Visiting lecture at Northumbria University.

PROPS & NUCF Skills Day at Northumria University


Andy - Service User Involvement Officer

As the Newcastle User Carer Forum (NUCF) has grown over the past 7 years we have increasingly become involved in community engagement and shared learning's.

On 10^th October we continued this by visiting Northumbria University and a lecture for 1^st year Social Work students. The first of these sessions was 2 years ago and it has now become embedded as part of the course curriculum.

This session was designed with PROPS to give the students an insight into the potential life changing and life threatening consequences of drug and alcohol misuse. Including an awareness of the issues and some first-hand experiences of life during and after active addiction and the support groups and networks that are available to people.

There were a few nerves all round as myself and the 2 NUCF members walked into a full lecture theatre of 86 students but after the initial introductions I think we started to feel more relaxed.

We spent some time helping to facilitate a workshop around drug and alcohol awareness which was followed by an excellent presentation by PROPS. Just before lunch the 3 of us did a 20 minute share on our personal experiences of active addiction and how it affected us and our families. Following a second PROPS presentation the NUCF presented on mutual aid, peer support and the NUCF.

Personally I found the day emotional, educational and extremely rewarding. All the students left post it notes at the end which were very positive and heart felt pieces of feedback.

Following the event 1 of the students has attended the NUCF and has booked a date with a fellow student to come and volunteer at Trading Places. A member of the forum has been back to the University for a learning day and we are hoping to continue these great shared learning opportunities in the future.

Lizzie first year Social Work Student

I’m Lizzie, a first year social work student at Northumbria university.

On the 10^th of October PROPS (Positive Responses to Overcoming Problematic Substance abuse in the family)and members of the NUCF (Newcastle User Carer Forum) came in to do a skills day and tell us a bit about what they do and share some of their personal stories.

It was a fantastic day enjoyed by everyone. We really learnt a lot, not just about what PROPS and the NUCF  do but that no matter how bad your situation is, if you want to turn your life around it can be done with the help and support of the various organisations and Charities around, you just have to want it enough.

They were all an absolute inspiration, so much so I’ve been along to a Newcastle Users Carer Forum meeting to get more involved and will be helping out at Trading Places (A Sunday morning drop in centre for street homeless people in Newcastle). As well as being inspiring they completely removed what people see as ‘the stereotypical’ addict and replaced it with the view that addicts are just people who lost their way and need some guidance getting back on track. I hope to do a lot more work with you guys, see you all soon! :-)

P.R.O.P.S Website