Crew Organisational Outline

Crew 2000 (Scotland) is a not-for-profit company (limited by guarantee) and Scottish Charity that provides services to young people around: stimulant and associated substance use, sexual, emotional health and other related lifestyle issues. It also provides advice, information and training to a wide range of public and voluntary sector organisations as well as carrying out research into drug trends.

History

Crew’s origins lie back in the early 1990s when a group of people involved in the dance-drugs-scene got together and set about providing advice and information around safer dancing to their fellow ‘ravers’. This group of ‘loved up club bunnies’ included educationalists, drugs workers and volunteers who set about working in the scene to make it a safer and more enjoyable experience for the large amounts of young people who were attending unlicensed and club based events every week. Adopting a harm reduction / risk minimisation approach they trained themselves and volunteers as drug peer educators and engaged with young people who were already using drugs around the dance scene.

Funding was sought to continue the work and the organisation has grown over the years with paid staff and shop premises on a busy Edinburgh Street. Crew has retained the voluntary ethos which characterised its early years and much of the face to face services are still provided by trained volunteers who are involved in the dance and other scenes themselves. Volunteers are on the board of management and are heavily involved in steering the work of the organisation. All of which has produced an organisation that has developed a deep understanding of the issues, current trends and difficulties associated with stimulant drug use and how to positively intervene to make things safer.

Crew Support Services operates in-house providing complimentary health and counselling services for people experiencing difficulty with their drug taking i.e. problematic use, dependency and addiction.

Finance Turnover is in excess of £450,000 per annum most of which is made up of grants from public funds and grant giving trusts. Crew also generates an increasing amount of income from Crew enterprise activities such as training and expert witness services.

Governance: Crew 2000 is a company limited by guarantee and has a voluntary board of trustees made up of around 10 people at any one time who are accountable for the organisation and its performance. Most of the day-to-day decisions around operational matters are made by the staff and volunteers but strategic direction, financial management and other key management issues are dealt with at board level. Trustees are drawn from people who are in agreement with our harm reduction approach to drug taking and sexual health and who possess significant skills to bring to the work.

Crew currently has the following staff:

National Director (to March 2013): John Arthur
Enterprise/Finance Manager: Jeremy Adderley Service Delivery Manager: Emma Crawshaw
Drop In Shop Co-ordinator:
Lisa Waiting / ‘Legal Highs’ Emerging Trends, Outreach and Training Co-ordinator:
Katy Macleod / My Crew Co-ordinator: Laura Dey / Support Services Team Leader:
Terezia Brunklaus (Maternity Leave to June 2013)
Angela Genetti
(Maternity Cover from May 2012)
Drop In Shop Project Worker:
Anastasia Swan
(to April 31st 2013) / Administration and Facilities Officer:
Sonia Leal: / Outreach Development Worker:
Helen Williams
Sessional Outreach Worker:
Elaina Garcia
Sessional Outreach Worker:
Amy Moreno / Recovery Development Worker:
Diane Lee
Senior Practitioners:
Joy Fraser
Caroline Wilson
(Maternity Cover to June 2013)
Michelle Mackinnon-Rae
Jill Punton
(Maternity Leave to June 2013)
Acupuncture Worker: Elaina Garcia
Acupuncture Worker:
Amy Moreno

What services does the organisation currently provide?

·  Information on stimulant drugs use and drug trends, sexual / emotional health issues and safer dancing.

·  Advice on safety issues relating to drugs and dancing. Sexual and emotional health and stimulant drug related problems.

·  Support to individuals and groups who are experiencing difficulties around their own or a loved ones drug use

·  Capacity building: training staff to work with people around Psychostimulant substance use

·  Campaigning: Crew has a good track record of campaigning i.e. ‘Safer Dancing Guidelines’ adopted by City of Edinburgh Council

·  My Crew is a new project offering on-line assessment, self-help and peer support for people concerned about their drug or alcohol use.

·  Recovery Development: supports people into and out of drug counselling and on to develop social capital for ongoing sustained recovery.

·  Crew Enterprise: the trading and developmental arm of Crew which provides user-paid services such as drugs training and expert witness work. It seeks opportunity for securing independent income for the organisation to support its charitable aims and to invest in developments such as e-learning, Crew's drugs database and using new media to reach service users. www.mindaltering.org.uk

How we do this

·  Train volunteers to become peer educators

·  Train volunteers to become peer support workers

·  Shop services including the DJ workshops

·  Training for workers, young people and dependants

·  Outreach Work i.e. Attendance at dance events, health fairs, educational establishments etc.

·  Support work by trained staff

·  Research and trend analysis

Who benefits from these services?

The services are used by young people themselves, families of substance users, local communities, dance clubs, local / national governments and service planners such as the Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and Licensing Boards. Another valuable function is the early identification of new drugs or drug use trends and possible implications of such use across Scotland.

Leaflet production and distribution to young people amounts to approx 25,000 per annum although this is changing as we are developing new mediums for information dissemination including Bluetooth and other ICT based systems and podcasts. Included in this information for young people are: the effects of drugs and the law, LSD, Cannabis, Cocaine, Crack, Ketamine, Heroin, and increasingly ‘Legal highs’ and research chemicals as well as sexual health information, most of which are delivered to people when and where they may be using i.e. clubs, festivals and bars.

Consultation with other agencies includes responding to around 200 to 300 telephone enquiries from council departments, police, private and voluntary sector organisations as well as families and friends of drug users. We host visits from other agencies nationally and internationally and Crew works with international partners over a range of initiatives and projects such as the Democracies Cities and Drugs Project, BASICS network and others.

Media Enquiries: Averaging at around 50 enquiries per year: from press radio and television means that we are rarely out of the news and often the first point of contact for reporters wanting up-to-date and unbiased information on drugs issues (though they don’t always report accurately what is said).

Outreach: Crew provides harm reduction brief interventions, welfare, water and crisis support to 17,000+ people at festivals and night club events.


Governance of Crew 2000 Scotland

The organisation is managed by a voluntary Board of Directors usually referred to in Crew as the ‘the Board’ this includes professional’s, lay people and project volunteers. All share a commitment to the work that Crew does for our client group.

Office bearers consist of Secretary, Chair and Finance Director

The board will be serviced by Crew’s Chief Executive

Current Status of Board Members

Vacant (Company Secretary)

Ann Johnson (Chair)

Neil Ellis (Finance Director)

Jane Carnal

Emma Doyle (volunteer)

Michelle O’Laughlin (volunteer)