Home > Services > Capacity building

Capacity building - Training

Crew uses its experience and knowledge of working with substance users to train and enhance the abilities of others to engage positively with people who use drugs.

This happens in the form of training to professionals i.e. 'cocaine on my brain!' a one day programme with ongoing information & support for drugs workers or other professionals who attend. See outline of the cocaine on my brain programme

Crew also works with local and national government to develop policy around substance use and also works closely with private, public and voluntary sector organisations towards safer nightlife initiatives. Also included in this work is training up volunteers for music festivals who then take on the drug information and crisis intervention provision at festivals.

Building capacity across the EU and emerging Nations: Crew are founder members of the Basics network and are involved in the Democracy Cities and Drugs initiative which has produced the 'Safer Nightlife Projects' guidelines to share good practice with examples of collaboration from across the EU including Crew.

The current work with this group (DC&D) is to establish a Trans European Drugs Information system known as 'TEDI' which will link together those agencies who test illegal drugs in the EU and Switzerland and provide a data base on the testing results. The new work package of the Safer Nightlife Group is also concentrating on providing information sharing and skills transference through volunteer and staff exchange amongst the partner agencies.

The Psychostimulant Working Group which met over 2007-2008 was a sub group of the Scottish Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and another area that Crew Capacity Building was involved in SACDM_psychostimulant_working_group_report_2007.pdf and for the first time that we're aware recommendations are that harm reduction education and information should be targeted at some groups of under 16's. The recommendations also call for more psycho-stimulant service provision across Scotland.

Download the report: SACDM_psychostimulant_working_group_report_2007.pdf

Funding

The Capacity Building project within Crew is funded partly through the Scottish Governments 16b funding stream and supplemented with crew's own income from its work in other area's. In this way we are able to keep our high quality training costs down to a minimum.

Testimonials

Social worker on the Cocaine on my brain training:

"this is the best professional development training I've ever had"

Guidance Teacher, Edinburgh:

"Crew are amazing trainers and this was first class, the drugs training will help me to be more confident and engage with young people at our youth club, youth worker at LAYC organized training by Crew. As a result of this training I am better equipped to work with young people around drugs, The confidence to say' I don't know' but I know how to find out will be really helpful when engaging with our young folk."