Air Football
With new funding from a range of funding bodies including Trust for London, The Mayors Sporting Fund, the BIG lottery and corporate sponsorship, DASL is set to launch a new initiative called DASL Active which incorporates a football, cycling and basketball project.
Working on the basis that activity and sport can aid recovery from drugs and alcohol whilst also helping to fill those empty hours, promote healthy activity and develop peer support, DASL has worked closely with AIR Football over the last 5 years delivering a programme of weekly football and wraparound support with links to employment, volunteering and vocational activities. The programme is extremely popular and delivers excellent results helping to sustain recovery and improve health so we are delighted that new funding has secured the project in three London brough for the next three years.
Alongside this we are launching:
Cycletherapy
DASL recently secured funding to run a Cycletherapy goup for our clients.
The aim of the scheme is to promote the benefits of cycling to our clients and encourage them back on bicycles through a variety of methods including, safe riding refreshers courses, basic bike maintenance courses and social rides.
Ten new hybrids bikes have been purchased as part of the scheme to loan to clients who don't currently have their own bikes.
Clients with existing bikes will be given help and advice in ensuring their bikes are roadworthy.
Bouncing Back
A new project that helps Lithuanians bounce back from drug or alcohol dependency through playing basketball is working wonders in the Eastern European community. Bouncing Back is a project that brings together Lithuanians and other members of the Eastern European community who suffer from drug and alcohol related problems - to not just play basketball but provide an advice and support network. Lithuanians make up the largest group of Eastern Europeans living in Newham, with a large proportion living in Beckton.
Dmitrij Jemeljanov, a Lithuanian substance misuse worker for Drug and Alcohol Service for London based in Stratford, explains how the group works and why basketball plays an important part in bringing the group together. “Basketball is like religion in Lithuania and is what football is to English people. We have between 15 and 20 people come and some people haven’t played basketball in almost 20 years,” he said. Bouncing Back is not just about playing basketball. Dmitrij explains that it also about offering: “advice, one to one counselling, support and to feel part of a family. Some of these people have had very hard lives and maybe for the first time in their lives they don’t feel rejected.”
Bouncing Back meet every Saturday from 12-2pm at
Newham Leisure Centre,
281 Prince Regent Lane,
E13.
The group is open to Eastern European men and women.
To find out more call 02082573068.
Keep watching our web-site for further details.
