FROM NOMS TO ARF

THANK YOU, VODAFONE

by Laura Graham

A cold grey Monday morning in London, a 7 o'clock alarm... Yay, I'm off to work and I can't wait!

Thanks to Vodafone World of Difference funding, I have a dream job at my favourite charity, the Addiction Recovery Foundation. A staggering 11,000 people applied to this year's Vodafone competition to work at the charity of their dreams and we were one of the chosen 500 to win funding and other goodies.

I was introduced to the Foundation while developing the offender drug strategy during my former role at the National Offender Management Service. The head of drug strategy for NOMS, the highly regarded Martin Lee, my then boss, pointed me in the direction of Addiction Today. There I found comprehensively presented details about research, practice and thinking about addiction which were vital to my job.

It got better: I then had a stand at UKESAD in 2009 representing the NOMS Drug Strategy unit, now the Reducing Re-Offending Unit. There, for three days, I increased my knowledge of addiction and met some of the most inspirational people I have had the pleasure of knowing, incuding my new colleagues.

More details of the Vodafone World of Difference campaign to follow in the May issue of Addiction Today. In the meantime - thank you for recognising the great work which the Addiction Recovery Foundation does and giving me the chance to join the team and pitch in!