Rowan Williams

Age: 40 years (yip, yip!!)

Job title

Service Manager

Main tasks

• Managing GOALS and P2W
• Co-ordinating Drugaid's Harm Reduction Working Group

Special interests

• Strategy and service development
• User involvement and peer education
• Harm reduction

A brief history of how I got into the work.

I began working in drug services following a 14-month placement in The Ley Community, a residential rehab service in Oxfordshire. Prior to that I was a problematic user of crack cocaine and heroin. I think that rehab worked for me as it gave me 'time out' to reassess my life in a safe and supported environment.

I initially worked as a volunteer Key Worker at The Ley and found a paid job as an administrator in Oxford's Public Health Resource Unit. After 18 months I started work for SMART, a user led charity, as an Arrest Referral Worker. This involved visiting drug using offenders in police cells and courts and encouraging them into treatment. At the same time I started a part-time honours degree in English and Social Policy.

I was later seconded to Oxfordshire Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) as User Involvement Co-ordinator. My aim in this role was to make myself redundant after setting up sustainable user involvement mechanism. I helped OUT, a user team, set up and gain charitable status. I developed a number of peer led projects with OUT including training on overdose prevention and response and blood borne viruses, user led advocacy, and various user led research projects. OUT was commissioned by the National Treatment Agency to roll out its projects and promote user involvement throughout South East England. My favourite role involved supporting users and user representatives in performance managing 19 Drug Action Teams over a 3 year period – it gave me an insight into commissioning processes and helped me recognise the importance of user involvement in drug service development.

My post changed to Development Manager for Oxfordshire DAAT. My main roles involved co-ordinating a multi-agency harm reduction partnership across the county, being a member of the commissioning team and drawing up service specifications for a women's service and aftercare services.

I moved back to Wales due to family commitments in 2007 and took up post as GOALS Manager for Drugaid just as the service went live. I enjoy working with such an innovative and user-friendly organisation, and an enthusiastic team. Service users are really benefiting from their commitment and hard work.

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