Session4
Connecting to the future
The day closed with an inspirational presentation by Sunny Dhadley of SUIT and the Recovery Foundation CIC, on harnessing your potential and following your dreams
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Ican remember coming to a DDN conference for the first time about a decade ago, not long out of detox,’ Sunny Dhadley told delegates.‘ I didn’ t understand that this world existed.’
He’ d been involved in problematic drug use for around 12 years, he said, which consisted of‘ treatment journeys, getting fired from various jobs, and many things that perhaps I’ m not proud of today’. His first battle to become empowered was when he went to his local treatment service to ask for a detox.‘ They said,“ who told you that you could detox?”, as if I was asking for something that had never been heard of before. Without realising it, that was my first bit of activism because I told them“ actually, I really want this detox – I don’ t want to keep going back to the pharmacy.”’
He carried out a community detox‘ with drug dealers knocking on the door wanting their money back’ a week before he got married, and when he was discharged from treatment he was effectively told,‘ go and live the rest of your life now’, he said.‘ But what they didn’ t understand was that I didn’ t know what life was’.
Looking around for things to connect to, he began attending NA groups and counselling and started to rebuild his fractured relationships.‘ I didn’ t really have any formal qualifications or a career to fall back on, so volunteering for me was a way of finding out who I was.’ He also re-engaged with education and found that, rather than qualifications, the key benefit was‘ the confidence that came from starting something and finishing it – other than breaking the law.’
He had a desire to give something back but didn’ t know how that could manifest itself, he told the conference.‘ The next phase of my journey was around strategic exposure. The word strategy scared the shit out of me because I didn’ t know what it meant.’ He was volunteering locally and started asking questions,‘ the same way a child would –“ why, what does that mean, how does that fit into that?” I’ m sure it annoyed them, but it started to give me a picture of how commissioning worked, how targets were set, the effect of policy. It’ s very easy to turn your back on something if
you don’ t understand it, but I had an emotional connection – this was something I cared about.’
After a while it began to make sense to him within the context of his own journey and things started to fall into place.‘ For me it was a massive process of empowerment,’ he said.‘ All of a sudden I had a budget and responsibilities for recruitment and volunteering, which made me laugh because not long before that I couldn’ t manage a budget of £ 10 in my pocket. But I persevered.’
He started building a vision in terms of what he felt was needed locally and gaining credibility with
‘ There’ s so much energy and potential in every one of us...’
‘ people I’ d never met’. In 2016-17, while his Wolverhampton-based peer-led organisation SUIT received just 2.4 per cent of the local drug and alcohol budget, it supported more than 1,000 people and delivered almost 5,500 interventions across more than 70 areas of need.‘ We’ d never push a direction on someone, we let them lead that.’ Each intervention cost just £ 24.74, he stressed.‘ That’ s for supporting someone into housing from being homeless, for finding someone work, for keeping someone out of prison. It demonstrates that we don’ t have to wait for someone else to do this stuff, we can do it ourselves.’
In terms of influencing change, it was vital to have a clear vision of what you wanted to achieve, he said.‘ The people that are going to drive change are us – people in the community. Ask questions, be that annoying little kid.’ Patience and resilience were also essential, he said.‘ We might see small pockets of change, and we have to celebrate that. It’ s about not putting people on pedestals – it’ s seeing everyone as equally important.’
In 2014 his volunteer programme received the Queen’ s Award for Voluntary Service, and he went from local to regional to national meetings. He sat on the cross-party parliamentary group for alcohol, drugs and justice, while SUIT had been cited as an international model of best practice. He was also a fellow of the RSA, had been named CMI regional chartered manager of the year, and was taking part in a parliamentary initiative to encourage more people from the BME community to get involved in politics, among many other activities.
‘ I’ m just standing up here to say this is my journey,’ he told the conference.‘ We all have our individual journeys, and the only person that’ s going to stop you from achieving the things you want to is yourself. Don’ t let anyone say you can’ t achieve things. Be proactive, put yourself into situations where you feel uncomfortable, because you’ ll learn from that.
‘ A few years ago even the thought of standing up here would have had me quaking in my boots, but if you’ re championing something you believe in, you’ ll do anything to make it happen. There’ s so much energy and potential in every one of us, and there’ s nothing to stop you from doing your own thing.’ DDN
14 | drinkanddrugsnews | March 2018 www. drinkanddrugsnews. com