GoldStar - Snapshot County of Northampton Council on Addiction - Footsteps Project - Promoting good practice in managing volunteers from socially excluded groups

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GoldStar - Promoting good practice in managing volunteers from socially excluded groups

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Project	Description
County of Northampton Council on Addiction - Footsteps Project	Alcohol and substance abuse-related issues

The Footsteps Project was originally named "Affinity" and was funded by the Home Office as a Pilot Scheme However, since April 2004 it has been funded through the GoldStar programme under the new name “Footsteps”, and its aims are to

	Encourage those with a history of drug or alcohol dependencies and/or homelessness to move away from there past and towards independence and personal fulfillment.
	Dispel the myths that surround people who are homeless and have a drug/alcohol dependency
	Ensure that social exclusion and social isolation remain a thing of the past

The project has sought to achieve the above aims through mentoring and befriending. The project has been very successful at recruiting volunteer mentors/befrienders "in house" from the pool of those who were previously mentees with Footsteps. These volunteers alongside a few “external” volunteers undertake M&Bf Basic Mentor Training, and some will go onto do a "NVQ Level 3, Accredited Mentor Training Course", at a local college.

Footsteps has a structured induction programme, which includes a newly developed Social Skills Programme, that mentees attend and some of the mentors help to present.

The project co-ordinator undertakes monthly supervision/reviews with the mentors. Both mentors and mentees have Individual Development Plans [IDP] in order to monitor, assess and review their progress. They also have Quarterly IDP Reviews and Quarterly Feedback Sessions. All of this information is then summarised and recorded in Case Studies, and copies of these are sent to the Home Office.

The Project has recently developed a “ Footsteps Procedure Manual” and from this, Footsteps is now looking to develop a 'project package' for small VCS organisations.

One very important aspect of the Footsteps Project that has been developed to help combat social isolation and exclusion is a Befriending Circle. The current members meet on a regular basis for social activities/interaction. A new befriending circle is developed for each intake of new mentees.

Footsteps is effectively offering a mentoring and befriending service that acts as an “alternative to a formal re-habilitation programme" when such a programme is not available to an individual/s for whatever reason. In developing this programme, they are now trying to address some of the issues for people who have a “Dual Diagnosis” -[substance misuse and mental health issues combined] and one way they are doing this is by encouraging some mentors to undertake Mental Health Advocacy Training at a local mental health hospital, as well as Basic Drugs Awareness Training.

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