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crew2000

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

www.MyCrew.org.uk provides anonymous, non-judgemental information, advice and support about drugs. 

You can:

Check out how risky your use is with a few simple questions
Track your use and the impact this has on you
Visit our chat room to talk to our trained team

 

www.mindaltering.co.uk provides information on accessing or purchasing harm reduction training, lanyards, information postcards and learning resources.

 

CREW2000