The hope for MERLIN

The project has the capacity to be modular with each phase being a worthwhile in itself and lending itself to staged funding.

Numerous boxes are ticked by this initiative; from community regeneration to mental health therapy; from re-training for employment to the provision of an educational resource; from reducing stigma, to even reducing crime, and more. This lends it to potentially sourcing funds from many different budgets.

We have a successful model upon which to base our efforts - Butser Ancient Farm, Chalton, Hampshire. This provides the ultimate goal for our vision. They too have expressed a desire to support our endeavours in the form of free remote advice. They can also provide on-site advice (at a cost), and training at their location on such skills as roundhouse building, pottery and other iron-age activities of interest to us.

This is a potentially long-term project with wins all along the way from start to finish.

Such a project could raise the bar in terms of peer led re-integration into society - in fact it could put Wakefield Substance Misuse Services into a league of their own.

We could end up with a significant Social Enterprise which pulls in partners from all sections of the community providing recovery and true social integration for service users. And, very importantly - led by service users.