Our partnership with the Drugs Intervention Programme

Background

The Drugs Intervention Program is a Home Office initiative administered through the Welsh Assembly government which aims to help people break the cycle of substance misuse and offending behaviour. It provides support through a range of activities designed to help clients restructure their lives, increase vocational and life skills and re-engage with the wider community.

DIP became aware of  Trysordy while it was still at the at the planning stage and immediately recognised its potential as a venue for these activities. This was the beginning of a fruitful relationship.

This relationship then enabled Trysordy to secure the funding from the ‘Community Safety Partnership’ to convert an unused agricultural barn owned by Trinity College into a resource centre. As soon as this initial work was complete, DIP agreed to fund the building of a training kitchen and a dedicated craft workshop, enabling us to expand our range of activities and plan more ambitious projects.

They also allow us free use of their trailer – vital for the collection of waste materials from local busnesses which fill the shelves of the scrap store.

Links with the probation service have also provided Trysordy with much needed help from the Unpaid Work Team who, as each stage of building work was finished, arrived with ladders and brushes to do the decorating. They continue to help keep the grounds tidy during the summer.

Activities

Twice a week clients from Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire on a Drugs Rehabilitation Requirement order meet at Trysordy to take part in a program of activities. They include:
Major wood work projects – Clients have developed their woodwork skills whilst constructing large circular wooden seats. To date three have been built - one for Trysordy and two for the community. One was donated to our neighbors –  Aalton House school inclusion unit and one to Johnstown Primary school for their memorial garden. Another one is in the process of being built for The Model Church in Wales school, Carmarthen as part of an ongoing project to enhance their outside areas.
The relationship with Johnstown School continues to grow – clients responding to a request from the school to build a picket fence to enclose the memorial garden.
 

 
A clay oven has been built using recycled bricks for the base, clay excavated from our allotment and cowpats! It can be used to bake bread, pizzas etc. and also to make charcoal from living willow. It now has a shelter to protect it from the weather – built by clients from recycled pallets and fence posts.
 

Over the last two years we have been tending an allotment – clients created this garden from scratch with recycled materails sourced from Trysordy and elsewhere, turning a bare corner of field into a productive vegitable garden complete with poly tunnel and raised beds. They have built beds and paths, sown the seeds, tended the plants, harvested the produce, then cooked and eaten the results. Clients have also built a ‘geodesic dome’ (bubble shaped) greemhouse out of willow sticks and offcuts of drainpipe. Nicknamed the’ ratattouille house’, this summer it has produced tomatoes, peppers, Aubergines and courgettes.
 

Another exciting project currently underway is the building of a yurt from locally sourced greenwood and canvas. This will give us an interesting movable workspace for use both at Trysordy and in the community ( a yurt is a traditional Mongolian nomadic dwelling, shaped like a giant marshmallow!). Saplings have been harvested, shaped and steam bent to shape to make the curved roof and work is progressing on the lattice for the walls.

OSAP course – A classroom based cognitive behavioural programme to help with relapse prevention.

Between larger projects clients have an opportunity to try a number of different crafts including woodcarving, ceramics and stained glass.