A DRAMA therapy programme for people with drug and alcohol addiction in recovery is to be rolled out in Clydebank.

Creative Change Collective, which brings together professionals from the creative industries to affect positive change was recently awarded £400,000 funding from the Scottish Government to expand their projects.

Formerly known as Street Cones, they use film and theatre type activities to help participants on the charity’s programmes achieve more positive outcomes in their lives.

Most of their work since starting in 2014 has focussed on people in or at risk of entering the justice system.

This will allow the charity who run its Recovering Voices programme, which supports participants in residential and community alcohol and drug recovery programmes, to people in Clydebank, Erskine and Saltcoats.

Earlier this week, drugs policy Minister Angela Constance congratulated the charity after watching a performance by members of Glasgow’s recovery community who had participated in the project. 

The Oran Mor event was delivered as a variety-style mix of sketches and gave participants the opportunity to demonstrate their achievements, celebrate their success, and share their lived experience with friends, family, support staff, and policymakers.

Clydebank Post:

Participants read poems and performed scripts that drew on their lived experience and addressed issues around the stigma of addiction and how their illness has impacted their family members.

They also heard from friends and family of those battling addiction, who told of their pride at seeing their loved ones entering and staying in recovery.

Speaking at the event, Ms Constance praised the programme for making recovery “visible”.

She said: “We know people are individuals and one size doesn’t fit all, so this project – like many other projects – is helping people discover their own recovery path.”

Recovering Voices is led by Creative Change Collective project director Mark MacNicol, who lost his younger brother Jason, 30, to a heroin overdose 15 years ago. 

Clydebank Post:

Mark, pictured above with Jason, said: "We are pleased that this funding will allow us to take our Recovering Voices project into three more local authority areas.

“By expanding this programme, we hope to help more people to stay in recovery – potentially saving lives.

“Losing my brother Jason to addiction has been a big motivating factor for me. If there is one person helped as a result of this then there is a family out there who doesn’t have to go through what ours did.”

The project in Glasgow has been funded for three years by the Scottish Government through the Corra Foundation.

A previous participant in Recovering Voices described the sessions as the “highlight” of their week, while another said it had “definitely helped” their recovery.