SMART Recovery Australia has received a grant from the John T Reid Charitable Trusts for a key upcoming project in Western Sydney. This grant will provide facilitator training opportunities and support for SMART Recovery meetings being established in Western Sydney, an area identified by the organisation as a priority for SMART Recovery programs.
The project will run until June 2017 and we hope to see a number of new groups established in the area providing access to our programs for the community. SMART Recovery would like to thank the trustees for supporting this initiative.
In NSW, it has been estimated that the societal cost of alcohol alone is $3.8 billion per year (NSW Audit Office). Our project will focus on Western Sydney as an area that is experiencing rapid population growth, suffers high levels of socioeconomic stress and yet, is under-represented in terms of support in addiction recovery.
The grant allows SMART Recovery Australia staff to travel to western Sydney and provide three complementarity two-day facilitator training courses for 24 staff members from various drug and alcohol organisations in the area. These organisations will then go on to start new SMART Recovery meetings, which people with addiction problems in western Sydney, can access on an ongoing basis.
SMART Recovery Australia is in the process of finalising the partner organisations to be involved. While there are very limited places left, if your organisation is based in western Sydney and is interested in getting involved, contact SMART Recovery Australia here.
The project will begin in July 2016.