Ordinary people will be given an extraordinary opportunity to tackle drug problems in their communities with an announcement next week that £1m of lottery money is to be put into grassroots initiatives.
Charity DrugScope is unveiling an innovative awards scheme to give individuals grants of between £1,000 and £3,500 for practical projects - sport, drama, dance, music - that keep young people away from drugs. Money is also available for helping specialist support groups such as drop-in centres, or for devising new drugs education material.
The scheme, funded by the millennium commission, will be piloted in three English regions before going nationwide. Five hundred awards will be made nationally in the next three years. The initiative has the backing of the Mentor Foundation, a charity that supports work to prevent drug misuse in young people, and the Home Office drug prevention advisory service.
DrugScope, which is running the awards, is hoping for applications from young people, ethnic groups, ex-offenders and current or former drug users, as well as other residents wanting to find solutions to drug use in their neighbourhoods. And the charity says the scheme is as much about helping people realise their full potential as it is about the projects they set up. This is why DrugScope is targeting people who may feel alienated and marginalised and could benefit from a boost to their self-esteem.
The benefits of setting up a project have already been felt by a young amputee and a former heroin addict. Both took part in a Raleigh International millennium award project in Africa. Both changed their lives through helping others. Neither has since looked back.
Neville, now 28, started using drugs when he was 13. He spent his early 20s in and out of prison. But during an eight-month drug treatment programme at Phoenix House, in Birkenhead, he learned about Operation Raleigh and was selected for a project in Namibia. "It was fantastic," he recalls. "I helped to build a school and worked on a cheetah conservation project. I had never been abroad before, and for the first time I felt I was doing something useful. I came back a much more confident person. I wish I'd had the opportunity to do this years ago.
"I've witnessed some awful things in my life. It was my dad who started me on drugs - and then I saw him die from a heroin overdose when I was 17."
On his return to Britain, Neville (who wishes not to be identified) joined a conservation project creating a garden for vulnerable young people. He believes these experiences also taught him how to work as part of a team and the importance of communicating with other people. He is now a support worker for Phoenix House, helping drug users fight their addictions.
Working in Namibia showed Craig Harrison, who had no involvement with drugs, that he was as capable as the next person - despite having only one leg. When he came back to Britain, he ran an adventure training course for young homeless people, joining in with canoeing and rock-climbing.
"Working on that course gave me the confidence to try things I would have shied away from," Harrison, 22, says. "I have always been keen on football and I finally had the confidence to go to a training session for an amputee football team. Before I knew it, I was in an England squad and playing a match in the Ukraine.
"I couldn't afford to carry on doing it when I got married but now play for Everton's mixed disability football team. For a lifelong Everton supporter, it is a dream come true."
It is this self-development and character building that DrugScope wants to encourage through different drugs prevention programmes. Rachel Lohan, spokeswoman for the charity, believes that, as well as building up confidence, the projects willencourage new skills. Furthermore, she says, it is crucial that an area's drug-related problems are addressed by local citizens as well as external agencies.
"Drug use and misuse is a very complex issue," she says. "It requires not just a solution, but many solutions. The possibilities are endless. If someone needs to travel abroad to see an initiative they think will work in their community, they will be able to do that with some of the grant money. Other people might learn about desktop publishing because they need to design a poster advertising their project. Whatever they do, they will gain invaluable experience and make positive changes to their communities."
Further details from DrugScope on 020-7928 1211.
