Cyrenians has been honoured by HRH Duke of Rothesay for our pioneering work in providing training and volunteering opportunities.

Cyrenians scooped the Social Enterprise Tackling Poverty Impact Award against stiff competition from more mainstream organisations at the 2012 Scottish Business in the Community awards.

Des Ryan, our CEO, pictured above accepting the award from HRH Duke of Rothesay, commented: "This is a great accolade for everyone involved in the Cyrenians.

"This award acknowledges our long and strong track record in supporting people of all ages and walks of life who have been excluded from volunteering and training opportunities because of issues such as homelessness, addiction, offending and mental health issues. Through our Social Enterprise programme for example, we are helping over 30 people to take make positive changes to their lives and a further 50 people a year into employment."

Cyrenian Social Enterprises such as the Farm, Gardens, Cooking Classes, FareShare and organics recycling mobilise over 20,000 hours of volunteering, involve schools and dozens of community groups and support us in developing more environmentally and economically sustainable lifestyles. We also work with a wide range of local and national businesses to help tackle poverty by fostering sustainable business and employment practices."

Of their decision, the SBC award judges commented "[Cyrenians has] a sound, well-established model which shows real ability to prevent homelessness."

Cyrenian's Communities (supported accommodation service for young people from a homeless background) are thrilled to have made it to the finals of the Care Accolades 2012. The Care Accolades, Scotland's national awards for the care sector, provides a great source of pride and recognition for organisations who day in, day out improve the lives of people who use services.
We have been shortlisted for the Personalisation category - that is: "projects or organisations who can show that they actively involve people who use the service, in designing, creating and delivering the care that is most suited to them. This award isn't just about self-directed support. It must show exceptional empowerment, choice and control for people using the service".

We do this by empowering community members to:
• be responsible for creating and reviewing house rules
• be involved in all aspects of household budgeting and management
• be responsible for creating their plans, reviews and risk assessment with support from a keyworker
• attend, chair and minute community meetings
• have access to advocates
• have a named keyworker, trained in a person centered model, with whom they undertake their personal development activities.
• have core identity matters identified, recorded and recognised.
• be held to a fair and realistic sanctions policy, which attempts to avoid eviction where appropriate and offer positive learning experiences.
• live with volunteers who receive training and supervision on the oragnisational values of tolerance, acceptance and respect.
• live without staff present, with access to on call where needed.
It's a model that has worked for over 40 years!

On Thursday 24th May, we will present our service to the Care Accolades panel of judges, where we will have an opportunity to showcase the great work we do. To truly reflect the way we work we hope to present as a community group involving residents, staff and volunteers.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony on June 22nd at the Perth Concert Hall. We are delighted to have come this far and whether we win or not to have our work recognised at this level is a true privilege.

Our Enterprise to Employment service was awarded a 'Customer Charter Plus' certificate from Edinburgh City Council's Joined up for Jobs. The Charter Plus was awarded for the quality of one-to-one client work, case management and aftercare delivered by the service. The assessment for the award looked at our support workers practice and their ability to demonstrate this verbally and through assessments. The award also looked at the client's steps to employment and the barriers that were overcome. Our Learning and Work service were also recognised for their ability to evidence their assessment process

The story below is written by a client about his life journey. He spoke about it at 'Pamper Yourself' - a yearly event that West Lothian council put on for homeless people or people who have previously been homeless in the West Lothian area. The event took place last week at the Howden Park Centre in Livingston.

My Story
I am a 34 yrs old man and I would like to tell you my story and the impact my drug and alcohol use has impacted on my life and how I have turned my life around with the support from the Cyrenians Outreach Service.

I was put into care in Edinburgh when I was 14 years old due to my dad getting married again, and me and my step mum did not get on very well. I felt abandoned for the second time when they put me into care. The first time was when my mum and dad split up and my mum took my two sisters with her and I was left to live with my dad. My dad took the separation hard and he started to drink heavily and ended up being alcohol dependant and though I didn't think it at the time I now realise this is when all my problems started.

