History
1999 Having begun as sole employee for DHI, a fledgling Bath Self Help Housing Association project, Rosie Phillips sets up DHI as an independent charitable company to bridge the gap between drug treatment and housing.
2000 DHI receives a Department of Health Social Care Award for ‘Promoting Independence’ and the Allotment Project wins a Co-operative Group Partnership Award. Services for drug-related offenders are introduced and ‘Drugs Tsar’ Keith Hellawell visits DHI to celebrate its achievements.
2001 New housing support services established in Bath and surrounding rural areas.
2002 DHI branches out to offer housing support services in Wiltshire and opens a new Training Suite in Bath, offering IT and basic skills courses in partnership with other local service providers.
2003 New Prison Resettlement Service starts in Wiltshire.
2004 Barton Buildings, a joint DHI/Somer supported ‘dry house’ for ex offenders, opens in Bath. Acorn House opens for ex-offenders living in Wiltshire, and an alcohol counselling service opens for people living in B&NES. The charity publishes the first copy of ‘Off The Wall’ magazine (produced and run by service users); musician Midge Ure becomes a patron of the publication.
2005 DHI becomes the leading provider of drug and alcohol treatment services (including services for families and carers of drug users) in South Gloucestershire. Champney’s House, a supported housing project, opens in Frome. Funding from ‘Volunteering England’ allows DHI to offer service users the opportunity to engage in volunteering, and findings from DHI’s first major research project are presented at the International Reduction of Drug Related Harm Conference in Belfast.
2006 DHI CEO Rosie Phillips receives a ‘Women Who Make a Difference’ award from B&NES Council. A Mobile Needle Exchange service is set up in South Gloucestershie, and the Community 4 Consortium is formed in partnership with Westlea Housing Association, Splitz and Alabare in Wiltshire to provide supported housing services across the county.
2007 DHI presents research at the International Harm Reduction Association Conference, Unhooked Thinking and the National Conference on Injecting Drug Use. A new programme of support for victims of domestic violence is set up in B&NES, and an Open Access Treatment Service is established in Swindon. DHI, Clean Slate and the Bath Abbey Initiative win the RSA Coffee House Challenge Award for ‘Mailcoach’, a scheme providing a secure PO Box facility for the homeless. Film director Ken Loach becomes DHI’s Patron.
2008 The first annual ‘Reach Out Families and Carers Conference’ is held in Bristol. DHI sets up Floating Support services in Swindon and South Gloucestershire and Open Access schemes in South Gloucestershire and B&NES to support vulnerable people to access the private rented sector. The ‘Ugly Mugs’ Scheme to support sex workers is established Swindon, and DHI wins the Silver Award from Bath in Bloom for it’s allotment.
2009 DHI win the Red Cross Excellence award for the innovative work of the Harm Reduction team. A new ‘social prescribing’ service is set up in partnership with The Orchard Medical Centre in South Gloucestershire, alongside a new Brokerage and Information service. DHI celebrates its tenth anniversary.
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