WCIT MONITOR WCIT Charity Quarterly Dec 2019 | Page 3

Charity Quarterly
“I am very happy with the service I received at DAWS and
how it is helping prepare me to reintegrate into society as
a positive and productive member.
Education, Employment and Training for
Londoners in Recovery
Blenheim develops additional employability support
service for people in addiction recovery, thanks to
grant funding and pro-bono support from the WCIT
Charity and its members.
It has given me the tools and encouragement to make the
changes I want to see in my life. I am quite thankful to all
the staff for their support and empathic approach which
has helped me grow - from someone whose only concern
was to get high to someone who is drug-free and is
helping others to achieve this reality. I feel constantly
rewarded for progress I have made, have never felt
judged and have been afforded many great life-enriching
opportunities through this service. ”
Joe*, former Blenheim client.
The project was developed in 2018 to provide enhanced digital skills
learning opportunities for clients who have accessed drug and alcohol
support from Blenheim’s Drug & Alcohol Wellbeing Service (‘DAWS’), by
running weekly employment clinics, IT learning sessions and ‘pop-up’
internet café sessions, using easy to transport laptops.
ChOps Grants 2019
The following grants were awarded by the
Charitable Operations (ChOps) Committee
for the financial year 2019:
People in early recovery from addiction already face many difficult
challenges, the realisation that digital citizenship is now an essential part of
working life can be daunting and demoralising for job seekers in recovery,
whose confidence may already be low due to factors such as a criminal
record or poor work history. Thames Reach -
Digital Skills Project £45,108
Lifelites -
Accessibility equipment & training £12,345
The DAWS Education, Training and Employment (ETE) team supports local
people to begin rebuilding their lives after substance misuse, through access
to digital skills and coaching. The team had observed that clients with no
internet access/digital skills would invariably struggle to complete their Job
Centre job search agreements. This put them at risk of losing employability
payments due to non-compliance. Gresham College -
IT Professorship £11,500
LBTS & Hammersmith Academy:
Various Projects £10,000
AbilityNet - Tech4Good Awards £6,535
Using the ‘pop-up’ IT suite, the team has been able to offer learning and job
search help, which have been attended by 4-8 jobseekers per
session. The laptops enable the team to work flexibly with each client, using
whatever space is available to support them. Code 4000 CIC -
Break the cycle of crime by
teaching coding to get back into
the job market. £7,000
Over time this also helps to reduce clients’ social isolation, keep in touch
with peer recovery support and help them gradually build the confidence to
participate in a Foundation course, which teaches basic IT skills for absolute
beginners - an important gateway to further learning and employment. Autistica -
Molehill Mountain anxiety app for
autism £5,000
Cyber Girls First CIC -
Computer Science workshops to
encourage STEM education £5,000
Impact Gamers CIC -
Re-engaging students back into
education through creative IT £4,000
WCIT University Outstanding
Student IT Awards £3,700
CC Boys Club -
Providing i-pads for SEND
Education programmes £3,000
Oakleaf Enterprise -
Inspiration for Tomorrow - IT hub to
help adults suffering mental
ill-health get back into work £1,000
Livery Schools Link Careers Day £410
Digital Preservation Coalition £310
Leo Computing Society £125
Joe*, a former DAWS service user, has been working as a volunteer
recovery worker with Blenheim for the past couple of years, and is currently
undertaking a Level 2 Counselling course at Lambeth College. Due to a
recent minor relapse, he had missed two weeks of his weekly tuition
sessions and had fallen behind. Worried that he was not going to be able to
catch up, he was considering dropping out of his course, and had become
very despondent about the future, despite the considerable personal
progress he has made in recent years.
Having the ‘pop up’ suite of laptops meant that the ETE and recovery
workers were able to offer intensive support to Joe over a critical few days
where he was at considerable risk of dropping out. They worked together to
help Joe put his relapse into perspective and re-focus his energy on his
personal goals and future plans. Having helped to lift Joe’s spirits through
some one-to-one keywork sessions, they were able to invite him to bring his
coursework in on a USB and show them what he had been working on prior
to his relapse. They arranged for Joe to use a quiet space to study for two
consecutive afternoons, where ETE workers helped him prioritise what he
needed to do in order to finish his outstanding assignments.
Joe was then able to speak with his college tutor and demonstrate his
commitment to completing his counselling qualification. We are pleased to
report that he is now firmly back on track.
* = Names have been changed for privacy
Overall Charitable Giving
To Date: £115,033