A drama therapy programme designed to keep those with drug and alcohol addictions in recovery will be rolled out in Paisley this week.
Recovering Voices, led by film writer and director Mark MacNicol and the charity Creative Change Collective, was devised to help people in the recovery community who have no prior interest in drama or therapy.
It uses an 'anonymous' element which allows participants to express themselves without revealing whether what they have shared is based on real-life experience or fiction.
The Scottish Government has provided funding for a similar successful programme in Glasgow for three years through the Corra Foundation, and it has now been extended to more areas including Paisley.
The group will meet weekly on Wednesdays from 12.30pm to 2.30pm at The Wynd Centre, starting this week.
Those in the recovery community are encouraged to self-refer by contacting info@ccc.scot.
It follows the success of a similar programme in Erskine, with participants hosting a special performance at Erskine Arts in June where they performed a variety style mix of recovery-themed monologues, sketches and spoken word that draw on their lived experience.
And last year, participants of Recovering Voices in Glasgow performed on stage at Oran Mor to celebrate their achievements with family, friends and their wider support networks.
Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance attended the event and praised Creative Change Collective for making recovery "visible" and told how the project was "helping people discover their own recovery path."
Project director Mr MacNicol lost his own brother Jason, 30, to a heroin overdose 15 years ago, which is a "motivating factor" in his work.
Creative Change Collective, formerly Street Cones, uses film and theatre-type activities to help participants in the charity's programmes achieve more positive outcomes in their lives.
Most of their work since starting in 2014 has focussed on people in or at risk of entering the justice system.
Mark MacNicol, project director at Creative Change Collective, said: "We are pleased to roll our Recovering Voices programme out to members of the recovery community in Paisley following its success in Glasgow, Erskine and other parts of the west of Scotland.
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"Our sessions are designed to support people in their recovery through drama therapy activities – but the majority of our participants have no prior interest or experience in acting or writing.
"By expanding this programme, we hope to help more people to stay in recovery, potentially saving lives.
"I have been working with Creative Change Collective, formerly Street Cones, for a few years mostly in the justice space and have seen the brilliant results projects like this can have.
"Losing my brother Jason to addiction has been a big motivating factor for me.
"If there is one person helped as a result of this then there is a family out there who doesn’t have to go through what ours did."
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