Pastor and recovering addict to launch Britain’s first-of-its kind addiction recovery academy in Burnley

Church on the Street is transforming the old Burnley and Nelson United Reformed Church in Bethesda Street into a modern-day support hub with a new COTS Recovery Academy.

Pastor Emma Daggers will use her experience of battling an addiction to lead the rehab when COTS moves into its new home.

It will be “the first in the UK” to offer tailored support with early mental health assessment, structured daytime rehab, and links to the community and other agencies all in one place to people who are hard up.

Pastor Emma said: “I have a fantastic opportunity to be everything I was born to be. I have spent 25 years in addiction and the past 10 in recovery. I have worked in recovery and been through programs, but they have never all been in one place.”

Pastor Mick Fleming, who oversees the charity, added: “You’d have to pay a fortune to get that kind of stuff. It doesn’t exist on that scale.”

The academy will provide trauma therapy and early diagnosis of conditions like ADHD and autism to help people become less vulnerable to falling into crime and addiction.

It will help users answer “deep down inside what’s missing,” according to Pastor Emma.

“Because that's why people drink and use drugs in the first place. Usually, some issues aren't diagnosed and don't get diagnosed. But it's wider than just drink and drug addictions, and everyone's in recovery from something."

She plans to meet addicts in their environment – like places where they typically misuse substances – and bring them to COTS.

“[Professionals] can’t reach these guys. They don’t know where they are and expect them to come to them but they’re not going to keep appointments [while hooked on drink or drugs].

“They get struck off because they miss appointments so then they have no healthcare. We have lived experience so we’re meeting them where they are, not where you want them to be.”

Despite their all-out approach, Pastor Fleming is clear that their "goal is abstinence, always abstinence, from drugs and any harmful behaviour."

The team will also work with schools and prisons to create programs that help to keep young people on the right path and prevent former convicts from reoffending.

They say prisons are revolving doors of criminals going in and out “because their real issues are not being addressed.”

But COTS staff have both the tools and experience to show “that it’s possible to change.”

Pastor Emma added: “Why we want to get into the criminal justice system is to break the cycle. You can't just tell [former offenders] how to do it: you have to show them how.

"If we can get programs that lead people back into a community where they belong, where they can learn to believe in, and be a part of, something bigger than themselves, then we are looking at hope and recovery.

“Prisoners are all desperate for hope. That's what everyone needs. So it's exciting, and it’s going to be big.”

COTS is fundraising £25,000 to fit a lift offering disabled access throughout its new premises. To make a donation, please visit https://www.cots-ministries.co.uk/