BRIGHTON

PROJECT

Our Strategy 3

BRIGHTON

PROJECT

Brighton Oasis Project 11 Richmond Place, Brighton, BN2 9NAT: 01273 696970 F:01273 697762 E: info@brightonoasisproject.co.uk W: www.oasisproject.org.uk

Registered Limited Company No 347762 Registered Charity No 1065503

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Contents

Our Strategy

Report from the Chair

Report from the Director

Young Oasis

Supporting Families POCAR

Adult Services

South East Dance

Insights

Word Cloud - The Oasis Journey

NEF Summary for POCAR

Finances

Strategic review

During 2014/15 we undertook a strategic review process that enabled a wide range of individuals and organisations to contribute. This revealed an appetite for growth among beneficiaries. The following strategic goals have since been agreed:

Our current strategic plan ends in 2015. This was a particularly successful period forOasis with a marked increase in growth from new business. Oasis currently has a mixedfunding economy with approximately 70% of the total income being either secured orreasonably certain for the life of the strategic plan 2015-2018.

To ensure that core services are maintained and driven by excellent quality standards throughout all areas of service delivery

To extend the reach of our services for adult women by partnering with NHS trusts or suit-able organisations located in other geographical areas

To sustain delivery of interventions for women offenders or those at risk of offending in the new transforming rehabilitation environment

To expand the therapeutic support services for children geographically initially in East and West Sussex

To develop a consultancy and training package around a family model for working with substance misuse based on experience of children’s therapeutic service and POCAR

To increase the early help offer in Brighton & Hove to include longer term support for the most vulnerable families to ensure sustained improvements.

This comprises in excess of 400K guaranteed income per year. Alongside our track record of attracting new and continuation funding this means we enter the new period with solid financial foundations. We have made a commitment to growing the organisa-tional reserves to provide further financial security into the future.

Oasis recognises that in future resources are likely to become increasingly stretched andthat having clarity of direction and purpose is essential. We have seen many medium sizedcharities ‘scale up’ in order to remain competitive in the current environment. This may involve working across counties and districts which have been amalgamated into new contract package areas under current commissioning arrangements. Ensuring the future survival of BOP now means by necessity we need to consider extending our geographical reach and articulating our impact in a way that goes beyond treatment outcomes alone and into the broader policy agenda.

Report from the Chair4 Report from the Chair 5

I’m pleased to be able to report that as a result of a new partnership BOP will continue to be providing services for women and children in the city for the next 3 years. We are delighted to be working with some old friends and some new, to continue to improve outcomes for women in recovery. I know at BOP the team constantly strive to improve the lives of the diverse group of women and children they serve. They do this by thinking creatively, developing new skills, working in partnership, being resilient, using the evidence of what works and caring passionately about women and families in the local community.

In my previous role as Chief Exec of a local health trust I was committed to challenging inequalities in health and continue to view them as one of the biggest issues we face. I’m delighted to be able to continue this fight at BOP, which is one of our most significant roles. They are present throughout the organisation, for example:

The women we work with are out-numbered 3 -1 by men in drug/alcohol services, making it difficult for them to get their needs met in generic services

Standardised mortality rates for sex workers are six times those seen in the general population, the highest for any group of women

Deaths among heroin users are 10 times the death rate in the general populationLess than 1% of all children in England are in care, but looked after children make up 33% of boys and 61% of girls in custody

Our aim within BOP is to work with women and families to improve their health and life chances by offering a holistic, evidenced based approach. We have worked with the University of Brighton this year to review the impact of our work and this has demonstrated that our structured programmes had positive outcomes for women. We also know that our therapeutic services for children increase their resilience and coping skills. Demonstrating our impact is of huge importance to BOP, so that we are assured of delivering effective services and also so that our funders can see we are obtaining good results. We will be working alongside the University of Brighton in the coming year to continue to develop the research base around that which works for our clients and their needs. Additionally, we are also delighted to provide placements

for student nurses, social workers, therapists and those on a criminal justice pathway. This all contributes to the organisation being a learning and development environment.

BOP is heavily dependent on funding from the public sector and cuts to the local authority budget mean that it is essential that we are providing value for money as resources diminish. A number of the programmes and interventions we provide actually reduce expenditure for the local authority in the long term and I am delighted with the report from NEF, which shows how significant these cost savings are. We were also able to claim some money from the “troubled families” initiative locally as a result of the impact we had with families facing numerous problems. I am certainly under no illusion that the next 3 years will be easy for BOP and we will need to keep forging new partnerships and exploring new ways of working effectively to ensure we continue to flourish.

