After the business section of the meeting and before our speaker arrived, members posed with the latest batch of ‘Teddies for Terror’ teddies before they were donated to Northumbria Police.
Our speaker this evening was Claire Robinson who is the Chief Executive Officer of ‘Positive Response to Overcoming Problems of Substance Misuse’ or PROPS. PROPS is a North East based service for individuals, families and carers living with alcohol and substance misuse. The service is based in the Linskill Centre in North Shields.
PROPS offers one to one work, peer support groups, training around substance misuse and family training, respite breaks and an emergency out of hour’s telephone helpline. They help over 650 NE families each year .
PROPS began life in 1997 as Scotswood Family Drug Support Group. It was set up in the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne, as a result of local women’s concerns regarding support for parents and partners of alcohol and drug misusers. Their intention was to set up their own peer support group, to help those affected by substance misuse to cope with the problems they were facing. Soon the group became confident enough to become active in addressing the issues surrounding drug and alcohol misuse, in particular the emotional, health and economic effect on carers, Claire’s talk was both moving and inspiring. If you would like to find out more about this organisation, the link is below: