Communications and campaigns
Back to AwardsTeam winners 2007
The Tackling Drugs Changing Lives Awards recognise individuals and teams who have really made a difference in their local community. The overall winners receive £10,000 for their project or organisation to spend on the prevention of treatment of drug misuse.
Winner
Essex Young People’s Drug and Alcohol Service, Chelmsford - East of England
The Young People’s Drugs and Alcohol Service offers support to young people who are affected by substance misuse.
It is a flexible and mobile service, with an outreach programme operating in foster homes, prisons, hospitals and hard to reach rural areas. The team works closely with other support services for young people, helping to make referral pathways smoother between the various agencies.
Regional finalists
SWAN, Northamptonshire PCT - East Midlands
The SWAN Partnership reaches out to women in the sex industry, aiming to improve the quality of life for local communities and reduce drug-related crime.
Forming close bonds with the women, in a job which is rarely 9 to 5, team-members attend births and children’s birthday parties, and accompany their clients to hospital in emergencies and to internal police examinations after assaults.
In the last year, the team has helped 26 sex workers leave the industry and almost two-thirds of their clients are now in drug treatment, while crime has dropped by around 30 per cent. SWAN has also helped reduce drug use by around £11 million over the last four years.
Trading Places, Newcastle - North East
Trading Places is staffed by volunteers who go out on the streets over the weekend to befriend people who are homeless, misuse drugs and alcohol or have mental health problems.
These people are then offered food, clothing, even access to hot showers if they want. Volunteers also take on personal tasks like sending birthday and Christmas cards to those who have no family and friends.
Trading Places also run a night shelter three times a week, over the Christmas period. The centre is now helping its users to access volunteer work, education and employment, to help them rebuild their lives.
Wirral Pier Project - North West
Formed to engage and monitor prolific offenders who commit crimes to fund drug addictions, the Wirral Pier Project has reduced patterns of offending by giving drug users the chance to choose a better future.
Project members visit offenders in prison to prepare them for release and are then on hand to assist with issues like housing, benefits, employment and keeping them off the streets.
Since its launch in 2004, this attempt to stop the ‘revolving door syndrome’ of crime-prison-release-crime has resulted in a dramatic fall in crime statistics in the Wirral. Almost halving the number of robberies, there has also been a 55.5 per cent fall in burglary incidents. The project also won a Justice Award in 2006 for demonstrating an outstanding contribution to working with offenders.
Needle Collection Service, Leeds City Council - Yorkshire and the Humber
The Needle Collection Service is responsible for a lot of good work that happens in the Leeds area.
Apart from collecting an amazing 400,000 discarded needles in the last five years, they have taken it upon themselves to provide drug related litter awareness talks to colleges, enforcement officers, estate caretakers, schools and construction and demolition companies.
Acting on their own initiative, the team regularly go beyond the call of duty by dealing with the unexpected.
Intelligence is also shared with relevant organisations resulting in a reduction in discarded needles, tracking down drug dealers and improving public safety and confidence.
Bringing Unity Back into the Community, Tottenham - London
Bringing Unity back into the Community (BUBIC) is a voluntary sector organisation working in partnership with statutory and other voluntary sector agencies to reduce crack cocaine use in the London Borough of Haringey.
Founded by four former drug-users who wanted to 'give something back' to their local community, BUBIC provide community based and user led services to a predominatly black and ethnic client base.
This team is a unique group of individuals who are motivated by a passion and a drive to make a difference within their local community. As most of the team come from the BME community they are all aware of the social problems that many of the BUBIC participants face. With this in mind they have developed skills that are perfectly designed to meet the needs of BUBIC participants. They are constantly thinking creatively when it comes to engaging hard to reach individuals.
Views into Action, Weston-Super-Mare - South West
Views into Action (VI A) is a group of dedicated individuals working on an unpaid basis to support service users and ex-service users.
VIA runs a drug and alcohol-free cafe every Saturday evening, staffed by volunteers and attracting many service users and their carers, family and friends (360 in the last 12 months), who are seeking support, advice and access to treatment, housing, employment and training opportunities. They have established a series of art and music workshops to engage service users in positive activities and do awareness-raising talking in schools and local public events.
Elizabeth Fry Bail Hostel, Coley Avenue, Reading - South East
The team provides daily activities for up to 24 female residents, including convicted criminals and individuals awaiting trail, along with other substance misusers, with staff working 24 hours a day in rotating shifts to ensure constant support.
An emphasis is placed on rebuilding self esteem and setting clear pathways to recovery through anger management, budgeting, cooking and team building.
Staff have excelled in building relationships of trust with clients, and work tireless to promote their safety and prospects of long-term rehabilitation through arranging housing, education and other support when residencies come to an end. The Elizabeth Fry team work in close partnership with probation and police services and range of other public and voluntary organisations to ensure a joined-up approach in the community.
Young People's Substance Misuse Team, Shewsbury, Shropshire - West Midlands Team
As the team covers a wide, rural area this often involves working long and anti-social hours.
One worker recently had to see a client twice a day, every day and managed to stabilise him enough to be accepted into accomodation. The team has recently taken on two workers to deal with parents and carers making an immediate impact with this client group. Through initiatives the team has managed to get through to isolated groups including increasing numbers of migrant workers.
Salvation Army, Bridge Programme, Cardiff - Wales
The team based in Cardiff have been working with homeless service users in a structured day programmes.
As well as providing the standard care the team also go the extra mile and support service users in court, at doctors appointments and helping with accessign the social housing list. The team work in cramp under funded conditions and have still managed to achieve fantastic results with over 40 of the 57 new admissions going through the programme successfully in the past 12 months.
