A drama therapy programme designed to keep those with drug and alcohol addictions in recovery is to be rolled out to Erskine.

The Scottish Government has awarded funding of around £400,000 to expand projects run by Creative Change Collective, a charity which brings together professionals from the creative industries to affect positive change.

It will allow the charity to take its Recovering Voices programme to groups in Erskine, as well as Saltcoats and Clydebank.

The initiative is led by Creative Change Collective project director Mark MacNicol, who lost his younger brother Jason, 30, to a heroin overdose 15 years ago. 

He told The Gazette: "We are pleased that this funding will allow us to take our Recovering Voices project into three more local authority areas.

"Our sessions are designed to support people in their recovery through drama therapy activities.

"By expanding this programme, we hope to help more people to stay in recovery – potentially saving lives."

The initiative has already been running in Glasgow and, earlier this week, Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance congratulated the charity after watching a performance by members of the city's recovery community who had participated in the project. 

The Oran Mor event was delivered as a variety-style mix of sketches and gave participants the opportunity to demonstrate their achievements, celebrate their success, and share their lived experience with friends, family, support staff, and policymakers.

Participants read poems and performed scripts that drew on their lived experience and addressed issues around the stigma of addiction and how their illness has impacted their family members.

They also heard from friends and family of those battling addiction, who told of their pride at seeing their loved ones entering and staying in recovery.

Speaking at the event, Ms Constance praised the programme for making recovery "visible".

She said: "We know people are individuals and one size doesn’t fit all, so this project – like many other projects – is helping people discover their own recovery path."

Mark added: "We were incredibly proud to see members of Glasgow’s recovery community performing at Oran Mor this week, after taking part in the Recovering Voices programme.

"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."