We have ended this year with a deficit, the board knew at the beginning of the year this was a possibility. We took the decision that, as this was the year services were being retendered, not to reduce our capacity since it was our intention to negotiate with potential partners to address our historic underfunding. The underfunding arose as BOP has, for many years, over-delivered on the contracts it has in place, often subsidising work from its own reserves. I am pleased that this over-delivery represents BOP’s desire to be seen to be flexible and responsive to local needs but clearly it is not a position that we can sustain. We are optimistic that the new contract will enable us to deliver

the services commissioned in line with the budgets agreed. We will of course continue to seek funding from elsewhere to enable us to do more. We are particularly grateful to all the Charitable Trusts and individuals whose funding enables us to provide more than the basics for our clients and in these harsh economic times that means so much. So whether it is provision of a service for children, new equipment for the crèche, food for clients, or time donated by volunteers, I really do want to thank everyone who contributes to making Oasis the thriving dynamic organisation it is.

Toni WilkinsonChair

Brighton Oasis Project is an invaluable resource for the city. Its pioneering work supporting women and children affected by substance misuse empowers them to make positive changes in their lives. The expertise on offer at Oasis, and their woman-only approach, improves chances of recovery and provides an environment where difficult issues can be discussed openly and without fear. While our city continues to face difficul-ties caused by drugs and alcohol I am deeply grateful that excellent services like Oasis are on hand to help people when they need it.

Caroline Lucas,MP Brighton Pavillion

Report from the Director6 7Young Oasis

After an eventful year I feel delighted to be able to let all our supporters know that Brighton Oasis Project continues to deliver services to women with drug /alcohol problems in the city. Those of you who work in the city in the field of substance misuse will know that last year we all participated in the, at times painful process of re tendering. For Brighton Oasis Project there were some very difficult decisions to make and I’m proud to say that at each stage of the process in making decisions the question the board came back to was “ What is right for the women and families of the city? “ Making sure we kept this question firmly in our sights ensured we remained focused on our mission and values. We are pleased to be working alongside some new partners now in the shape of Cranstoun and Surrey and Sussex Borders NHS Trust to deliver the Pavilions service to people in the city with drug and alcohol problems for the next 3 years. We will continue to advocate for the effectiveness of gender specific services and for supporting families affected by drug problems, particularly children whose voice so often goes unheard. The new sub contract offers some exciting opportunities for BOP and we are particularly pleased that we will be working, along with our partners to improve the support provided to fathers whose children have a child protection plan. The work we do at Oasis supporting families is our core business and we are delighted that with funding from the Department of Education we were able to have the POCAR programme evalu-ated this year. There is more about this evalua-tion in the report but a key finding was that

“Changes from the POCAR programme occur swiftly with the majority of transitions in social care status taking place within 3 months of completing the programme.”

Reducing the numbers of children with a child protection plan and those “ looked after “ is a priority for the local authority and we are pleased to work alongside families to achieve this safely.

We have just completed the refurbishment of number 11 Richmond Place which, like the retendering was at times a painful experience with a good outcome. The funding from Public Health England enabled us for the first time to completely overhaul 11 Richmond Place and the reactions from our clients was great.

During the past year we have reviewed our strategic plan. We embarked upon an inclusive progress to ensure that the voices and expertise of all those who have an interest in our service could participate . This culminated in an event bringing together representatives from local agencies both statutory and voluntary, along-side staff and service users. We recognise that we will probably be required to respond flexibly to emerging trends but are confident that we are well placed to rise to the challenge.

The last year has been difficult for staff and clients, uncertainty over the future of services in the city and future funding impacts on both. Despite this the staff remained professional throughout and determined to continue to provide effective support to those on their recovery journey . This really is a testament to the resilience and commitment of the whole team. I am tremendously proud of the staff and the difficult work they do every day along-side the clients embarking on tough journeys.

Jo-Anne WelshDirector

Over the last year, the Young Oasis Centre has continued to develop its services in order to provide the best support possible to children and young people affected by substance misuse. The creche, therapy service, young women’s alcohol service and holiday art groups all offer something different, which enables us to respond to the specific needs of an individual or family, from infancy through to adulthood.

