What We Are
Our Mission
To relieve need, hardship, poverty, sickness and distress of persons dependent on drugs and alcohol, particularly those who are subject to racial exclusion, by providing advocacy, advice and guidance and contributing to the prevention of substance misuse, and the development of appropriate services for the treatment and rehabilitation of all such persons affected by problems associated with their substance misuse, irrespective of age, race, gender, disability, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation or social status; to advance the education of the public in the problems faced by such persons described above; and, to promote the education and training of commissioners, planners and providers of any services to equitably and fully meet the needs of such persons as described above - those dependent on alcohol and drugs, in particular those amongst them who are subject to racial exclusion.
Background
The Race and Drugs Project was established in 1995 as a response to the knowledge and understanding that the provision of drug prevention, care and treatment services for black and other visible minorities had been a very under-investigated area. As a result of our primary in-depth investigations¹, it was evidenced that such provision as existed was ad hoc and largely ephemeral, since it did not form an integral part of an overall organisational strategy or work programme. Initiatives undertaken by individual members of staff remained marginalised and were not incorporated into the organisational work-program. Race Equality Policies remained largely paper exercises, with agencies claiming accolades without showing any real interest and responsibility. Our work and investigations since then have confirmed that drug service providers, as well as policy makers and commissioners of services have a long way to go if the needs of visible minority drug users were equitably to be met.
Today the Race and Drugs Project exists to build upon previous and ongoing work, thereby continuing the process of bringing about change through research, training, development, consultancy, evaluation, and general technical support for public and private sector agencies, community based organisations and individuals on issues of drug use and abuse affecting visible minority populations. We have been registered with Companies House since 1998 (Registration no: 03641393) under our trading name T3E (UK). This is now also a registered educational and training charity (Charity no: 1117087).
Approach and philosophy
We offer a distinctive approach on issues of race and culture, which contrasts with less developed approaches on offer in UK or elsewhere: approaches that are, by and large, marked by a reflexive response to government policy, accepting it as a given rather than engaging with it at a critical level. By contrast, our approach is theoretically grounded and based upon the pioneering theoretical work of its predecessor unit, the Race and Culture Policy Research University (RCPRU), City University, London, during the 1980s. This approach argued that doing something about racism depends on tackling standard, taken for granted practices, which are discriminatory in effect, if not in intention. By subjecting policy and practice across different sectors - policing, education, social services, etc, - to critical analysis, RCPRU demonstrated that racism is the outcome of practices such as an agency's human resources policy, its service development programme, or its communications strategy. It thus anticipated some of the findings of the Macpherson report. It also argued against the trend, much in evidence today, that government policy is somehow an immutable given.
The thinking and experience of the Race & Drugs Unit has developed since then to carry theory and practice further, especially on the research, policy and training fronts. To put it succinctly, we believe that for race equality in policy, procedure and practice to become effective, the relevant panoply of issues race equality covers need to become an integral part of the thinking of researchers, policymakers, practitioners and government alike. Race equality has been perceived and presented for far too long as a militancy, forever standing outside mainstream discussion. For the Race & Drugs Project, race equality is simply good organisational management and practice reflecting the ongoing demographic changes due to the migration and settlement of populations into Britain and other EU countries. These changes mandate a necessary and commensurate shift in the focus of policy, research, planning, funding and management in order for 'traditional' approaches (all too often monocultural) to come into alignment with a changed and changing reality.
¹This refers to the work carried out (1995-96) and published as Race, Drugs, Europe, Vol.1, Les Cahiers T3E, No 3. A summary is provided in our Work Portfolio.
Print Page
