I will begin my Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship on Saturday as I fly out to New York. The Fellowship will enable me to visit a number of new recovery community centres in the US. These centres stand out as they have achieved long-term recovery from severe alcohol and other drug related problems.
A network of such centres exist in Vermont, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Virginia and visiting these centres will provide me with ideas on how to better build a strong "peer culture" into the services I am establishing as part of The Living Room Cardiff project which hopes to open its doors in 2011.
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust is the national memorial and living tribute to Sir Winston, who died in 1965. The Trust’s objectives are to encourage the advancement and propagation of education in any part of the world for the benefit of British citizens of all walks of life. The aim is such that this education will make its recipients more effective in their life and work, whilst benefiting themselves and their communities, and ultimately the UK as a whole. Each year approximately 100 Fellowships are awarded for wide range of projects.
The reason I'm visiting this particular part of America is because there have been some extraordinary success stories emanating from these centres and if their successes can be replicated in Wales it would significantly relieve the huge social problems currently being experienced as a consequence of drug and alcohol misuse.
Getting a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship is a fantastic boost for The Living Room project in Cardiff. My itinerary will expose me to a broad spectrum of recovery advocacy activities in the US including many of the faith-based programmes. I owe a debt of gratitude, incidentally, to William (Bill) L White MA, a world renowned academic and expert in the field of substance misuse, who has mentored me and been a great source of wisdom and support as I've planned my itinerary.
The benefits obtained by this Fellowship will enable me to establish a recovery centre in Cardiff by 2011. This will establish sustained recoveries, free from cross-addiction. I will also be filming a video diary which I hope will be a permanent and valued resource to testify to the effectiveness of these innovative approaches.
You can follow my progress over the next two months on this blog and on the Wired-in Community Blog, www.wiredin.org.uk, and on the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust website, www.wcmt.org.uk.
Wish me luck!
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