The network 20

Network Monthly news, views and updates from across Phoenix

On the 23rd January 2014 we celebrated the achievements of our staff, volunteers and partner organisations at our annual awards ceremony in City Hall, London.

This year’s New Year Honours saw a return to City Hall to celebrate the fantastic achievements of our staff, volunteers and partners over the last 12 months.

This year’s awards were a culmination of 118 nominations, 120 minutes of video 2 rounds of shortlisting and a final decision by our judging panel.

This year’s awards were also the 1st with a winnner, selected solely by staff in an online vote - a glimpse at the future of New Year Honours.

Community Engagement Award To the person or team that has excelled in forming positive links between our services and the local community Presented by Paula Logan, Director of Resources Finalists were: • Birmingham Community Health Champions Project • Donna Moss, Barnsley Recovery Navigator • Communities of Recovery Lanarkshire

Winner: Donna Moss

“Donna is a recovery navigator in the community recovery navigation team. She is allocated one of the hardest areas to engage clients. The area she covers is one of the most deprived areas in Barnsley. Clients from that area suffer hugely from the effects of social deprivation and within that area we see a large number of at risk clients in terms of mental health risks and involvement in criminal activities.”

Family and Carers Award To the person or team that has worked most effectively to involve and support families and carers in the furtherance of an individual’s recovery Presented by Vivienne Evans, Chief Executive of Adfam Finalists were: • Patrycja Krzeszewska, Family Support Worker at HMP Holloway • Nicola Owens, Interim Residential Manager at Wirral Residential Service • Trafford Young People’s Service

Winner: Patrycja Krezeszewska

“Patrycja has transformed the Family Support Service at Holloway significantly. She is a lone part time worker, but has managed to integrate the service well into the prison, as well as with Spurgeons. The FSS was highlighted as ‘an area of good practice’ within the HMIP report for Holloway. The Inspector was incredibly impressed and taken aback by her outstanding work and commitment towards the families of the women within Holloway. She has implemented Families Anonymous into the visitors centre, not only a 1st for Holloway, but for North London.”

Education and Employability Award To the person or team that has made the most significant efforts to create education and employment opportunities for our service users Presented by Marion Logan, Director of Operations for Scotland Finalists were: • Recovery through Nature, Scotland • Learning and Development • Jamie Wong, Interventions Worker at HMP Pentonville “Recovery through Nature and Forestry Commission Scotland work in partnership to deliver a skills to employment programme for 16-25 year olds in Glasgow. This partnership reaches out to disadvantaged young people whether it be drugs and alcohol problems, mental health, ethnic minority groups or individuals who are not engaging with services. This has been a new initiative for Phoenix Futures and was derived from the success of the RtN programme. To Date 94 young people have engaged with the programme. 64 received John Muir Discovery awards, 35 gained John Muir Explorer award and 22 have achieved OCN accreditation.”

Winner: Recovery through Nature, Scotland

Criminal Justice Award To the person or team that has supported recovery through facilitating or developing a project or initiative that supports service users who may need help in avoiding reoffending Presented by Mike Ewart, Chair of the Phoenix Futures Scotland Board Finalists were: • Barnsley Criminal Justice Recovery Navigation Team • Thomas Wright, Interventions Worker at HMP Pentonville • Building Futures HMP Holloway

Winner: Thomas Wright

“His role as interventions worker and SMART facilitator involves him supporting prisoners at HMP Pentonville throughout their recovery journey. Tom has trained as a SMART facilitator so on top of his role as interventions worker where he delivers over 5 groups a week to prisoners he delivers SMART recovery groups to prisoners on the detox wing, encouraging them to engage in drug and alcohol treatment through the arena of SMART recovery. Secondly, Tom has worked incredibly hard on a resettlement project in the prison whereby he designed and created a departure package for prisoners being release from custody.”

Volunteer Award To the volunteer who has made a real difference by dedicating their time and skills to help us in our work and supporting recovery Presented by George Lambis, Director of Finance Finalists were: • Stephen Gordon, Recovery through Nature • James Coulter, Scottish Residential Service • Dawn Butcher, Barnsley

Winner: Stephen Gordon

“Stephen is a long term prisoner who has been on a placement programme with the Recovery through Nature programme. Stephen had very little social skills and a background of addiction within prison. Stephen has worked hard to gain 2 John Muir Awards and an OCN accreditation in Environmental Conservation. Stephen worked hard to develop his social skills and for many months now, has been co-facilitating the RtN programme with group leaders. He is supporting the delivery of the OCN, has carried out educational days with service users and has scribed for many people with literacy difficulties.”

