Our team visited the Drink and Drug News Conference, where they gave harm minimization advice to the public and spoke to partners about our upcoming projects. The event was hosted at New Bindley Hall in Birmingham. It was a great opportunity to network with national organizations and the wider community to see how we can learn from each other.
It was great to see such a supportive and welcoming recovery community of partners and peers with lived experience."
The day began by setting up our Change Grow Live stall that provided booklets about medication, needle exchange, naloxone, and fun activities to help talk about substance misuse. The beer goggles were extremely popular! The team noticed a lot of people were interested in anti-spiking tools and thought the ‘spikey’ bottle stoppers were useful. This helped start conversations about spiking, keeping safe on a night out, and reducing alcohol intake.
Throughout the day, staff and volunteers listened to aspirational talks from specialists and were proud to see of our very own Deputy Chief Executive Nic Adamson talking about female-focused services. After two years of COVID restrictions, the staff happily reconnected with friends and colleagues, which sparked new ideas about how we can improve our services in Birmingham and open space to new organizations with expert support.
The team was supported by our partners, KIKIT, Intuitive Thinking Skills, and DATUS throughout the day and even though it was busy they managed to squeeze a photo in! KIKIT helped shine a light on diversity in treatment and promoted the work we are doing to make our services more accessible.
Intuitive Thinking Skills and DATUS showed how peer-led and group sessions can enable change, and motivation to boost recovery.
Overall, the day was successful for networking and promoting our services whilst appreciating the variety of support out there for people in addiction. Change Grow Live hopes to attend the conference again next year so watch this space.
Thank you to Deb, Matt, Harry, Lydia, Tasneem, Georgia, Sue, and Steven for their energy and passion at the event.
Follow our Birmingham services on social media to see more photos and videos from the event.