Published on: September 28, 2022
Around 40 stakeholders attended a very successful event at our recently recommissioned Harrow service.
Rumina Sultana, Team Leader at the Harrow Young People’s Substance Misuse Service said all her colleagues were delighted at the response of their guests who listened to presentations and mingled with each other at the team’s 21 Building location in Harrow.
She explained: “We want to work more closely with the professionals within our local area and any services that work nationally.
“There’s a real government drive and a push for services to be working together more collaboratively, for us to be talking to each other more.
Breaking down barriers
“We wanted to allow stakeholders to network with each other, we wanted them to mingle with each other and network, get to know each other so that we can work together more closely.”
And she continued: “Also we wanted to introduce our service in Harrow and show people where we’re located. There are some bits around the service that have changed and there are bits around the service that’s exactly the same as it always was.
“You meet people face to face, you remember them and then you understand them more than someone who’s given you a flier or talking to you via teams or, you know, or via email.
She explained that breaking down barriers and making real life connections with people helped working and ultimately helped the young people of Harrow.
“This reduces workloads in some respect because then we don’t have to hold on to everything. We can use the expertise of other services around us that can support the young people that we’re trying to support as well.”
One stop shop
She said: “The 21 building is pretty much like a one stop shop. And that’s exactly what we want. We want our young people to walk into that building to not only get support around hidden harm or substance misuse from us, but literally in the same office just, two metres away there is an entire service around getting support for education, employment and training. We also have Barnardos that come and also use our rooms to offer emotional wellbeing interventions and other organisations.
Reflecting on the event, Rumina concluded: “I absolutely think it was a great success. I believe around 40 people at least turned up.
“Our commissioner was there, the employment service was there, the emotional wellbeing service was there.
“The police were there as well. It was a real treat to have them around as well. And it was good learning for them to see what we’re really about and what we do. So they were very grateful.”
“The event was very successful because people came early and left at 1pm, which is when the event finished. They stayed the whole time. They spent the whole time networking with everyone and they listened through our presentation and asked questions.”