with nature through green care, and radical ways of thinking about mental health and relationships.This part-time unpaid post is very agile and affords exciting opportunities to promote co-production, relational practice, and lived experience voices both in the UK and beyond. My role allows me to get involved with the creation of new services, such as the Relational Practice Movement, in a thoroughly co-produced way, from collaborating on websites and events to building relationships with community partner organisations.At GBL, I work with the other directors to build our presence in the world of enabling environments, whether through developing our website, co-producing relationally-focused events, or working with partner organisations in the therapeutic community sphere to help them introduce relational practice and understand the importance of lived experience.I have also helped to co-facilitate GreenCloud, our weekly online space for people in partner organisations to have fun sharing in nature together. This alternative space promotes mental wellbeing through connection with nature and other people, and is emblematic of our fun, therapeutic approach to green care.Growing Better Lives has a strong history of green care research, experiential training for clinicians on the importance of lived experience, and using our academic and relational networks to develop new, alternative pathways for the treatment of emotional difficulties. As a new addition to the team, I am passionate about all of these and excited to get involved in more green care projects.

A hybridised version of my previous roles with Slough CMHT, I have the pleasure of continuing to work with Enabling Town Slough, championing lived experience voices and promoting co-production across our services.In this part-time remote role, while I no longer have my own caseload, I draw on my lived experience to promote our Mental Health Services, run online Recovery College workshops, and co-produce new and existing services in partnership with people who them.This post allows me to continue operating the Enabling Town Slough and BRAVE websites, which involves co-producing new content with staff, volunteers, and clients from across our family of services, as well as linking in with local partner organisations to create a truly enabling town across Slough, beyond just our Mental Health Services. I also create regular evaluations to analyse our progress and consider potential avenues for future growth.In this position, I am pleased to be one of the culture carriers for co-production within our organisation, whether co-creating workshops for our Recovery college (such as the Pride Group for our LGBTQ+ clients), speaking to new staff, or representing the Trust at events like Lived Experience conferences. I also help to organise co-produced events, ensuring that the voices of people who use services stay at the forefront.

This part-time role was performed in addition to my Enabling Town Slough post, retaining my co-production duties, Hope College workshops, clinical Recovery support, website responsibilities, and support for our Therapeutic Community when needed.In the Transitions team, I used my lived experience to support clients approaching discharge from CMHT, working alongside them to help them feel supported and empowered as they engaged with opportunities in the wider community and adjusted to life after discharge. This post hybridised mental health support with holistic wellbeing support.In this role, I connected with community partners around Slough to ensure that our clients found engaging opportunities no matter their interests. I aimed to build relationships and work with partner organisations (e.g. voluntary services, primary care mental health support) to help our clients feel supported in accessing local groups and activities.As a lived experience practitioner, I was also involved with lived experience programmes in the Trust, facilitating a pathway for LX development, collaborating with peer support workers, and helping to build a culture of accessible services across our NHS Trust.

This part-time post, performed in addition to my Transitions and Enabling Town Slough roles, allowed me to work with our domestic abuse support team, BRAVE, by organising large-scale events for referrers, commissioners, and service users to promote our service across the local area.In the BRAVE team, I worked with our NHS Trust and commissioners to create marketing and promotional content for the service, including branded merchandise, videos, articles, social media content, and more. I managed our online presence to help the service reach as many people as possible. Although my secondment ended in March 2023, I am fortunate enough to still complete these activities for the team.I also co-ordinated events for the team, including arranging speakers, booking venues, organising logistics such as catering and technology, and creating an inclusive atmosphere to ensure people who use the service felt comfortable contributing at these events.In addition, I worked with BRAVE team members and people who use the service to represent BRAVE at external events and promote BRAVE to members of the public as well as internal and external stakeholders. Facilitating a person-centred and empowering approach to care, my role ensured that the voices of our BRAVE community members were heard by all.

I developed and promoted the Enabling Town Slough brand, which focuses on co-production in our Mental Health Services, by operating our website, developing community opportunities, and representing the brand with community partners. I also worked with partner organisations such as Slough Borough Council to develop and deliver their co-production services. In addition, I kept the Enabling Town Slough website and Twitter feed up to date with the latest information on Hope College groups, community resources, and co-production news.I also facilitated and created material for events designed to promote the adoption of co-production in the wider NHS Trust and across the local area. Because I believe that every service user's voice matters, I was pleased to hold co-production groups and events as part of this role.In my Hope College role, I utilised my lived experience of mental distress by holding individual one-to-one therapeutic interventions to support our service users with their mental health and recovery goals. In addition, I also co-produced workshops to help service users feel a sense of being and belonging in our Recovery College and Micro Therapeutic Community.

I helped improve client relations as an initial point of contact at CMHT, both on the telephone and in reception. By listening to clients and directing enquiries, I attempted to create a compassionate and kind patient experience, putting the client and their needs first.I increased the CMHT's operational efficiency by managing client files and streamlining the filing process. When assessing client files, I maintained confidentiality and respect at all times.In this role, I also enabled HCPs across many teams to meet clients' needs by assisting in referrals and allocations (such as assigning clients via waiting lists on RiO), ensuring that our patients received the best and most appropriate care.

Revitalised sales, increased product quality, and reduced customer complaints by writing over 500 B2B and B2C training courses with a small team, as well as creating website content.Enhanced customer care and satisfaction by working with clients to write bespoke courses.Greatly improved data protection and customer security by creating many GDPR policies.Hired and trained new team members, improving teamwork and communication skills.Supported other teams and bolstered client relationships through engaging in customer service, administrating e-learning platform, and helping with other editorial tasks as needed.

Improved student grades by working with individual students to draft and edit essays.Built client confidence by offering impartial evaluative feedback on all coursework.Increased student engagement through advertising Centre and offering exam workshops.

Boosted sales and crafted brand identity by editing multiple anthologies for publication.Published aspiring authors and artists for the first time, helping them begin their careers.Improved online presence and engagement by managing social media with editorial team.

Raised student grades by teaching English in lessons and invigilating exams.Enhanced brand identity by advertising the school and presenting award ceremonies.Helped teachers improve their English through facilitating English-training boot-camps.