Creche

Young Oasis crèche is the heart of the organisation and provides a nurturing environment for infants and young children. The crèche is free, has skilled staff , is Ofsted registered and enables parents/carers to access drug or alcohol treatment or support in the city. The high staff: child ratio means that each infant/child gets plenty of attention that is specific to their needs. Play is at the heart of child development and this is central to the crèche ethos. Inclusivity and building positive relationships with the parents and carers as well as with the children is fundamental.

Holiday art groups

It’s been a very creative year, where we have focussed on giving the children an voice through their artwork. In October we celebrated Adfam’s 30th birthday, with an exhibition of the children’ s work at the Circus Street Yellow tent space. The artwork came from the summer holiday art groups and combined film, slides, poetry, body maps, trees made of cardboard and large photo-graphs that documented the trips.

Therepeutic Service

Children and young people in families where there is substance misuse get frequently overlooked. Young Oasis therapy service offers these children a confidential space where they can express their feelings and tell their story in their own way. All therapists are qualified or are trainees on placement and work using the arts; clay, puppets, paint, role-play, sandtray, musical instruments.At times words can be hard to find and this is where showing someone how you feel can be so powerful. The therapeutic interventions offered(16 weeks) are externally evaluated and the results show that they increase the resilience and well-being in the children accessing the service..

57 children attended the crèche of which 40 children hada child protection plan.

The Young Women’s Alcohol Service provided case work support for

30 women

8 Young Oasis 99Young Oasis

A day in the life of a therapist

Cycling to work gives me a burst of energy before settling down in the office. Checking my diary and appointments, catching up with emails and prioritising tasks is my usual starting point, along with a strong coffee. My desk has a window that looks into the Young Oasis creche and as the morning progresses there’s a constant sound of babies and children laughing, crying, chatting, singing. It is the heart of the organisation and a reminder of the importance of the work that we all do here.

Before my years of training to qualify as an integrative arts psychotherapist, I studied fine art and have always been interested in how we express ourselves and function in relation to the world and each other. In my current role I am both manager to the Young Oasis team and a practising psycho-therapist, balancing the challenges of leader-ship with clinical work.

My daily diet includes scheduled meetings, report writing, supervisory tasks, the neces-sary frustrations of funding reapplication, but most importantly case work and therapy sessions with children and young people. On top of that there are many variables: phone calls and communications from social workers, parents, carers, teachers, workers,

JanieJanie originally came to Young Oasis as a baby in the creche, her mother was a long term substance misuser and needed to attend the adult services at BOP. As a toddler Janie continued to attend the creche and by this time had formed a positive relationship to the project. Both mum and Janie felt comfortable in the project and they were always welcomed.

Later, when Janie began school, she began to ask questions and felt different to the other children, but didn’t understand why. Nobody had explained to Janie what was going on in her family and her mum felt too bad about herself to say anything, she thought that it would make the situation worse. With support from Young Oasis therapeutic service, mum was helped to understand the impor-tance of telling her daughter about her addiction. When Janie was told, she said to her mum that she was relieved and that she knew all along.

Janie came to therapy sessions at Young Oasis and found that she was listened to and heard. As a teenager Janie contacted the service again, this time to volunteer - she told the workers that she wanted to ‘give something back’. Janie has been helping with the holiday art groups and the creche and is invaluable to the project. The children warm to her presence and she really does ‘get it’.

Jani

e When I was a child it was good to be able to come here to play because at home I always had to look after somebody else.

79 different children accessed therapy of which 58 hada child protection plan

inquiries as well as emergencies and crucial child protection issues to be dealt with.

There is strong sense of commitment from the team working together with these families. Advocating for a child’s needs is central to the work that we do, it requires persistence as well as sensitivity. For example, it may be that a child has been excluded from school because of their behaviour. Helping others understand the context of their lives is a way of accessing further support. We work hard to build relationships with the families, carers and professionals that are in a child’s life.

Being with the children and young people is an inspiration. By my desk there’s an Olympic medal made of clay. This was given to me by a child living in ‘kinship care’, who kept running away from school, barefoot. They would often be found in the creche next door where they felt safe. Children are incredibly resourceful at getting their needs met, and this is often misunderstood. All arrive with a different story, some of them have never been really listened to.

