One25: Special Announcement about Naomi House
Closure of Naomi House
We are sad to announce the closure of Naomi House, our addiction treatment home for mums with babies. This decision is due to a lack of available funding and is no reflection on the high quality of the service that Naomi House has provided for many families.
One25 launched Naomi House three years ago on 19 January 2009, as the only mother and baby drug treatment service in England for women escaping sex-work and just one of two for mums with addictions. In this time, eighteen vulnerable mothers received the help they desperately needed to transform their lives away from the streets and give their children a better start. These women battled courageously to put their low self-esteem, abusive relationships and trauma behind them for the sake of their family’s future.
A former resident, Carla, sums up Naomi House as: “A wonderful chance to have a life, my son and a future with all my children. No more misery – just the beginning.” (For more of our residents stories see recent Telegraph and Guardian articles)
One25 will continue to support residents until the end of their treatment in February. Then, as with all former residents, we will support each family to access community services such as mums and tots groups, addiction recovery sessions and our own new life skills centre, to ensure that they can continue to build upon their progress.
Despite this blow, our commitment to helping vulnerable women and their families to fulfil their potential is unchanged. We are starting to refocus on our other services and how we can help more women in their journey to recovery and beyond. This month, we are proud to announce our new life skills programme which offers women training in areas of their choice - nutritious cooking, healthy relationships, literacy, CV writing and much more.
One woman on the catering scheme said: "It's really good to have something that I value. Thanks for taking me seriously."
So more than ever we need your support to enable women to permanently break free from the streets, reunite with family members and achieve their full potential. A donation to One25 can help us to sustain our support to the families leaving Naomi House and help over 300 more women each year in their steps towards an independent, fulfilled new life.
For further information on Naomi House or One25 please contact Josie Hill at josie a_t one25 d_o_t org d_o_t uk or Gill Nowland at gill a_t one25 d_o_t org d_o_t uk.
Both can be contacted at 0117 909 8832.