Praise for drugs project from police chief
Saturday, October 31, 2009, 00:00

 

A LEADING drug rehabilitation centre in Walsall received a special visit from a police chief this month to bolster links in the community.

Walsall Operational Command Unit's chief superintendent Kevin Bullas looked around the Manor Women's Project, in Pleck Road, which has had a 75 per cent success rate in helping woman beat addiction and rebuild their lives.

Chief Supt Bullas, along with PCSO Ade Hartland, from the Alumwell and Birchills neighbourhood policing team, chatted with staff and residents and praised the way the project was turning around the lives of ex-drug users, the majority of who had a drug habit which was costing an average of £400 per day.

"I met the organisers and some of the residents who use the project and was impressed by their frankness and realism," Chief Supt Bullas said.

"The Manor Women's Project is based on education and helping to give women a fresh start and we are happy to work alongside the project."

Alison Cattell, director of the project, said she was grateful the police chief had taken time to visit the team and said he was a 'really nice down to earth fellow and a genuine Black Country guy'.

"He was genuinely interested in how the project works and spoke at length with our clients and was particularly interested in the educational opportunities that run in the background of their recovery programme," she said.

"Chief Supt Bullas will always be welcome at the Manor project."

 

Click here to read

 

 

 

Chrissie was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine for six years. She first smoked cannabis at 12 and by 18 had moved onto the hard stuff. Sometimes she'd struggle to find veins in which to direct the poison. “Every time you use a vein it collapses,” Chrissie says. “It goes flat so you move on to the next, to the next. After so many months, there are no veins left." She says she's ashamed of what she did.

 

Kay used to spend £200 to £300 a day on Class A drugs and eventually had sex with a man for money to pay for her drugs. She vowed she'd do it only the once but it was “quick money, not easy money because it wasn't easy, just quick” says Kay and so she began her career as a prostitute.

 

 

Pop stars Chris Difford from Squeeze and Marti Pellow from Wet Wet Wet have offered to hold a fund-raising gig for a Walsall drugs hostel which helps addicts from across the country beat their addiction.

The celebrities made the offer after hearing about the success the Manor Women’s Project has in helping women escape from a life of drug use, crime and prostitution.

The gig will further raise the profile of the 17 bed unit on Pleck Road which has won national awards for its work but which receives no official funding from national or local government apart from housing benefit for each of its residents.
 

 

 

 

 

The Manor Women’s Project was founded in 2003. It is a rehabilitation programme for drug-users based in a residential centre in Walsall, West Midlands. Welsh writer, poet and artist Paul Rees has recently been involved in the project. Commissioned by The Manor Project, he helped residents to use creative writing and poetry as a positive release for their emotions and to help increase self awareness. This work has now resulted in a short book, entitled Drugzkillzthatzfactz, which includes original poetry from the residents and support staff, as well as taking a look at statistics from the inside and discussing creative methods of working with addiction. Ultimately, it provides an overview of the work of the Manor Women Project. BBC Radio Five Live are spending a day at The Manor Project on 30 July 2009 and it is proposed that some of the poetry shall be read by individual contributors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to read the full write up.