50 Voices
ADE 50 Voices captures the authentic voice of the people that use our services and our staff as Turning Point celebrates its 50th anniversary
50 Voices
Ade King
50 Voices
Ade King
Tasty Little Cravings is (L to R): Robert King, Daniel Hall, Mark McKinley, Claire Belloir and Ade King
Ade King (AK) is a former service user who came to Turning Point’s Recovery Kitchen in Birmingham. The Recovery Kitchen is a programme designed to teach kitchen skills – including health and safety, cooking on a budget and creating menus – to individuals in recovery from substance misuse. Ade was part of the first cohort on this programme and this is his recovery story. Laura Donohoe (LD) is Turning Point’s Development Manager for Education, Enterprise and Employment. She has worked closely with Ade and the other graduates of the Recovery Kitchen to develop a whole new approach to using enterprise as a sustainable recovery tool. Tasty Little Cravings is the Social Enterprise that formed from the first cohort to graduate Turning Point’s Recovery Kitchen. Tasty Little Cravings, of which Ade is one of the directors, provides catering services; they have a grand vision of what their future looks like, to provide a contemporary and alternative approach to established forms of socialising. Their ultimate aim is to create an environment free from alcohol and other mood and mind-altering substances. As recovering addicts, they know there is a need for spaces where members of the ever-growing recovery community can gather, along with their families and friends. As they have faced setbacks and struggles in their lives there is a determination, humility and humanity to their approach which they believe is totally unique. Turning Point staff member, Andrew Nuttall (AN), spoke to Ade and Laura to learn more about their groundbreaking efforts to make social enterprise a key part of sustainable recovery.
50 Voices
Ade King
AN: Ade, could you start off by telling me how you came to Turning Point and the Recovery Kitchen?
It was here that I realised that the first thing you change, when you change, is ‘everything’
AK: I came to Turning Point after I had come out of treatment and had gone to live in a dry house. I’d been in rehab for drug addiction, for most substances. I came to a local authority recovery centre, Summerhill House, and it was here that I began to get some structure to my days, doing group therapy and such. It was here that I realised that the first thing you change, when you change, is ‘everything’. I needed to fill my days and it just happened that Turning Point had approached Summerhill to start a programme in their kitchen and that was how I began at the Recovery Kitchen. Turning Point had got a Savoy trained chef to lead the course so in a way it was more like learning to work in a professional kitchen, not just cooking. It got me out of my bed and going to group sessions and interacting with other addicts, but that wasn’t my only reason. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, I’m not scared of it and over the weeks he showed us different dishes and other skills: how to run the larder, knife skills, things like that. After a couple of weeks training we began to open the shutters and ask people for donations for the food. Summerhill’s a busy recovery hub, as well as a residential block, people come there for day care, to meet their social workers, there’s a lot of traffic. We ended up cooking three course dinners for the residents and social workers and anyone else who came through the doors. When we graduated there was a period where we were just inspired by it and we thought, ‘This is a good opportunity, can we start doing something?’ Obviously, as it was a new course things needed to be sorted, we were being taught how to cook beef wellington and in early recovery people can be quite chaotic in their kitchen skills, so we had a few people boiling an egg in a kettle and things like that! I also completed a Peer Mentoring course at Turning Point, just to keep involved. I just liked what Turning Point was doing. I found there were some nice people who I got on with so I did some counselling. I still do some counselling there.
50 Voices
Ade King
Fortunately, there was a chef, Dan, who came through recovery and he eventually took over. It was an added bonus to attract people that there’s actually person in recovery who’s leading the course. As the next group came along there was a period where Turning Point was asking, ‘Where can we take this?’ and there were few of us who saw it as a good opportunity to stay in recovery and offer recovery to others. AN: This sounds like a really positive experience.
It wasn’t just cooking; it was a good place to hang out. You could talk about anything
AK: It was good. It was a good bit of solidarity. It wasn’t just cooking; it was a good place to hang out. You could talk about anything like, “Me head’s fallin’ off” and “I’m screwed about this” or “I’m having problems with my housing”. It was a nice place to go and meet and have support and do something apart from sitting in group talking about feelings, it was a lot more casual.
AN: So what happened next? AK: From there this gorgeous blonde woman [Laura Donohoe] turned up from Turning Point and said, ’I’ve got a great idea, why don’t we try and make a social enterprise of it?’ We talked through what that might look like and what we would need to make it happen and Laura managed to get us some funding and started the ball rolling. It changed from something we were talking about to something we were actually doing. We teamed up with iSE, a social enterprise development organisation in Birmingham, to go on a course to learn about marketing and research. We looked at other social enterprises and learned about that business model and the positives it brings. There were 12 of us so it was still very much a group based thing. As the process went on and we whittled down, people got fed up, people left, people came back, and it ended up with us forming Tasty Little Cravings.
50 Voices
Ade King
Tasty Little Cravings originally was formed as a catering company. However, we noticed a couple of dry bars around the country and for the future we thought about a recovery hub. Not a treatment centre, just a nice place to hangout and continue recovery – that bridge to normal living. We wanted a place where we could serve food, somewhere to take your children, to meet your friends and have a coffee. We had to do it first, we had to form a kitchen, we had to form our own social enterprise and become successful. There’s no good talking about it to other people, you’ve got to do it first. We sat down, there were four of us and Laura, and we became the directors. We registered that company and we became Tasty Little Cravings. That’s it.