Children turn up feeling like they are the problem but often there are themes of neglect, domestic violence, stigmatisation, grief and trauma. Last year approximately 60% of our clients were living in care, generally they come from all kinds of backgrounds,

not just areas associated with poverty.

Every team member is impacted by the work we do. Regular clinical supervision is essential for me and my colleagues. The use of traditional, as well as less typical, art materials underpins all activity at the project. In the therapy rooms there are paints, clay, a sand tray, objects, puppets, dressing-up clothes and musical instruments. This tool-box allows children to express what they are feeling. It is not about being an artist, it is about communication. An image, assembly or set of actions can speak volumes.

Within the therapeutic space any work produced is confidential. The Outdoor Art Groups serve a different purpose and bodies of work are produced which we exhibit. We protect children’s identity but give them a voice.

The final rituals before leaving work are completing case notes, clearing the therapy rooms, locking all filing cabinets and turning off the computer.

Jo ParkerArt Psychotherapist

Supporting a family Lisa & James & Robin10 Supporting a family Lisa & James & Robin 911

LisaI accessed the help of Oasis in the early part of 2014 after being

6 years abstinent for drink and drugs. I had been experienc-ing difficulties from the birth of my son and the relationship breakdown from my sons father and it all seemed to be too

much to process and cope with on top of the daily demands of being a first time mother to Robin. I got addicted to over the counter pain

killers after having surgery and my inability to reach out for more support and help with Robin, I picked up heroin. In my mind I was wholly responsible to be the “ perfect mum” but I was not and I picked up heroin thinking it would be my solution, forgetting my previous experiences of how my heroin use took me to a lonely risky isolating dark place. Coming to Oasis I engaged with the structured day programmes, key works, ear acupuncture, and peer lunches with Robin . Whilst I was participating Robin was able to use the crèche which was a welcoming and bright space for him to go to be safe and encouraged in his development. He was shown so much love and care from staff which was so reassuring for me that he was very happy to go there and be left until I returned to pick him up.

After attending Oasis for a period of time I made a decision that I needed help to get clean and for me it was unrealistic that I could become substance free out in the community so I detoxed in Millview Hospital and then went to Portst-mouth for 3 months in a treatment centre . Making this decision was extremely difficult and a heart wrenching choice to leave Robin for 4 months to go but I knew it was a small price to pay to get my life back on track for the sake of his in the long run. During this time I was away Robins father was supported to be able to take Robin to the crèche , which took a little bit of pressure off him whilst I

was away and helped him maintain his job. Robin’s needs were looked after by having a place of structure , consistency and safety

and most of all warmth and love to keep him emotional nurtured in the best possible way.

JamesLisa relapsed in 2014 and decided she needed to get into treat-ment in October. The speed that the multiple agencies worked to give Lisa the treatment that she needed was very quick which left me with the problem of holding down a job and being full time carer for my son. My only knowledge of Oasis at this point was that it was an woman’s only project but help was offered by the crèche to help with child care that over the months was a lot more than that, the support and understanding of the staff and volunteers at Oasis enabled me to work and allowed my son and I to maintain regular contact with Lisa through her program. The effect on my son I can only imagine if it was different, the constant assurances from the staff that ‘’mummy was getting better’’ and their insight to some abandonment be-haviour made the change more manageable. The

story does not end there Oasis has continued to provide our family with support and for

that and I am forever grateful.

Since leaving treatment Oasis has continued to help myself and Robin. He

uses the crèche so I can attend a fellowship meeting. Robin has in my opinion gained a lot from the wonderful

attachments he has made at the crèche, he definitely enjoys attending. I have always been treated in a respectful, compassionate manner and

have welcomed any feedback regarding Robin, the positive affirmation has made me feel proud to be his mother .

Robin was born in recovery and is the most precious gift I ve been given asides getting clean again and I m very grateful and humbled by the Oasis project in helping us all build our

lives up again from despair to hope and that we are not alone and our journey looks bright.

