The latest 2017 Public Health England figures show the ‘Proportion of opiate drug users that left drug treatment free of drug dependence who did not re-present to treatment within six months is 6.5% ‘non-opiate drug users’ 36.9% and alcohol users as 38.9%.

(Source)

What this amounts to is that: 

• 93.5% of opiate users
• 63.1% of non-opiate users
• and 61% of alcohol users 

Are unable to sustain recovery for even 6 months after giving up drugs and alcohol. The figures also say nothing of the significant numbers who relapse within a year. There are no accurate figures available for this.

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Our work challenges and provides an alternative to the current approach to working with drug and alcohol addiction. Monitoring and evaluation is a key priority for us in order to show the significant impact that our projects make.

We collect a combination of quantitative and qualitative information across all our courses. The quantitative information starts from baseline data gathered from our trainees and goes on to record the number of people completing the course, gaining qualifications, moving on to volunteering or further education, and employment.

The majority of people we work with have been unemployed for many years with 29% having been unemployed for 10 years or more. This means that finishing a course, completing a qualification or moving into volunteering are huge achievements for them. This also means that it can take time for people to make the bigger changes in their lives such as going in to further education or finding a career. Watch the video below to hear John's story. 

So we can measure these longer term changes and the impact of our courses, we call graduates yearly to find out about their progress. The depth and amount of longitudinal data we collect along with the personal contact we maintain with our graduates is highly unusual within the sector. We also collect longer interviews with graduates that you can read here. 

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Since we started in 2014 we have worked with 366 people across our courses with a graduation rate of 74% overall. 

Our flagship course, Psychology for Change, includes a qualification and an optional volunteering placement. It is the course for which we track the progress of our graduates each year, with an annual call up to see what our graduates are doing, particularly whether they have moved into employment. 

We have worked with 366 people since 2014. 

• 74% completed the course
• 56% achieved a qualification
• 80% went onto a volunteering placement
• 61% are now in further education and/or training
• 58% are now in meaningful employment

We use the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) to measure improved mental wellbeing for those who complete our courses. 

The feedback and testimonials we gather from those who attend our courses give a real sense of the ways in which learning can generate such a powerful shift in identity, agency and meaning in people’s lives. 

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Our courses increase soft skills across four wellbeing domains

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