March 26, 2013 3.04 pm This story is over 138 months old

Recovered drug and alcohol users tidy graffitied Lincoln church

Doing their bit: Recovered alcohol and drug users are helping their local community by cleaning graffiti off walls.

Recovered drug and alcohol users in Lincoln have been helping tackle graffiti at a Methodist Church in order to give back to the community.

The small peer support group from Lincoln’s Drug and Alcohol Recovery Team (DART) volunteered their time to clear drug-related graffiti off Ermine West Methodist Church, after one member noticed the damage.

After getting in touch with church leader Reverend Mark Stennett, the team got to work painting over the graffiti and tidying the area.

The peer support group also offered their services if the church needed help with gardening or any other manual tasks.

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Reverend Mark Stennett at Ermine West Methodist Church said: “It was a real delight having the peer support volunteers help our church after the frustrations of vandalism.

“They were ever so pleasant and they worked really hard to help us.”

One of the peer support mentors and initiator of the project, Andy, said: “As part of the work of the peer support group, we not only want to encourage people suffering with drug and alcohol problems to come forward and seek help and support them through their recovery journey.

“We also want to give back to the local communities we live in after many years of being disengaged.

“After noticing this offensive graffiti and the fact that it was related to drug culture in this way, we thought this would be a great opportunity for the group to start to offer our help and services.”