Adult Services12 South East Dance 13

Services we offer

We deliver services for women with drugand alcohol problems from assessmentthrough to recovery. Our pathways andservices are designed to meet the needs of the diverse group of women who experience problems with substance misuse. Ourservices use evidenced-based interventions,reflect Nice Guidelines and are monitored using the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System. The team at BOP are focused on working with clients to develop plans for them to successfully complete drug treatment. We focus on helping women completetreatment successfully as we know this helps to:• significantly improve health andwell-being in terms of increased longevity,reduced blood-borne virus transmission• improve parenting skills• improve general physical and psychological health.• improve relationships

We provide:• Structured programmes - when womenattend weekly groups and 1-1 sessions.This intensive psycho social intervention provides a structure which is also intended to help women get back on track with their responsibilities to themselves and others• Peer Support - a big part of attending BOPis reducing isolation by being with other women with similar problems and increasing motivation by being alongside others who are progressing in their recovery • Co ordination of treatment - BOP staffwork with women to agree a plan of carethat will help them get their life back under

control and be able to leave treatmentsuccessfully. Staff will communicate withcolleagues in other agencies to make sure women’s wider health and social care needs are met• Support to access training, employmentand education . Our phase two group helpswomen learn about what opportunitiesare available to them and how they candeal with difficulties like child care, criminalrecords, lack of qualifications and time outof the job market• Parenting support - We deliver Triple P, anevidenced based parenting programme thatcan be adapted to different circumstances.

StaceyEveryone who comes to oasis has their own story to tell & their own journey to travel but usually they come because of the pain & the chaos that overwhelms them. I didn’t want to come here but I knew I had to. I was pregnant & my life-style was chaotic. It needed to change.

So what have I learnt?

• How to be me again. The real me.

• How to deal with problems & face up to things

• How to approach people without being angry

• If I didn’t do this work at Oasis I would never have achieved my goals.

So what are my goals?

• To go home with my son & be a proper mum

• To let go of my anger

• To volunteer at Oasis

• To go back to college

We hope to share the different

aspects of dance as a recognised

art form encompassing a wide

range of styles, energies and creative

approaches, and to nurture a desire for

participants and staff to embed creative

practices in their lives daily. Participation

in dance activity can be fun, reflective,

challenging, playful, tiring, nourishing of

body and mind - and is utterly inclusive;

we want to be able to share all these

aspects with the women and children so

that they can embrace, participate

and celebrate a fresh path.

South East Dance approached Brighton Oasis Project in 2014 to develop a unique project called Spring - Dancing into Recovery. We are piloting this innovative approach to using dance as a means to counteract the impact of substance misuse on vulnerable women and their children. We have two dance artists in residence, Anne Colvin and Laura Woods, appointed in November 2014 who are using dance as a creative and physical tool in which to support pathways to recovery and abstinence over a two year period.

For South East Dance this is a new and specialist area of work, which we think has strong potential for future development. The underlying aim of the project is to shape dance activity that increases physical and mental wellbeing, encourages healthy peer relationships whilst building trust and resilience in individual women and children.

Anne and Laura have recruited two BOP service users as Dance Champions to be advocates for the project with their peers. As part of this programme we are also providing holiday activities for Young Oasis and family workshops where women and their children can work together thus promoting positive parenting and parent child interaction.

South East Dance is currently building a new home for dance in the city, The Dance Space, which will be an important physical resource. This will enable us to continue to deliver the regular activity programme for participants of this project. Our long-term aspiration is to create a performance company of the women based at The Dance Space. They will commission artists that engage and capture their imagination; delivering performances that change perceptions of those involved, challenge expectations and champion participants as positive members of society.

“I feel these dance opportunities make a real impact on women to help them feel good about themselves, to build confidence, and self-esteem and help them socialise with others.”

Louise, facilitator at BOP

Ann

e &

Lau

raD

ance

Art

ists

Insights14 Insights 15

abstract that was presented at the BASHH (British Association of Sexual Heath and HIV) conference in June by the Claude Nicol Centre.

On a day to day basis the role is fluid and needs a flexible approach. I am always looking for opportunities to reach new clients. One of the most enjoyable parts of the role is getting out into the community and doing group work sessions with clients. As a qualified trainer I enjoy researching and developing topics and these have included sexual health, contraception, woman’s health and hepatitis and the liver. They have been carried out at rehab and detox houses, Early Parenting Assessment Programme, male Drug Rehabilitation requirement (DRR) and POCAR at Whitehawk and at Oasis itself. It never cesses to amaze me how much clients will open up during these sessions and share experiences good and bad about their sexual health. After these sessions I provide the opportunity for a one to one conversation and/or testing. One hepatitis session resulted in the diagnosis of hepatitis c for an individual who was unaware of his status.