Unsung Hero/Heroine Award To the person that has provided unswerving and dedicated but unheralded support in the furtherance of service provision Presented by Sarah Thewlis, Vice Chair of Phoenix Futures Winners: Finalists were: Caroline Bazin & Wendy Rutherford • Caroline Bazin and Wendy Rutherford, Administrators at Hampshire Residential Service • Ismail Hussein, Assistant Administrator at Birmingham Community Services • Adrian Hill, Sessional Worker and Recovery through Nature lead for Birmingham “Both Caroline and Wendy are important members of the support team yet get very little recognition for the outstanding contribution they make towards the service deliver at Hampshire residential. Caroline and Wendy work extremely hard behind the scenes to ensure the seamless workings of the service, they manage difficult situations that can be emotionally fraught . As a team they need to deal with the benefits and financial aspects of a clients time in treatment, which can also be extremely challenging. They are also responsible for being the first point of call when external providers call in, or if family members call to ask questions about their loved ones. Over the past 8 years both Caroline and Wendy have been consistent, supportive and caring members of Hampshire residential service; they have played a huge part in helping many clients achieving their recovery goals.”

Leadership Initiative Award To the person who has taken the lead on a project, development or activity to benefit the service, staff, volunteers or service users Presented by Liz Zacharias, Director of Business Development Finalists were: • Bob Campbell, Special Projects Officer • Di Hilton, Head of Operations • James Graham, Service Manager at Wirral Community Services

Winner: James Graham Collected by Di Hilton

“James Graham lead on a project to look at intensive housing management as a new source of income to ensure that we could maintain our housing provision. James created a proforma on activity and costs which we presented to a number of housing benefit departments around the country. Our application was successful and he then lead the relevant teams in different parts of the country to implement the new charges which ensured that our new income source maintained our housing stock. Running parallel to this process we also launched our new re-entry model across Portsmouth and Sheffield and used the same approach with HB departments to increase our entitlement.”

Partnership Award To the person or team that has developed an effective working partnership to deliver outstanding recovery services which benefit their community Presented by Mark Haysom, Chairman of Phoenix Futures Finalists were: • Podcast team and National Prison Radio Association • Wirral Town Centre and Outreach Team • Dean Morrall and Start Again in Birmingham

Winners: Podcast Team & National Prison Radio

“The podcast team (led by Courtney Allen and made up of Phoenix graduates and staff) and National Prison Radio have produced a series of educational podcasts that provide service users and the wider general public with a unique insight into the issues around addiction. Covering a range of topics including finding housing, how addiction affects family members and re-entry to the community, amongst other important issues for people in reocvery. The partnership between Phoenix and National Prison Radio has produced an innovative form of outreach using digital technology to engage and educate a new audience to Phoenix. The quality of the finished product is remarkably good and the content is informative and at times emotionally affecting.”

Recovery Innovation Award To the person or team that has put forward a new initiative to support an individual or a group in their recovery (shortlisted by the FIT team and selected by a national Phoenix staff vote) Presented by Adele Duncan, Director of Operations for England Finalists were: • Active Choices - Warren Tranter • Dance Movement Therapy - Steph Kennedy • Reflective Garden - Sue Ford • Virtual Rehab - Stuart Plant “Dance Movement Therapy aligns with attachment theories. It is proven to improve emotional understanding through play, exploration and self-expression. By use of non-verbal communication such as eye-contact, mirroring, gesticulation, sounds, & laughter there are improvements in self-worth and self –esteem. Involving the wider family in this activity helps to relieve tension, anxiety and improve everyone’s mood. This activity will contribute to improvements in parenting/caring skills and support the on-going development of positive role models within the whole family.”

