< BACK

User involvement in Walsall 'Hi's n Lows'
Tracey Gibbs, Project Manager and Philip Mason, Team Leader, Hi's n Lows, Walsall

Abstract
I would like the chance to share a history of Hi's n lows, Walsall's user group, it will be a very honest, frank abstract explaining how & why I started the user group, all the pit falls and lessons learnt along the way (there's been many!), how we source funding, and the vast and diverse amount of work we do to include;

• our ongoing "clean up campaign" (we remove all used works from active sites around Walsall) engaging with the individuals that use these sites,
• Diversionary activities, days out, residential's.
• Our floating support team (offering support with any element of housing issues).
• Our open access drop in's (4 per week) which offer free food drinks, advice, info, clean dry clothes, bedding for rough sleepers.
• Our backpack needle exchange.

These are just a few of the items I would like to share, we are a very diverse group. I started it all from nothing so would really value the chance to present, share and advise other user groups. I can share best practice ideas, policies and procedures to everyone who will benefit.

TOP

Biographies

Tracey Gibbs - Project Manager
I have spent many years doing various jobs from fitness instructor to pub land lady, I was given the chance to set up a user group in Walsall in early 2004 by our then DAAT commissioner, I jumped at the chance, I have never used but have a great deal of life experiences been in situations and had close friends how enabled me to be empathic and gain a good knowledge of substance use and the impact on the users life journey. As you can imagine it was not easy gaining trust building relationships with people who knew from the onset i was not a user, however 5 years on its still working we are very busy seeing approximately 25 service users at each of our drop ins (4 drop ins per week) I have a staff team of 5 who have either been service users or who have shared very close links with the using community.

Philip Mason - Team leader
Phil came to the project from a outdoor activity instructor background, like myself he has shared life experiences with a diverse group of people, Phil came to work for the project as a detached worker in 2007, he task was to set up a detached project working with the most hard to reach and marginalised groups of users in Walsall borough, Phil spent the majority of his time working in active sites for injecting drug users, derelict buildings etc...the aim was to engage with individuals that did not access any other support or where not in treatment the project was a massive success but like everything else was reliant on funding, this ceased so the detached project ended a year later! Phil still works for the project offering support to anyone who has issues with housing, homeless, unsafe housing etc, eviction etc.