Probably the most important part of the job is to try and break the cycle of pregnancy and child removal that many clients find themselves in. This however is the part which brings up the most challenges. This destructive cycle is extremely hard to break and has huge negative implications for the client alongside all the implications for the children concerned.

The CASH project aim is to improve the access to and uptake of contraception and sexual health services amongst drug and alcohol users within Brighton and Hove. Reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and identifying and removing barriers for clients to access services.

The CASH project aim is to improve the access to and uptake of contraception and sexual health services amongst drug and alcohol users within Brighton and Hove. Reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and identifying and removing barriers for clients to access services.

For me, coming into the project as my first working role in Brighton I knew my priority was to establish links with as many services as I could. I have always believed partnership working alongside listening to our service users as being the best way to achieve the optimum result for clients. Sharing knowledge and expertise can only ever be a good thing.

A highlight for me during the past year has been the blood borne virus testing I established at First Base Homeless Day Centre. Between January and March of this year I have detected a 20% positivity rate for hepatitis C diagnosis in clients tested. All of these clients were then followed up at the Claude Nicol for confirmatory testing and further screening. There continues to be an excellent response to this service from the clients and the number of homeless, substance misusing men and women that I see remains high. One reason that numbers remain high is I believe due to the initiative being created in direct response to a need identified by service users themselves. Once this need was identified, First Base and I responded quickly and set up the screening service. This testing initiative was part of an

Jane PooleCASH Nurse

The author of the book’ Hackney Child and Tainted Love’, Jenny Molloy highlights why she supports the work of Oasis.

Recovery to me wasn’t a real option for you unless you were rich. My parents had promised to stop drinking many many times, but couldn’t. You had to go places like The Priory or Promises to find recovery. It’s a mystical world I used to think. Six and a half years ago I took that first scary step into detox, and found that actually, that mystical world was open to all - I just had to have a bit of belief that it was possible. Let me tell you now - I love love love my life living sober and clean. I have many moments of self-doubt - am I really, you know really, an addict. Could I not be one of those people who had just been using substances to get me over a tough time and could now go back to ‘normal’ drinking, as long as I abstained form anything else? The reality of that option is all too real when thinking of my childhood with alcoholic parents. They never accepted that alcohol was an issue, and I was absolutely determined to break that cycle. As a woman, I had no idea that I was ‘precious’ and that as a woman I had the right to live free from abuse or fear. I absolutely love that today I know I am, with the support of my beautiful recovery workers, worthy of happi-ness and joy. I so wish that a women’s project like OASIS had been available to me in my recovery – the work that you do is truly life changing – here’s to another successful year.

Jenny Molloy

To address this I take a flexible approach which is client centred. It can be a matter of persevering in order to help the client to access the contraception method that is the most suitable for them and their needs. I find that acknowledging side effects and discussing solutions to these can ensure a client will, for example attempt to keep her implant and deal with any issues rather than remove it.

Another challenge is the perception of our clients from other healthcare professionals and the lack of understanding around the issues and chaotic lifestyles many of our clients live with. My contraception training allows me to advocate professionally for the client when I accompany her to appointments.

The ‘Looking Forward’ project is another example of excellent partnership working leading to increased benefit to the client. Here I have been able to work alongside the ‘Looking Forward’ practitioner providing advice, one to one client consultations if required and assisting with assertive outreach to vulnerable, hard to reach and often difficult clients. During a recent as-sertive outreach visit I suspected the client was suffering from pelvic inflammatory disease. My close working relationship with the health advisors at the Claude Nicol allowed me to get a hospital adverse client seen, diagnosed and treated promptly. The client felt safer and more confident in the standard of her care because she saw the communication between the professionals involved in her care.

Word Cloud - The Oasis Journey16 Word Cloud - The Oasis Journey 17

embrace

positive

changesisolated

better

support

goal

self

helpful

happy

hope

betterfree

substances

angry

drunkmyself

sober

judge

care

caring

manic

life

contact

good

cheery

alochol believe

community

goals

past

courage

believe

confident

home

despair

predict

friends

learn

alcohol

achieve

energy drugs

achievestrength

family

isolated

TheOasisJourney

future

anxious

recovery

fighting

soul searching

lonelyhope

safe

healthy

blossoming

pain

Oasis is a place I feel safe at. It helps me to make the changes I want in my life and know I can make.

Staff don’t judge you. We don’t judge each other.

We learn to judge ourselves for our actions and to take responsibility for our lives.

Oasis means getting my life back on track. Supporting me through the difficult stuff in mylife, what’s going on and staying drug free.

This word cloud was created by women who use our services who were invited to talk about what being at Oasis has meant to them.

NEF Summary POCAR18 Accounts 19

Measuring Success

In 2014, we were successful in obtaining funding from the Department for Education to commission an evaluation of a our POCAR programme for mums who have social services involvement as a result of their substance misuse.

We have always believed that POCAR, which we run in partnership with children’s social work teams, offers a really important service which has wide reaching impact. We were interested to explore more fully how this model impacts on outcomes for children in the long term, as well as the savings to the public purse that come about as a result of the intervention.

We asked NEF consulting, part of The New Economics Foundation think tank to explore these questions through a piece of research based on Social Returns on Investment principles. The research high-lighted how the programme enables many women to not only recover from substance misuse, but to rebuild their families and bring their children up safely. The knock on effect of this is that many children are prevented from entering the care system and are protected from the damaging impact of parental substance misuse.

The report flags up that the POCAR model has the following important outcomes:

• A significant reduction in the number of Child Protection cases

• A significant reduction in children becoming Looked After by the local authority

• Long term benefits to children’s mental and physical health, education and employment prospects.

As well as these quantifiable outcomes, there are personal stories of recovery from abuse, poverty and domestic violence, and of children whose lives are turned around.

We believe this report has some important messages for the future of children and family services as well as substance misuse services and we plan to run a series of events and presentations to launch this report and attract the interest of service providers, commissioners and policy makers. In doing so, we hope to stimulate discussion about the importance of providing a holistic family model when trying to address the entrenched and damaging impact of familial substance misuse.

2014-15 Oasis provided careco ordination for 195 women

91% of women we worked with who had an alcohol problems left

treatment successfully

Total £

455,80622,91312,56910,0003,0002,0003,945

9,99736,19821,3114,930

36,30423,18010,00018,00070,00010,0002,000

48,031

3,27920,0003,340

785

557,35216,5557,236

171,12312,6459,098

50,5956,028

£27,404

£827,588 (A)

-£3,044 (A)-(B)

Total

Total

Total

£830,632 (B)

Incoming resources from charitable activitiesUnrestricted:Brighton & Hove City CouncilCRIJ. Paul Getty Jnr Charitable TrustPebble TrustCommunity of the Blessed Virgin MaryThe Co-op Community FundOther Grants

Restricted:Awards for AllBrighton & Hove City Council (Triple P Secondment)Brighton Womens CentreCAFTA FundingComic ReliefCommunities Against DrugsDepartment of EducationLloyds Bank Foundation for England and WalesPublic Health EnglandSouth East DanceSure StartThe Breadsticks Foundation

Other:DonationsRental IncomeConference & Training IncomeInvestment Income

Expenditure:Staff Employment CostsStaff Training, Recruitment and OtherSupervisionPremises and Office CostsProject Expenses DepreciationAudit and ProfessionalMarketing & Publicity

Net Income Over Expenditure For The Year

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S STATEMENT TO BRIGHTON OASIS PROJECTWe have examined the summary financial statement for the year ended 31 March 2015. In our opinion the summary financial statement is consistent with the full annual financial statements of Brighton Oasis Project for the year ended 31 March 2015 and complies with the applicable requirements of section 427 of the Companies Act 2006, and the regulations made thereunder. We have not considered the effects of any events between the date on which we signed our report on the full annual financial statements and the date of this statement 2/09/2015 Mr Mark Cummins FCCA (Senior Statutory Auditor) For and on behalf of Russell New Ltd.

£510,233

£289,951

BRIGHTON

PROJECT

Brighton & Hove City Council

Brighton Womens Centre

CAFTA Funding

Comic Relief Grants

Communities Against Drugs

Children In Need

CRI

J Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust

Sussex Community Foundation

The Clothworkers’ Foundation

The Breadsticks Foundation

The Pebble Trust

Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales

PatronBaroness Massey of Darwen

Our Board of TrusteesToni Wilkinson – Chair

Douglas Sinclair

Jane Carmody

James Chapman

Mel Ottewill

Julia Boas

Gill Whensley

Brighton Oasis Projectgratefully acknowledges funding

and support from the following:

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Find us at www.oasisproject.org.uk

& http://brightonoasisproject.blogspot.com/