Winner: Dance Movement Therapy, Scotland

Chief Executive’s Recovery Icon Award

To the person whose actions have embodied the spirit and philosophy of Phoenix Futures Presented by Karen Biggs, Chief Executive One of the challenges for Chief Executives is to ensure that the organisations that they lead can change and adapt to the environment they work in whilst holding on to the things that make them unique. There are many things that are important to us here at Phoenix Futures, but the essence of what defines us is a resilience when faced with the most difficult of challenges and our deep rooted optimism that people can and do recover. Being Phoenix doesn’t mean you have to be loud, although many of you are or the centre of attention always. But you do have an inner strength, a drive, passion and commitment that sets you apart. The Recovery Icon Award is given to symbolise that essence of Phoenix. An inner strength, an understanding of the value of support from others, an awareness of the road you travelled but an optimism to look forward to the future. A love of life an eagerness to celebrate it and a passion to use their experience to the benefit of others. If I could bottle it I would, and I would take a spoonful every time I lost my way or doubted I could resolve a challenge. And whilst clearly that isn’t possible, this award is one small way we can recognise and celebrate that unique spirit of Phoenix. Previous winners of the award, Bob Campbell, Jose, John Crane and Stuart Plant have had it all in bucketfuls. And it is no different for the person that receives this award today.

The first time I met James Graham, he picked me up from Lime Street station, as he drove me to the residential service in the Wirral it was clear that he had a lot in common with the other Phoenix People I had met over my first few month. A bit of a maverick, a constant beeping of his alarm telling him to put his seatbelt on was an ever present reminder of that. A straight talker, with Di as his boss who couldn’t be.

A respect for the organisation, a willingness to go above and beyond and do what is required to get the job done. But what was overwhelming to me in the first meeting and has held true over the last 7 years was the he was a lovely, gentle, compassionate man. As with all our Recovery Icons James has enough experiences to fill a number of lifetimes. From the more obvious after graduating the residential service, he became a lorry driver; his passion for vans and minibuses hasn’t gone away. To the less obvious, making the most of his time in prison to become the Strangeways badminton champion. His diploma in youth work has allowed to leave his lorries in the car park and come back to Phoenix and develop our re-entry provision. Di then hoodwinked him into his first management position making it clear that he would need to buy a shirt, which still hangs in his office for shirt occasions and to develop the Wirral Community Provision. We call him our housing expert, something he won’t accept but I’ve seen him in battle with housing associations and his relentless determination to develop more housing provision.

Anyone that come into contact him will be struck by his humility, his loyalty and willingness to do whatever it takes and if that involves a van or minibus, even better. One of the big tests for me in deciding a recovery icon award is what the NHS now calls the ‘friends and family test’. But many of us have used as a guiding principle for a long time. Would you trust that service, hospital or care home to care for your family member. The test for me in the Recovery Icon Award always is would I trust that person to look after my husband and my son if they needed help. The answer for James is I would trust them with their lives. It is my pleasure to award this year’s Phoenix Futures Recovery Icon Award to James Graham

Di Hilton presented James with his award on behalf of Karen Biggs

Issue 20

Network Monthly news, views and updates from across Phoenix Green Corner

Recovery Champions

The natural gas boiler at Wirral Residential has recently been removed and replaced by a biomass boiler that will provide heating and hot water for up to 32 residents and our staff.

Biomass is a fancy word for wood in our case and is much better for the environment than burning gas.

Burning both wood and gas and will be completing drugs and produces carbon dioxide which is bad for the environment, however alcohol awareness in the near future. They are an inspiration to wood burners are called us all and we are all very proud to “carbon-neutral”.

They join in work shops and groups, have these wonderful individuals and activities out in the community Trees naturally suck up carbon coming into our service. and also share their experiences when dioxide from the atmosphere as people are struggling to move forward, they grow. When we plant a tree, and the feedback we receive is excellent Helen Brewin we remove a trees’ worth of Service Manager, Trafford all round. They have completed basic carbon dioxide from the Navigation & Recovery training in: atmosphere and when we burn a Services tree, we add a trees’ worth of • Professional boundaries carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Supporting Age UK’s Bobble Day The biomass scheme only takes trees from “sustainable forests”, which are forests where a tree is planted for every tree that is felled.

The end result is that all of the carbon dioxide that is added to the atmosphere by our biomass boiler will be removed by new trees being planted.

We have 11 recovery champions currently who have all successfully completed the programme, and have returned to assist and support other service users receiving treatment.

On 7th February, Phoenix Futures Trafford Recovery Services took part in Age UK’s ‘Bobble Day’, an event to raise money to help older people keep warm in the winter.

