For a charity to continue for almost four decades is a triumph in itself but the survival of Bristol Drugs Project (BDP) is far from the organisation's only achievement. With the recent passing of Maggie Telfer - the co-founder of BDP - an event was organised to celebrate her life, which over the past 37 years became dedicated to the Bristol charity she helped to build.
Hundreds of people gathered in St Georges in an event to celebrate Maggie’s life, who died in January. Alongside speeches there were performances from the recovery choir and orchestra, an initiative set up by the charity to support people after they had overcome drug and alcohol addiction.
Maggie, was in her mid-20s when she and a group of young probation officers working in Bristol realised the cycle of addiction, crime and prison would only be broken if addicts were treated with compassion rather than punishment.
READ MORE: Tributes to Bristol Drugs Project pioneer Maggie Telfer, who has died at 63
In 1985 when BDP was born, the UK was facing a heroin epidemic and Bristol had no dedicated service to support drug users. Its approach now as then is focused on harm reduction but although its approach is now widely accepted by authorities, this was far from the case in the early days.
Despite many of those using the drug in the 1980s and 1990s being under 16, most drug services refused to work with those under 18 because they were seen as too much of a risk. BDP was the exception and youth workers were trained and its policy framework was rewritten to cover young people.
BDP, which now has strong partnerships with local NHS service providers, helped to initiate needle exchanges across the city when the practice was seen as taboo and most GPs refused to provide such a life-saving service. Maggie had to persuade doctors of the benefit of needle exchanges, which has now become the norm and has been rolled out nationally across the NHS through the National Needle Exchange Forum.
Alongside making a difference on a national level, BDP helped to establish the first needle exchange service in sub-Saharan Africa. The Omari Project in Kenya, which takes its name from the first injection drug user in Malindi who died after using a contaminated needle, now has a 24-bed rehabilitation unit and a free drop in centre which offers support counselling and medical treatment.
A last week's gathering, Maggie was described as 'a true revolutionary' by her partner, Richard Jones who spoke of her 'deep disdain for the patriarchy' and mistrust in 'leaders, the establishment or political dogma'. Due to these views Maggie had been hesitant to accept her OBE but ended up doing so 'in recognition of the hard work many people had put into completing the application and because she thought it would benefit BDP', explained Richard.
Current BDP chair John Long explained that 'the world wasn’t quite ready for her mission' when Maggie first headed up an organisation based on 'compassion'. Justin Hoggans, a former manager at BDP told the audience how she had become a regional and national voice for drug reform and where there existed gaps in services she would 'just make it happen' or tell others to do so - this phrase became one of the slogans she was known for.
BDP’s work has gone above and beyond simply helping people to overcome addiction or limit the dangers of drug and alcohol use. Its traineeship scheme and creative communities are just two examples of the work BDP has done to support people once they are free from drug or alcohol addiction.
While the creative communities work with those in recovery through their participation in the recovery choir and orchestra, the traineeship scheme, which began 10 years ago, became one of Maggie’s proudest achievements. The scheme trains recovering addicts who may be in their 40s and without any work experience to find employment and a 'second life', according to a short film shown at the event last week.
Helping people see that they had two lives was fundamental to what Maggie wanted to show people. Through working with BDP people have been able to see that their so-called 'second life begins with the realisation that they only have one'.
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