Swindon Eye Newsletter Issue 2

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Welcome To The Swindon Eye

Welcome to the Swindon Eye
Swindons very own Service User Newsletter
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Interview with Amanda Driscoll of the Foyer Swindon

Interview with Amanda Driscoll

1. What is the Foyer and what services does it provide?

The Foyer is supported housing for 57 vulnerable young people (16-25). The aim of the project is to provide support to develop independent living skills.

2. How does the Foyer provide these services?
2a. The Foyer provides support and training. The support is provided by key workers who have regular key working sessions with the residents.
2b. The training consists of cooking club where residents can learn to cook, computer club where they can gain a city and guilds qualification in computer skills, jobseekers breakfast club where they can search for jobs. There is interview and C.V.workshops and is the city and guilds learning power course. Its worth noting that the foyer lends itself to external agencies to provide courses such as cannabis psychosis workshops and managing emotions workshops. And the Citizens Advice Bureau has provided debt management workshops.

3. How much say do the residents have in what goes on at the Foyer?
There are residents meetings once a month where residents can talk about what’s important to them and and where they can find out what’s going on in the coming weeks.

4. What facilities are available to the residents?
There is a laundry room for the residents and 14 kitchens spread out between them. There is a common room with sofas, a TV, a pool table and a drinks machine. There is also a large garden where the residents can hang out, sunbathe and have BBQs in the summer.

5. How do young people apply to the Foyer?
The Foyer accepts self referrals and referrals from external agencies. The Foyer is not instant access, there is an application process. The prospective resident would be required to have a look around, come for an interview and provide 2references.

6. What do the rooms consist of?
The rooms are fully furnished with windows, a bed, chair, desk, chest of draws, fridge freezer, comfy chair, and an en suite bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower.

7. What move-on accommodation does the Foyer provide?
The Foyer gets six nominations a year from the council for residents who are in work, have shown improvement and are ready for independent living. The move-on accommodation ranges from fully independent flats around Swindon to two move-on projects at Milton Road, and Eastcott Road.

8. What rules, regulations and forms of disciplinary action exist?
 Residents are only allowed to smoke and drink in their rooms, if they are of a legal age to do so.
 We have a no drugs policy.
 We have rules to restrict the amount of noise in respect to other residents.
 Residents are restricted to two guests at a time. Guests are only allowed in after 4pm on weekdays and have to be out by 11:30 on weekdays and 12:30 on weekends.
 If a resident breaks any of the rules in their tenancy agreement, the staff talk to them first, after that there is a 3strike warning system ending in a 28day notice to vacate their room.

The State of Move On in Swindon

State of Move on Accommodation for recovering Alcoholics and Addicts in Swindon 2007

At this moment in time the move on accommodation situation in Swindon has changed very little over recent years and has improved only slightly in that time. There are 8 one bedroom flats in Toothill owned by Stonham Housing which operate at low level support for those in early recovery and has a number of support workers. There is also a Dry House called Old Appleyard in Morden run by Threshold Housing Link, which currently houses up to 9 residents. Threshold Housing Link also runs Culvery Court which along with Davis House run by The Salvation Army offers approx 60 beds between them for any homeless person, both are located near the town centre. There are also a few single homes run by various housing associations offering low level accommodation for resettlement around the Swindon area. We feel that Swindon desperately need more resettlement and move on housing for recovering addicts and alcoholics in early recovery today.

Artline

ARTLINE.

In Swindon there currently exists a project that uses Art and crafts as an aid to early recovery for addicts and alcoholics in this area. There are plans in place for a future project Musicline which will use music in the same capacity once funding can be found to launch it. The project can be accessed either through a drugs agency or through attendance to the secondary program at Gloucester House Rehab. This project has already helped to build self esteem and aid greatly in the recovery of many addicts and alcoholics in the Swindon area over the last three years

Gloucester House Update

GLOUCESTER HOUSE UPDATE

The Gloucester House Rehab in Highworth has employed a new member of their team of highly qualified staff to deal primarily with their secondary program and move on for their recovering addicts and alcoholics. Tracy Gornynski explained that their secondary program is a weekly therapy group that deals with a” skills based program” which includes basic life skills such as health, cooking, money and budgeting, management and admin and a “behavior based program” dealing with assertivness, communication, anger management, emotional function, stress and anxiety management and relapse prevention. Tracey also said that in the future there may be a possible drop in weekly group of recovering addicts with over a year clean to “share” amongst themselves and those currently on their secondary program.