For several years many of the schools we have visited have asked if it might be possible for us to bring in a recovering drug user to talk with the pupils. We have never been in any doubt as to how effective this can be. However, meeting this demand has not been easy to achieve. There have indeed been several recovering users who have made contact with us and volunteered to accompany us into schools to talk with pupils. Sadly we have never been confident that the time has been right. Anyone who has ever stood up in front of an audience of teenagers will know that there are many easier ways to spend an hour of your life. A class of S4’s can be about the toughest audience you could ever choose to address. People who are recovering from drug addiction tend to be very emotionally vulnerable for a long period and we have always been worried that the trauma of addressing a class of teens could set them back, maybe catastrophically.
A second issue has always been reliability. It is not at all easy to persuade schools to free up space in their congested timetables for agencies such as ourselves to come in and give presentations. If the school is willing to make a visit possible, it is essential that prove ourselves to be not only worthy of that slot, but also to be absolutely reliable. Most of our invitations come as a result of positive word of mouth and we are always anxious to maintain our reputation. Bearing this in mind, we have always been a little nervous of promising to bring recovering users into schools in case they let both ourselves and the pupils down.
In December an opportunity arose which we felt we had to take advantage of. We heard that one of the young clients of our Safe Havens project had received a two hundred hour community service order. For the purposes of this report we will call her Lisa – a pseudonym she chose whilst doing some work on the radio recently. Lisa’s mum came into see us six years ago to become one of the very first clients to use our Family Mediation programme. Soon we met Lisa herself and over the next few years we did our best to help to support the family through what was an awful time. Finally things at last started to improve two years ago as Lisa started to turn the corner. Her community service order was the last legacy of a life that had become utterly chaotic. Lisa’s story is one that all parents should hear. She comes from a fine and loving family and did well at school. She is intelligent and articulate and should have gone on to the kind of successful life that her family and teachers anticipated. Instead things slipped. At thirteen she started drinking and within months she was smoking cannabis. Over the next two years she experimented with every drug she could get hold of until she discovered heroin at the age of fifteen. Soon she was heavily addicted and the next six years of her life were black ones indeed. At last she finally turned things around, largely as a result of the resolute support of her family and the endless patience of her support workers from the Criminal Justice department. We like to think that we played a major role as well: Lisa certainly feels that we did.
Lisa had always told us that she would one day relish the opportunity to talk to school pupils. She firmly believed that her story could be used as a compelling warning to youngsters as to how very easy it can be for the wheels to come off. Lisa defies many of the prejudices that many members of the community cling onto with such apparent glee. She comes from an excellent family. Both of her parents work hard and always have. She did well at school. She speaks clearly and succinctly. Nobody would ever recognise here as the stereotypical ‘junkie’ so many love to loathe. And yet heroin got its talons into her and held on tight for six years.
We asked the Sheriff if Lisa’s two hundred hours of community service might be best used up by her going into the classroom to tell her story. He agreed and that is exactly what she has done. Her two hundred hours are now complete and we feel that she has given outstanding service to her community. She played one of the roles in the Christmas Carroll play and answered tough questions from the audiences with great honesty and courage. She has visited schools both with First Base and local community police officers. She has addressed the members of the Children’s Panels in Dumfries and Stranraer and she has talked on the local radio.
We were loathe to lose this new string to our bow once the two hundred hours were used up and so we went to the Nithsdale Area Committee of the Council to ask for funding for Lisa to continue with her work. Not only did they say yes, but the unanimity of the support shown by the councilors was truly heartening. As well as granting funding for us to continue with the project for 2009/10 they also asked that ongoing funding should be identified.
All too often the stories we become involved in have miserable endings. It is something we never get used to, particularly when clients pay the ultimate price for their addictions. In our area of work the bad endings will inevitably outnumber the good endings.
In the six years that First Base has been running we have seen few better endings than the most recent chapter in the story of Lisa. For any of you who have read ‘Roads to Down’, you will find Lisa on the cover of the book. The photo shows her with her head resting on her arms in a pose of misery and despair. That was exactly how her life was when she volunteered to have the photo taken. Now her head is held high and along with all of her family, she is smiling. It should also be pointed out that the young man whose picture appears on the back cover of the book has also defied all expectations and is now a proud father and doing brilliantly. At the time tha photo was taken, this young man’s life was beyond chaotic and fuelled by the manic need for nine bags of heroin a day and umpteen valium tablets. He was written off as a lost cause. Now he has proved just about everyone wrong and three cheers to that. Through his most manic times he could never understand why First Base never lost faith in him.
