FORMER drug addicts who enrolled on a course to improve their parenting skills are putting back in what they got out of it.
The course, offered by Barnardo's Street Level Family Service, in South Shields, has proved so successful, some of the participants are about to start training to run the course in the future.
Parent development worker Gloria Screaton set up the c
ourse after realising there was a need to help former and stable substance misusers improve their parenting skills, and understand the impact their drug habit had on the lives of their children.
She said: "A range of parenting courses were available, but when we referred people to them, although they found it helpful, they found it difficult to be as open and honest as they would have like.
"Even though they were trying to turn their lives around, they were worried about being labelled, so we developed this course."
The first course was held four years ago, and since then 53 parents and carers have completed it.
One of the participants on the very first course, a 41-year-old father-of-two, is about to start training so he can help people who are going through what he and his partner went through.
He has been clean of drugs for more than five years, and since completing the parenting course, has done a number of others, including teaching and counselling.
His children are still in voluntary care, but he gets to see them every week. He said: "The course was great. It helped build my self-esteem, and most of all, helped make the relationship I had with my children so much better.
"I'm working now on creating the right environment for them and hope they'll be back with us soon.
"I'm also looking forward to helping others who are in similar situation in the future."
To find out how substance misuse is tackled in South Tyneside, see tomorrow's Gazette.
The full article contains 329 words and appears in Shields Gazette newspaper.
