Emma's Story

My life was difficult in my early days of recovery, every day was spent concentrating on staying sober. It was great to be clean, but I still had so much work to do, other than staying in recovery. I didn’t begin to really build my life back up until I was blessed enough to be offered a flat at Amy’s Place. This was when my life really started improving – the support and encouragement I received from the staff and living with other young females in recovery helped me more than words can say.

I had little routine in my life and I wasn’t doing much which was constructive. I could see my son, but always while being supervised. I had a lot of trust to gain back. The staff took the time to ask me what I wanted to achieve in my life and guided me along the right path to achieve this. I started a course at a local college and began volunteering for a recovery service. A year on, I am now studying for a degree in Counselling and have a part time paid position at the recovery service I volunteered for.

Most importantly, I now have my son back in my life properly.

The staff at Amy’s place helped me to build up the courage to ask for unsupervised visits. Now I know that I am the best mum for my son I can be. I spend a lot of time with him, I am planning a holiday for just the two of us next year and I do the school run – a thing that to most parents can be a pain, but for my son and I, means everything. That regular, dedicated time spent with one another.

I’m so proud of how much my life has changed for the better since moving into Amy’s Place and I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity to have moved in there and the unwavering support I received from the staff and the rest of the residents.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation is a wonderful charity and I feel privileged to have worked with them. The work they do makes a huge difference and it’s a beautiful thing to have come out of such a sad time, with the passing of Amy. I can’t express just how much my time at Amy’s Place has meant to me – as it’s not just me who is recovering, but also those around me.