We’re just daft that way.
A second issue has always been reliability. It is not at all easy to persuade schools to free up space in their congested timetables for agencies such as ourselves to come in and give presentations. If the school is willing to make a visit possible, it is essential that prove ourselves to be not only worthy of that slot, but also to be absolutely reliable. Most of our invitations come as a result of positive word of mouth and we are always anxious to maintain our reputation. Bearing this in mind, we have always been a little nervous of promising to bring recovering users into schools in case they let both ourselves and the pupils down.
In December an opportunity arose which we felt we had to take advantage of. We heard that one of the young clients of our Safe Havens project had received a two hundred hour community service order. For the purposes of this report we will call her Lisa – a pseudonym she chose whilst doing some work on the radio recently. Lisa’s mum came into see us six years ago to become one of the very first clients to use our Family Mediation programme. Soon we met Lisa herself and over the next few years we did our best to help to support the family through what was an awful time. Finally things at last started to improve two years ago as Lisa started to turn the corner. Her community service order was the last legacy of a life that had become utterly chaotic. Lisa’s story is one that all parents should hear. She comes from a fine and loving family and did well at school. She is intelligent and articulate and should have gone on to the kind of successful life that her family and teachers anticipated. Instead things slipped. At thirteen she started drinking and within months she was smoking cannabis. Over the next two years she experimented with every drug she could get hold of until she discovered heroin at the age of fifteen. Soon she was heavily addicted and the next six years of her life were black ones indeed. At last she finally turned things around, largely as a result of the resolute support of her family and the endless patience of her support workers from the Criminal Justice department. We like to think that we played a major role as well: Lisa certainly feels that we did.
Lisa had always told us that she would one day relish the opportunity to talk to school pupils. She firmly believed that her story could be used as a compelling warning to youngsters as to how very easy it can be for the wheels to come off. Lisa defies many of the prejudices that many members of the community cling onto with such apparent glee. She comes from an excellent family. Both of her parents work hard and always have. She did well at school. She speaks clearly and succinctly. Nobody would ever recognise here as the stereotypical ‘junkie’ so many love to loathe. And yet heroin got its talons into her and held on tight for six years.
We asked the Sheriff if Lisa’s two hundred hours of community service might be best used up by her going into the classroom to tell her story. He agreed and that is exactly what she has done. Her two hundred hours are now complete and we feel that she has given outstanding service to her community. She played one of the roles in the Christmas Carroll play and answered tough questions from the audiences with great honesty and courage. She has visited schools both with First Base and local community police officers. She has addressed the members of the Children’s Panels in Dumfries and Stranraer and she has talked on the local radio.
We were loathe to lose this new string to our bow once the two hundred hours were used up and so we went to the Nithsdale Area Committee of the Council to ask for funding for Lisa to continue with her work. Not only did they say yes, but the unanimity of the support shown by the councilors was truly heartening. As well as granting funding for us to continue with the project for 2009/10 they also asked that ongoing funding should be identified.
All too often the stories we become involved in have miserable endings. It is something we never get used to, particularly when clients pay the ultimate price for their addictions. In our area of work the bad endings will inevitably outnumber the good endings.
In the six years that First Base has been running we have seen few better endings than the most recent chapter in the story of Lisa. For any of you who have read ‘Roads to Down’, you will find Lisa on the cover of the book. The photo shows her with her head resting on her arms in a pose of misery and despair. That was exactly how her life was when she volunteered to have the photo taken. Now her head is held high and along with all of her family, she is smiling. It should also be pointed out that the young man whose picture appears on the back cover of the book has also defied all expectations and is now a proud father and doing brilliantly. At the time tha photo was taken, this young man’s life was beyond chaotic and fuelled by the manic need for nine bags of heroin a day and umpteen valium tablets. He was written off as a lost cause. Now he has proved just about everyone wrong and three cheers to that. Through his most manic times he could never understand why First Base never lost faith in him.
We’re just daft that way.
