At The Forward Trust, we’re committed to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive space for everyone, including our LGBTQ+ clients.
We’ve added an LGBTQ+ section to our Stepping Stones programme to make sure it reflects the experiences and needs of the community.
There’s a weekly Zoom support group for LGBTQ+ people who access our services, offering a space to connect and share experiences.
All client-facing staff get specialist LGBTQ+ training which covers:
Inclusive language and terminology.
The barriers and challenges LGBTQ+ people face.
How to provide meaningful, tailored support for LGBTQ+ clients.
We can also signpost to LGBTQ+ organisations, sexual health clinics, and other forms of specialist support when needed.
Our LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG) is here to offer advice and guidance to staff, helping us all build a more inclusive and understanding workplace.
Through our Service Accessibility Project, we reviewed diversity data and identified areas where we could do better, one of them being support for clients who speak little or no English. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
Translating key materials – We’ve created client-facing resources in multiple languages so that everyone, regardless of their English proficiency, can access support around harm minimisation.
Starting a Nepalese support group – We’ve started an online recovery group specifically for the Nepalese-speaking community, providing a more culturally responsive service.
Building partnerships – We're connecting with community groups and specialist organisations to improve how we support non-English-speaking clients.
We’re always looking for ways to expand this work. Our Future Plans section, below, covers what’s next and how you can get involved.
We have translated some interventions into Braille and can translate others on request.
We provide adapted materials and extra one-to-one support within our Online Recovery Programme. This is also accessible to those with mobility difficulties, childcare commitments, or who are geographically isolated.
At our residential rehab, we can provide alternative catering for clients with religious dietary requirements, and we involve transgender clients in decisions about their living arrangements. This is to ensure everyone feels comfortable at our mixed-gender rehab.
We have rewritten our M-PACT practitioner training with neurodiversity in mind. At assessment, we ask clients about the presence of neurodiversity (diagnosed or suspected). We also discuss how we can best support them e.g. creating space to manage group anxiety or provide a 'quiet zone'.
We are always looking for ways to improve. If you need adjustments to help you access our services, please reach out to your local team: we’re happy to adapt where we can. Our goal is to make sure everyone can access the support they need.
“While recovery needs structure to succeed, it is important to see everybody as an individual. We must be adaptive and responsive to their needs. The impact on allowing people to have their individuality is that people are more open. They tend to share more of their world and succeed at the programme because they are not burdened with not expressing themselves truthfully. Recovery and rehabilitation should be available to everybody. A service being adaptable is vital to its success.”
- Ted, staff member at The Bridges
We’re committed to strengthening our relationships with local community groups to better understand the barriers people face when accessing our services. Our goal is to create more inclusive, culturally responsive support that truly meets the needs of diverse communities. We’d love to work with your community group to make a difference.
Here’s how we can support you:
We can promote our drug and alcohol services to your community group.
We could support you to develop referral pathways between our services.
We can set up adverts for job vacancies at Forward for your community group.
We can consult with your service users to explore the barriers for particular communities accessing our services.
You could use vacant spaces in our community hubs in the evenings for your community group meetings.
Provide your volunteers with basic drug and alcohol awareness and harm minimisation information and to look out for those within their communities who may have problematic substance use.
We are primarily focusing this work in East Kent, in the first instance. But, if you think we can work together in other areas, please let us know. Email us at edi@forwardtrust.org.uk.
