44 - Providing laptops to recovering addicts to help them help others - May 2021

For our 44th donation we are supporting a nomination made by one of our members who works with Sheffield Community Safety Team, for Sheffield City Council.  

She asked if we could help a couple of women who are activity participants and volunteers in Sheffield Recovery Forum.  Both women are in recovery themselves and are keen to help support others looking for a route away from their addictions.  

Their nominator, who has worked closely with them both throughout the lockdown, explained how they have both been working hard using their mobile phones but that the provision of a couple of basic laptops would really open up so many more possibilities for them.  

She told us about Joanne & Lesley.   

Joanne, who was once street homeless and is in recovery from substance abuse, is keen to start volunteering to support people on the streets and get involved in meetings.  She has been a key voice in recent consultations – but she doesn't have access to a computer/laptop and providing her with this will open up loads of new learning/training opportunities she wouldn’t previously have had access to.

Lesley was kind enough to allow us to share her story here. 

https://sheffielddact.org.uk/drugs-alcohol/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/02/Lesley-.pdf 

She is now 19 months sober and has really stepped up during Covid, supporting online zoom meetings, helping others who are also on the challenging recovery journey.  She has achieved such a lot working as creatively as she could using her mobile phone - which was often frustrating trying to read minutes from meetings and create documents, etc and difficult to interact with others in zoom meetings. Even when meetings can return in person, Lesley has realised that online support has opened up this provision to more people - those who would be unable to  get out to face to face meetings because of personal situations, anxieties, transport difficulties, etc. She wants to develop more of these online services. 

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Lesley to give her a laptop. She was an inspirational lady - full of enthusiasm and hope for the future.  She is doing a course in Reiki, she meditates every day, she is writing, creating art and was full of energy.  She has just successfully applied to become a peer researcher for a project with Shelter.  The excitement the laptop gave her was just a joy to behold.  

We haven’t been able to meet many recipients - it was a real privilege to have been able to meet Lesley and see first hand how much our donation meant to her.   

Both Lesley and Joanne have asked us to send their thanks to all 500 together members. It is clear from speaking to our member who made this nomination that these donations will open up possibilities not just to Joanne and Lesley, but also allow them to offer up valuable support to many more people as they set up more groups to help others with personal development and learning.  It was lovely to hear how they have both put so much effort into helping out others and we are really pleased to be able to get the laptops to help them.  

We felt this was a great opportunity to help not just these 2 ladies but also indirectly support so many more people who benefit from the services of the Sheffield Recovery Forum.