The Children's Society in Nottingham

Location

Programme manager: Joanna Manning

The Children's Society STARS National Initiative is a hub of information, support and guidance on parental drug and alcohol misuse, and the impact it has upon children and families. We aim to:

• raise the awareness of children and young people's experiences of parental substance misuse
• increase the capacity of practitioners to recognise and respond to parental substance misuse
• inform and shape policy and practice development on the issue of parental substance misuse.

We support and equip practitioners by offering resources, events, a website, training and one-to-one advice. Drawing on direct participatory work with children it promotes their voices and experiences, and works to influence government policy that affects this group.

Significant achievements to date include supporting over 1,000 practitioners during 2009/10 with training, resources and support, advising the government on policy development and facilitating children's contributions to British and European research publications. One example of the resources we have created in the You are not on your own booklet to help children and adults talk about a parent’s drinking.

For more information please visit www.starsnationalinitiative.org.uk.