Information for volunteers
Information for volunteers
Our ‘lived-experience’ volunteers are passionate about helping young people make wise and informed choices.
Lived-experience volunteering
Volunteers working in our resilience activities have all overcome significant personal issues. Those that have struggled with alcohol and/or drugs are now living substance-free lives.
They use their own experiences of substance misuse and recovery to educate students, parents and teachers about the underlying reasons why some young people use drugs and alcohol to change the way they feel, and what can be done to prevent this.
Volunteers gain confidence and self-esteem, improve their presentation and interpersonal skills, and increase their access to training, education and employment.
All our team members graduate from an accredited training programme. To be able to participate, volunteers must be in stable recovery and pass disclosure and barring checks (DBS).
Volunteers go on to do great things
Volunteers said their experiences with the programme could be applied to further training opportunities (82%), further and higher education (87%), and paid employment opportunities (84%)*.
75% of volunteers said they were more confident and 76% saw improved self-esteem following participation*.
Volunteers reported improved planning skills (62%), interpersonal skills (75%), presentation skills (64%) and communication skills (71%)*.
*Stats from Year 2 of an independent evaluation of the Amy Winehouse Foundation Resilience Programme, led by a team based between Harvard University and the University of Bath, 2016
Steven’s story
Steven had spent most of his life in prisons and institutions. Then, in 2017, he started recovery and began training with our volunteer programme.
He spent time practising his ‘life share’ in front of staff and peers before eventually talking in front of groups of young people in schools. The response was always brilliant, with children asking lots of questions and generating lots of constructive discussion.
The skills Steven learnt during his training and volunteering helped him get a part time job facilitating groups himself. Now, he volunteers in his home town of Fleetwood as a support assistant for the Amy Winehouse Foundation lived experience team, which sees him supporting peers in the community.
Steven says that it feels great to be able to give something back to the same community where his own struggles took place.
He now also visits prisons to share his story and give hope to those in similar positions that recovery is possible.
Steven has also gone back to college and completed Maths and English qualifications. He recently moved into independent accommodation and also passed his driving test. These, he says, are all gifts of recovery.
When asked about his volunteering experience with the Amy Winehouse Foundation, Steven says it gave him crucial structure during his early recovery. Taking public transport, fulfilling work appointments, making friendships; these all helped give him a sense of equality, dignity and respect.


Amy Winehouse Foundation. Registered charity 1143740 (England & Wales). Registered office: 5a Bear Lane, London SE1 0UH
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