• Motivational interviewing • Lone working • Safeguarding

This is much better for the environment than burning natural gas, which pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that stays there for millions of years.

Furthermore, biomass boilers are All staff at the service wore hats extremely efficient at in the office and they had a cake burning fuel compared to gas tasting event in the morning. boilers, which means that they produce less waste such as ash and The whole event raised £40. carbon dioxide than fossil fuels.

Ewan Newton Procurement Administrator

www.phoenix-futures.org.uk

Health and Safety Corner New Gold Hats

High Sheriff of Yorkshire visits our Widening Horizon Service

We’d like to welcome some new gold hats to the Health and Safety structure: • Jackie Kieran at Burleigh Court in Barnsley • Sue Wojtczak at Central Office Upcoming Training There will be gold hat training taking place for all new gold hats (or old gold hats who want a refresher). We have two dates: • Wirral- 4th March • London- 13th March Congratulations Tracey McConnell, Departments coordinator at the Scottish Residential has successfully completed her IOSH qualification! The IOSH (Institute of Occupational Health and Safety) is a 5 day long course with an exam on the last day so Tracey has put a lot of effort in! Well done Tracey!

Dry January Recognition Our Chief ExecutIve, Karen Biggs received the letter below from Public Health about the work Wirral Community Services staff did in supporting Alcohol Awareness Week and the Dry January campaign.

We have been informed that over 650 people signed up for Dry January in Wirral, a massive amount considering the national target is only 10,000.

The High Sheriff of South Yorkshire, Lady Ruby Sykes, visited Barnsley’s Widening Horizons project on 11th December to experience first hand the commitment of both staff and service users.

here does such good work and is so dedicated I have found it impossible to single one out above all the rest so for that reason I have decided to make this award to the entire Phoenix Futures group in Barnsley.

Each service user shared their personal journey – their highs, lows and aspirations. As a result of the visit, Lady Ruby has given Phoenix Futures a High Sheriff Award in recognition of the support offered to vulnerable adults wanting to make positive changes. She said “Everyone

We are all very proud to receive this award which will be presented at an Awards Dinner in March. It not only reflects the dedication of all involved, but also promotes Phoenix Futures across the whole of South Yorkshire.

Stuart is to attempt to summit Stok Kangri in aid of Phoenix Futures

The planning for this year’s events begin again next week for our annual ‘what worked’ meeting in January.

There are follow ups from the Dry January campaign at 3 & 6 months this year with the pledgers.

In September 2015 Stuart Croft, Locality Manager in Birmingham, will take part in an expedition to summit Stok Kangri at over 6000m in the Indian Himalayas.

He will be trying to raise funds for Phoenix Futures. His training schedule so far includes expedition training in April 2014, a mountain

www.phoenix-futures.org.uk

trip to Wales in May 2014 and a 26 mile all terrain challenge in June 2015. He will also need to do ice axe training. Then there will still be a long way to go to get fit and to raise funds. More fundraising information will follow soon.

Service User Forum Derby

Service User Qualifications

In October 2013 Phoenix Futures Services in Sheffield began to implement the assessment of literacy and numeracy levels for our service users, alongside delivering OCN Level 2 Qualifications.

across both services.

• 41 Diagnostic assessments for literacy and numeracy have now been completed across both services • 367 hours total number of individual client hours spent in education across both services Completing Recognized Education has been built into the programme timetables at both services; Qualifications /Future Life Skills • 6 service users have Mondays and Thursdays at the Family Service and Wednesdays and Fridays at completed the OCN-ER Level 2 the Adult Service. Each service delivers Award in Future Life Skills at approximately 3 hours of education time Sheffield Family Service • 1 service user will not per week. complete the qualification due to their level of literacy; instead a During this time service users can special pre-entry assessment pack complete online assessments on their and set of resources has been literacy and numeracy, work through purchased for this individual, online resources to support their progression with literacy and numeracy, which she is being supported with and complete various recognised OCN on a one-to-one basis with a Volunteer Learning Support qualifications. assistant.

Key Achievements Recovery through Nature • IT suites are now set up at both • Service users at Sheffield services, with 6 desktop PC’s at the Adult service have begun working Adult service and 7 at the Family service. Both have full Microsoft Office on the Level 2 • Award in Practical and a networked printer.

