Welcome Recovery Services are designed to support people in recovery from substance misuse, helping them to rebuild their lives in the heart of the community.

What are the aims of the services?

By providing work experience opportunities, training and employment support, as well as peer support and access to health and well-being services and activities, Welcome Change aims to assist people to maintain their recovery and rebuild their lives in the community. All too often, people who have managed to become drug and or alcohol free then relapse, and end up having to start the treatment process again. Our services aim to prevent this from happening.

What can I expect from the services?

We have a Recovery Services Coordinator, who supports people in recovery in the community. People may be referred following a period of time in treatment or on leaving residential rehabilitation, or might self refer. The Recovery Services Coordinator works alongside a team of Recovery Peer Mentor Volunteers.

The support on offer includes:

• Telephone support Monday to Sunday
• One-to-one meetings in community settings, including at our Community Centre
• Peer Support Groups
• Signposting individuals to other services that can help with wider issues such as housing, benefits, legal advice and health services
• Engaging individuals with positive activities such as arts, sports and gardening
• Holistic therapies
• A Friday Lunch Club – the opportunity to meet others in recovery over lunch
• Support with education, training and employability with an OCN-accredited Getting back to Work course on site. This course is free of charge, and can be completed alongside various volunteer placements (available with us or externally). We also work in partnership with local colleges to assist people to advance further in their education if desired.
• Volunteer placements that will assist people to build their CV. We offer a range of placements at our Community Centre and Cafe, Charity Shops, Community and Youth Services.

Volunteer placements are available in:

• Recovery Peer Mentoring
• Gardening and environmental work
• Catering
• Retail
• Warehousing
• Administration
• Youth work
• Supporting elderly residents

Who are the services for?

Due to our location and funding we aim to reach people in recovery from the Borough of Solihull and those living in East Birmingham. However, if you do need the service and come from further afield please contact our Recovery Services Coordinator, Ben Thompson, on 07495 139 016.

How to refer or be referred

Referrals from drug and alcohol treatment providers
Our Recovery Services Coordinator is present during service-user induction into treatment in Solihull in order to inform people, right at the beginning of treatment, that the service will be there for them when they leave. The Recovery Services Coordinator can keep in contact with individuals throughout treatment, if needed, and is able to come into a treatment appointments with them when the care plan indicates that they are soon to exit treatment. On exit from treatment individuals can already have an appointment to see the Recovery Services Coordinator in a community setting, or just have been given his contact details for support if and when needed.

Other agencies
Other organisations and agencies working with people in treatment and recovery can contact our Recovery Services Coordinator, Ben Thompson, on 07495 139 061 to discuss a referral, ideally prior to the individual’s exit from their service.

Self referrals
If you find out about our service whilst you are already in recovery in the community then contact our Recovery Services Coordinator, Ben Thompson, on 07495 139 016 or drop into the Recovery Hub:
Welcome Change Recovery Hub
Ownall Road
Shard End
Birmingham
B34 7AJ