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A local project which offers supported accommodation and a rehabilitation programme for islanders recovering from addiction, has received £15,000 from wind farm charity, Point and Sandwick Trust.

 

The money is the first instalment of the £30,000 which Hebrides Alpha will get from the trust every year - nearly half the money staff have to raise themselves every year, on top of public funding, to keep the project going.

 

The Hebrides Alpha Project has been running since 2006. Its residential unit in Upper Coll opened in 2011 and incorporates an in-house recovery programme for up to six people at a time with serious addiction.

 

It subsidiary is Hebrides Alpha Trading, which offers window cleaning and other services to also provide therapeutic employment for people with addiction problems.

 

The Hebrides Alpha programme requires residents to spend two days a week in therapeutic employment, geared towards improving their job prospects, and some of them choose to work with Hebrides Alpha Trading.

 

It also requires people to attend a community self-help group, either Alcoholics Anonymous or Road to Recovery, twice a week. Research has found self-help groups to be particularly effective.

 

The programme also offers one-to-one counselling but detox always begins in the community, under nursing care.

 

Shona Macleod, manager at the Hebrides Alpha Project, said: “The money is so appreciated.  It is an incredible contribution to this project and the wind farm trust really are contributing to people’s lives in this community.

 

“The money has impacted very positively and it means that we can continue to run the service and can continue to take residents in who have serious alcohol and drug dependencies in addition to other psychological and practical problems.”

 

Wind farm group £30,000 donation to Hebrides Alpha

25 January 2017

Shona Macleod receives the cheque from Point and Sandwick Trust’s chairman, Angus McCormack.