When I was 18 years old I was too old to stay in the care home and I was dumped in a bedsit and with just under £900 from leaving care grants then my social worker left a week later. That's when I got into drugs and drink and I had no concept on how to spend the money, so I blew it on drugs and alcohol. It is also when I went to prison for the first time. I got out after 3 months and that's when I started to drink heavily. I had always been drinking but as the year went on it got steadily worse until I met my ex-partner and mother of my children. Then I calmed down to 3 out of the 7 days drinking.

My oldest son was born when I was 21 years old and my second son came along but he had trouble breathing and was blue when he was delivered. I couldn't cope and lost the plot and started drinking and drug taking again. Anxiety and depression took over my life but back then they were not seen as illnesses and I was told to get on with it. It took nearly 8 years for me to see a doctor that would give me medication. After my partner had a miscarriage my third son was born and I was so scared that I would lose him I watched him 24/7.

We moved back to West Lothian to be my partner's family for support. At this time my drinking became a problem and after finding out that my partner had cheating on me I moved out of the family home. Even though my youngest son is now 6 years old it still breaks my heart when I think of the day I had to leave him being so small. That day will be in my thoughts forever and my drinking was every day but then I swapped it for drugs. I started to use Heroin and I became and addict.

I was hanging about with the wrong people and I got blamed for stealing drugs from a drug dealer. I was forced to move out of my house in Blackburn after being beaten up twice and getting ammonia thrown in my face outside my flat. This happened just after I got out of prison for the second time. I got a placement in Quentin Court hostel and I managed to kick my drug habit was back drinking and hanging about with other drinkers.

My anxiety and depression was really bad during this time and when I was given a tenancy in Livingston things only got worse. I was having everyone in my house and this is when things took a serious turn for the worse. I was going to prison for taking "a friend" hostage and he called the police and said I had a gun, so you can only imagine what happened next… I was in prison and was at my lowest point of my life. This was January 2010 and I was detoxed in prison and I this is when I realised I had to change the way I was living and my lifestyle.

I was released from prison in July 2010 and a referral was made to the Cyrenians Outreach service and I took up the offer to be supported by them. I found it hard to talk about a lot of my issues as it was scary and I was afraid of how I would cope once I told someone about my life and how I was feeling.

Working with the Cyrenians Outreach Worker on a weekly basis I was able to make enough progress to access the Pacific Institutes PX2 course and I believe this saved my life. Workers from the Cyrenians took us on a residential course and supported us as we went through a life changing journey.

Where am I now?

Well I am now 5½ years Heroin free and even though I have had a few lapses with alcohol I have been mostly abstinent too. I am volunteering two days a week and I am starting on an alcohol blocker this week and have my first appointment to get counselling too. I have just been offered a council tenancy and am waiting for a moving in date. I have made so much progress and I am very proud of myself. I will continue to use the tools I have learnt and hopefully in the future complete my long term goals - which are to see my sons regularly and maintain my drug and alcohol free lifestyle.

This week our group of young people started their John Muir Award. John Muir, for those of you who don't know, was born in sunny Dunbar right here in Scotland in 1838. As a child he developed a deep love of the natural world, which took him on a lifelong journey of discovering, exploring and conserving wild places. He emigrated to America aged just 11 and he became the founding father of the world conservation movement and helped set up the first National Park.

The John Muir Award was launched in 1997 by the John Muir Trust and is an environmental award which encourages people from all backgrounds to connect, enjoy and care for wild places. Our young people are taking the Discovery Level award which means they have to discover a wild place, explore its wildness, conserve it and share their experiences over a four day period.

So far they have discovered our lovely organic farm and with the direction of Stephen have helped to conserve the area around the pond. The team worked hard to clear out the debris and bits of rubbish around that area and managed to impress Stephen with their hard working attitude. As a reward they went out to feed the chickens and collect the delicious eggs. Our young people are so excited about returning to the farm next week so thank you Stephen, wee Liam and Chef Liam (not forgetting Treacle the dog) for giving us a warm welcome and we will see you next week!

We are also hoping to get out and about in the local Falkirk area to complete more conservation work so watch this space.