Policy & Lobbying

At Cranstoun, we’re interested in the personal, the political and the power to change our world. We are committed to influencing communities and the wider world by advocating change, political lobbying and shaping public opinion to make a lasting difference to the systems and policies that impact us all.

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Our Impact
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Our Impact

Empowering people and empowering change is what we’re great at. Empowering change begins with taking on the challenge of improving systems and policies to transform lives nationally and internationally. Too often, people are let down by the structures, services and systems that make up our world. We want to change that, for good.

In the UK, we are represented at All Party Parliamentary Groups, Cross Party Parliamentary Groups and globally, at the UN Committee on Drugs. We’re passionate about working with the change makers, law changers and influencers to shape future policy agenda in the UK and worldwide.

As well as this, we are devoted to working alongside the members of our community that inform every goal, hope and ambition for our work. The people who use our services, families, academics and activists give us the knowledge, drive and passion to empower people and empower change.

If you are interested in supporting our work, please get in touch. We are excited about working with academics, students, activists and the wider third sector to create lasting impact.

Together, we achieve the impossible.

90%

90% of people successfully exited our housing services in Wandsworth over the past year.

100%

100% of our people successfully completed our Cranstoun, violence and alcohol programme over the last year.

81%

Over 81% of our young people successfully exited the services in the past year. This is 5% higher than the national average.

94.5%

In our 2020-2021 survey, 94.5% of the people we work with said they would recommend our services.

Current Campaigns/Appeals

Overdose Prevention Centres

Overdose Prevention Centres (OPCs) have different titles around the world, in some areas they are referred to as Drug Consumption Rooms (DCR), others Safer Injection Facilities (SIF) and Enhanced Harm Reduction Sites.

What are they and what do they do?

No matter what they are named the evidence base that these centres reduce drug deaths and associated harms that come with public injecting drug use is overwhelming. An OPC is somewhere where someone who injects drugs can do so in safety and with supervision. Cities and countries across Europe and the world now offer OPCs, most recently a site opened in New York and within weeks it reported scores of overdoses had been reversed and ultimately lives saved.

What are we calling for?

We are advocating but also doing. In January 2022, we presented a fully costed model to the Scottish Government to deliver our Cranstoun OPC model in Scotland.

Read more here

Cranstoun have long supported this intervention. Cranstoun also welcomed Peter Krykant, Peter operated the first UK based OPC, located in Glasgow, and although this was an unsanctioned service it operated for ten months, supervising hundreds of injections and saving multiple lives. This only added to the international evidence base, no deaths have been recorded to date in any facility and the knock on impacts of these sites are beneficial to society as a whole.

Domestic Abuse

Show your support for people who are impacted by domestic abuse and help us challenge and transform abusive behaviour.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that 1.6 million women and 757,000 men had experienced domestic abuse between March 2019 and March 2020, with a 7% growth in police recorded domestic abuse crimes.

Although there is limited official data so far on the impact of lockdown on domestic abuse, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report that in mid-May 2020, there was a 12% increase in the number of domestic abuse cases referred to victim support. Between April and June 2020, there was a 65% increase in calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, when compared to the first three months of that year.

(Taken from this government report.)

These statistics are extremely concerning. It’s so important that we support, protect and empower change for those facing domestic abuse in our communities. With your help, Cranstoun can connect with more people in danger, protect more families from future abuse and educate and transform the perceptions and behaviours of those displaying violent and abusive behaviour.

If you can consider a donation, Cranstoun will continue to work to empower people and empower change.

“Cranstoun gave me the tools to rebuild my life and embrace the future in a positive and productive way”.

Jay first became involved with Cranstoun as a service user. With Jay’s openness, hard work and dedication he soon became a service user rep. Jay volunteered five days a week, offering support to service users and staff members.

He then took the brave jump towards paid employment, and with his compassion, incredible story and dedication to helping others, Jay now works for Cranstoun as a recovery worker.

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