Conservation. This supplements • 35 hours of education have the Recovery Through Nature been delivered at the Family Service programme, providing service since October 2013 users with another recognised • 24.5 hours of education delivered at Sheffield Adult Service since qualification to take forward.

December 2013 What Our Service Users Say...

• 6 completions OCN Level 2 award in Future Life Skills at the Family “At Sheffield Family Service I have had the chance to re-build my service education and gain skills that will • Education time is continuing help me in my future… what level to become well integrated into both I am working at with literacy and residential programmes • 2 volunteers have been recruited numeracy and what I am good specifically to help support the delivery at and need to work on…it has refreshed my skills before living of education and qualifications in addiction. I have done lots of Improving Literacy and Numeracy research on the computer about what I want to do in the future” Skills • 57 Initial screening assessments for literacy and numeracy have now been completed

www.phoenix-futures.org.uk

Hayley Brook

January 15th saw the successful launch of the Phoenix Futures service user forums across Derbyshire County, The day involved speakers including Chairman of the Ripley forums - David McAllister, Sammi Cornwell Criminal Justice Worker, Lee Zander - Derby City aftercare forum, Stuart Plant - covering service user qualifications, and Karen Biggs officially opening the forums.

The launch saw the attendance of around 25 service users from across the county including Chesterfield, Ilkeston, Ripley and Swadlincote, there was a lot of passion for change and recovery in the room, and some very exciting and positive ideas for the future forums, following the launch there will now be a meeting held in each site the last Thursday of each month to ensure that service user involvement is embedded in how we deliver our service, the chair person and vice chair person from each meeting will meet up quarterly with Managers and Commissioners to ensure that there voice is heard and that they are involved in all levels of treatment.

Re:Cover Gig Live

Shaping our Services Every few years, Phoenix Futures service users take part in a Footprints survey to help us explore their experiences and improve our services to meet their needs.

In 2013 we received 830 responses, reinforcing the idea that recovery means more than just addiction treatment.

Below is some of the feedback we received from our service users. To see what else they told us, please go to the Quality and Performance page on Connect.

21% of our service users reported as being homeless or in temporary homeless accommodation before coming into treatment compared to less than 0.01% of the UK population 6% of our service users were in full-time employment when they came into treatment 25% of our service users have been in care compared to 1% of the UK population 30% of our service users had a drug or alcohol related A&E visit in the last 12 months Thank you to all staff who helped our service users take part in this survey.

The feedback will ensure that the needs of our service users are taken into account when shaping our treatment services together.

On Monday 24th February Phoenix Futures decended upon The Brink in Liverpool to host a gig to celebrate the success from the Re:Cover Music Competiton and recovery in general.

The gig took place on Monday afternoon and was presented by Phoenix Futures stalwarts Bob Campbell and Diane Hilton who between them have more than 50 years experience in recovery.

The event featured live music and recovery stories from people associated with Phoenix Futures as well as participants of the Re:Cover Music Competition.

Common Ground is an acoustic band whose members include seven residents from the service and two local Glasgow musicians. Phoenix Voices is a choir with members from Phoenix’s Wirral Residential Service and Glen McGlone a graduate from our Sheffield Residential.

Winners of the Re:Cover competiton, Cover Up a a rock band from Bridgend, Wales made up of four musicians; Ryan, Daniel, Josh and James, closed out the gig with a set of 5 songs and were presented with an award for their success in the competition at the end.

The event was streamed live The Brink, based on Parr Street in Liverpool is the city’s 1st dry bar and over YouTube and is currently is managed by Action on Addiction. available for anyone to view on the Phoenix Futures website at Acts included Common Ground, led www.phoenix-futures.org. by a Phoenix staff member from the uk/recover-gig-live/ Scottish Residential Service,

If you have any queries about the survey or results, please contact Robyn Cornelius, Quality Officer: T: 0207 234 9778; E: robyn.cornelius@phoenixfutures.org.uk

www.phoenix-futures.org.uk

We were sorry to hear that Jon Hall’s old Labrador, Ben, has died recently. Ben was a constant presence on the Recovery through Nature sites throughout Phoenix and will be fondly remembered by all those who have taken part in RtN over the past 11 years. Ben was always on the look out for a tasty bite or a tummy scratch and was often to be seen making off into the distance with the days lunch/ sausages/ sandwiches or steaks in his mouth. We’ll all miss him….