Richard Chapman is rough sleepers team lead at WithYou’ s community drug service in Wigan and Leigh
CAREERS
I AM A...
Richard Chapman is rough sleepers team lead at WithYou’ s community drug service in Wigan and Leigh
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WORK IN THIS FIELD? I’ ve been in recovery for 30 years. What got me into this field was probably wanting to give something back at the time, but I think it ' s grown since then. Now it’ s about empowering people to give them the opportunity to be the best they can be. It ' s about giving an open space for individuals to know that they can be heard, that they can get the support they need without judgment and prejudice.
I got into this 25 years ago to change the field to be more client-friendly – trying to take away that dark, dingy room atmosphere. I wanted drug services to be about supporting individuals so they can grow and feel worthwhile. It ' s about that person feeling like a human, feeling like a valued member of society, and not just a person that uses drugs or alcohol. We get to know the person before we get to know what ' s going on for them. A person walking through that door doesn ' t want to deal with their drug use; they want to know where they ' re going to be sleeping that night.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE? It’ s never a boring day. I get to meet some of the most interesting people in this world. You ' ve got to bear in mind that the individuals that we ' re working with, they ' re at the lowest point in their lives. They could have absolutely nothing. They live in complete destitution, but they ' ll tell us,‘ Hey, it ' s really good to see you. How are you doing?’ They ask how my day is going!
Being a team leader is about leading the team, leading an initiative, coaching and supporting staff so that they can be the best they can be. I look at what the team loves doing and what their passions are and what their drive is, and I build on that. One of my team does amazing work around domestic violence, another works really well with entrenched homeless people, another worker is really good around neurodiversity.
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST REWARDING? Watching people grow – and that ' s not just clients, that ' s staff as well. I have a mantra that every day I will come into work and learn something new. It doesn ' t matter how small it is, but I will always learn something new. And the day I don ' t learn something, that’ s the day I need to move on.
Every day I learn the value of life, because every day I see someone who ' s struggling but still wants to continue to grow. Only this job will give you that. You ' re watching people grow from the point of complete desperation to someone who ' s empowering others.
Last week, I had a client who was detained under the Mental Health Act, and we were really struggling to get this client into an ambulance, and then another
‘ I have a mantra that every day I will come into work and learn something new. It doesn’ t matter how small it is, but I will always learn something new.’
client said,‘ Let me have a chat with him.’ Because we gave him that space to do it, that client got in an ambulance.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE? For all drug and alcohol services to be trauma-informed. I want staff to see every situation through a trauma lens. I remind my team of that on a daily basis, and I’ m proud that in Wigan and Leigh all our staff are trauma-informed. We should be empowering people ' s lives, because if we did that, things would look after themselves.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE CONSIDERING A SIMILAR CAREER? It ' s a very difficult career, and some days can be so emotionally draining, but the reward always outweighs the negative. I’ m 54 years old, and I ' ve worked in this field for nearly half of my life, and I could not think of any other job I would want to do. If anybody was considering getting into this field, I would champion them 100 per cent because you could never work in a more rewarding field. If you want to watch people grow, you want to see people be empowered, then this is the place to be.
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