AN: And where are you up to now? AK: So, now we’re getting ready for the next step, we’ve achieved our first goal. I’m very proud of what
So, now we’re getting ready for the next step, we’ve achieved our first goal.
we’ve all done, and we’ve all moved out of the dry houses and we’ve all got our own flats and some of us are going to college and some of us are now in relationships, and some of us are in work. TLC is running a pop-up kitchen and Turning Point has been going from strength to strength with the Recovery Kitchen. We’re now in a position where we can offer Turning Point and the Recovery Kitchen some places for volunteers once they’ve completed their health and hygiene certificates – it’s a great springboard!
We’re now in a position where we can offer Turning Point and the Recovery Kitchen some places for volunteers once they’ve completed their health and hygiene certificates – it’s a great springboard!
50 Voices
Ade King
LD: What Ade is talking about here is really important for our own strategy around supporting social enterprises across SM– as well as the trajectory of Tasty Little Cravings itself. We know we want to develop our Enterprise, Training and Employment (ETE) provision to incorporate more enterprising projects – the recovery kitchen was the seed for TLC. We now have TLC offering ETE placements to our service users – that’s what we want. We could end up with a chain of enterprises born out of ETE projects in services, which then support service users directly; it’s about real opportunities for employment, and it’s real sustainability. With TLC, they are engaging with organisations with a shared vision – for example getting on the supply chain with Birmingham City Council around ethical procurement. We want to work with organisations that have a social value consciousness and strong corporate social responsibility. We could end up with a recovery enterprise movement...
AN: Can you tell me a bit about the other directors? AK: The directors are all from different backgrounds, different ages so it gives us different things to aim for. There’re just five of us but we put a lot of hours into this. At the moment we’re kind of virtual we don’t have an office. It’s the commitment of the team that bonds us as a company, some of us are putting 50 hours a week into this. LD: Once Ade had established that in the long term they wanted a dry bar we were able to broaden the focus of TLC and be more inclusive of the strengths of the directors. As we mentioned we have a chef, Dan, who’s been through a Turning Point treatment service and then got involved with the Recovery Kitchen. He now works full time for Turning Point so we are really working on inclusive practice. Turning Point wants to develop how we get people from being in treatment to joining the enterprise and then developing skills and experience which can lead to sustainable employment.
AN: I guess there’s been an element over past 6 to 12 months of uncovering strengths of people that they perhaps didn’t know that they had? We’re going to ask for help and everyone that we’ve asked has been really, really good and been giving their time freely and really enthusiastically.
50 Voices
Ade King
AK: It’s a new way of doing things. We’ve all come through treatment and we’ve been addicts and through the treatment we’ve had our characters revealed and then we’ve been built back up. There’s an honesty, open mindedness and willingness. They’re like spiritual principles. We’ve got nothing to hide. We’re going to ask for help and everyone that we’ve asked has been really, really good and been giving their time freely and really enthusiastically. LD: They have a real sense of dignity and equity. Sometimes it’s hard to give particular roles and responsibilities because no one wants to make decisions on someone else’s behalf; we want it to be everyone’s decision. Where we are now compared to six months ago is that there’s a strong sense of who does what within the team. We’ve been asking, ‘What do you do, what are you good at?’ We need to map the board’s skills to the business model – we need someone who can do the cash flow, we need someone who can network and strategise. That was a real turning point because now I feel everyone knows what their role is.
AN: What about things that you’ve learnt? LD: If I think about Tasty Little Cravings and how other Turning Point services might use this, and how I use this experience with services, it’s important to recognise early on that people need to know what they’re doing and to be supported into making that decision. Doing a skills audit and getting people to be a bit more open and happy to put their hand up about something is really important.
AN: What are the enterprise opportunities for Turning Point? AK: Birmingham’s the second city and we have a lot of people in recovery here. You could very simply set up with a stall, or a gardening company or something like a valet service. The idea of getting a recovery hub is that people have somewhere to go and form their own social enterprise and have all that access and information on board. LD: The dream is to have an enterprise community – Turning Point servicing the needs of the people we’re working with. With a dry bar we could really achieve that. AK: It would be advertising the fact that this is a new way of life. We’re not gonna be worried, it’s not dangerous. I’ve got children - I want my kids to be safe. There is an alternative: you don’t have to get high to be creative. That’s the kind of message I want to promote.
50 Voices
Ade King
AN: How has Turning Point developed as the role of enterprise has grown?
What Turning Point gave us was the world
LD: For Turning Point as a business, we’ve learnt a lot. This is new for us and we’re figuring out how we support service users into enterprise. Were asking questions like: How would Turning Point create a role that to directly support enterprise, what does that look like? AK: It’s the level of support required. The group that came through to form TLC were really motivated. At no point did Turning Point say, ‘We’re going to be on your board of directors’. It was: this is for you and you’re going to have your independence. That was a really fresh thing. If you do voluntary work for any organisation you can normally only grow within that organisation, a sort of in-house thing. What Turning Point gave us was the world . . . LD: . . .As opposed to other services where we try to create enterprise as part of the provision alone – this is the model which says start something and hand it over. With TLC it was fresh and new because we said: Ok, if you really want to do this and Turning Point is really investing in sustainable recovery this isn’t about Turning Point getting to own it and making it part of our provision. It was us enabling them to have independence – long term. AK: That’s kind of like a universal thing, isn’t it? It goes back to a mother and a father having their children and nurturing their children and seeing their vulnerability and watching them grow and getting more capable with the world and then they’re off to uni, they still come back at the weekend to get their washing done, they can always come back for Sunday dinner but eventually you have to have the trust and faith for them to go out into society and make the world a better place.
50 Voices
Ade King
AN: Laura, how do you see Tasty Little Cravings supporting Turning Point? I know that one of the things Turning Point wants to do with TLC is to use it to inspire other services to help support service users in recovery and on to employment.
LD: I know that one of the things Turning Point wants to do with TLC is to use it to inspire other services to help support service users in recovery and on to employment. We know that social enterprise is a big movement within SM but it’s the start up which is the stumbling block. The idea for me is that we could get people, particularly you Ade, along to other services to inspire other service users and say, “You can do this”. We would like TLC to become Enterprise Mentors for other service users. Rather than it become a role like mine where I’m looking strategically, it’s more like the parent/child dynamic Ade was talking about. That is much better, more real and is going to have a much bigger impact coming from them than it is from me. Looking how we demonstrate inclusive employment practices and really support you guys on your journey by giving you some work and saying, “Can you go to services and talk to service users and start something up?” becoming champions for enterprise. Turning Point is taking part in a pan-London enterprise project and I’d really like Ade to do a talk about TLC. I’d like service users from our London services, who are going to come to that workshop and meet you and think, “If they can do it, I can do it”. It’s raising aspirations. Service users need to realise that it’s something they could do. If you’re long term in services and long term unemployed your prospects are quite hindered around gaps in your CV, criminal record etc. If you’re very entrepreneurial no one may have said, why don’t you use that talent to start your own business? AK: If you went to other services in other areas of the country and can got two or three people who have a little idea and who work together anyway and have that drive between them you’ll probably get better results and they’ll probably be a lot speedier because of what we’ve learned with TLC.
50 Voices
Ade King
AN: Would you describe this as an enterprise network? LD: Exactly, I’m already meeting people who I want to link with Ade. I met someone who had an enterprise idea and the first thought I had was, “OK he’s in X, TLC are in Birmingham, the most enabling thing I can do is to get you guys to have a chat, to share practice and to share ideas. What he really needs is someone who’s just going to chat to him about it. I could tell that he wanted someone to bounce ideas off. TLC is better placed than me to do this. I can broker relationships but people need a network that can support them.
AN: Ade, if you were you were speaking to yourself 4 or 5 years ago, from where you are now with this amazing opportunity, with networks around the country, what do you think you’d say to him? AK: Get yourself to rehab, quick! It was a different world 5 years ago. Most of what I say I can believe in today. There was a lot of bullshit in my life and a lot of dishonesty and a lot of harm I’ve caused to people and to myself. I was putting everybody in danger, I was no good for anybody, I wasn’t a functioning member of society, I didn’t trust or like society but today the world’s alright. I still struggle, I still get a lot of guilt and shame but I work through that. TLC gives me that balance in my life. I have to work on my relationships with my family and my friends, myself, my life. But when I come here, I come correct, I do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. I’m not as angry with the world or with myself. I’ve been very fortunate, whether it’s some spookiness, or God’s looked after me, I don’t know. I’ve been very fortunate in my recovery. A lot of people have a struggle through their addiction and they have turbulent lives and all that kind of stuff. But I embraced my recovery, I’d had enough and as soon as the alternative was shown to me I got switched on to it. People talk about recovery capital , what you have, what you have going on, what you haven’t lost: I’m kind of intelligent, I’ve still got good family, I’m motivated, I’m in good health, I’ve got a bit of youth on my side. But it’s about giving back, isn’t it? By being in the recovery community I see that they need a lot more help. It’s not for me to think, “I’m alright, Jack”. People helped me and that’s how we work, we pass it forward, so that keeps me humble. It would be very easy for me to get my life back on track and go and get a job and all those things on the outside and then forget about where I’ve come from, forget about others that are suffering. Since I’ve been in this I’ve embraced this recovery way of life, it’s not just about me today, it’s about other people. And that in itself is universal
50 Voices
Ade King
‘Recovery Capital’ refers to assets which increase an individual’s ability to achieve and sustain recovery. There are four domains of Recovery Capital:
1. Social – Support from, and obligations to, relationships including family, friends and recovery communities such as Mutual
Aid groups
2. Physical – tangible assets such as a place to live and paid employment
3. Human – personal abilities such as education and skills, as well as physical health, confidence and aspiration
4. Cultural – attitudes, values and beliefs
Turning Point helps Service Users to identify and draw on pre-existing capital, as well as to develop new capital
50 Voices
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