Berkshire rehabilitation move-on charity 'rapidly expanding'

Tony Attwood came up with the idea for Hope and Vision Communities in rehab

A rehab charity started by a former offender and backed by a judge who jailed him has been going from strength to strength.

Tony Attwood spiralled into alcohol and drug abuse after his father died when he was 12 years old.

After completing a residential rehabilitation programme in Berkshire he now helps former offenders break the cycle of crime and addiction.

Hope and Vision Communities also gives them supported accommodation.

Starting with one house in 2020, the Reading-based charity had grown "rapidly", said Mr Attwood.

It now has seven properties helping 15 - soon to be 17 - people in the community move on after successfully completing rehabilitation.

Mr Attwood told the BBC he did not know how to cope with his grief and loss when his father died.

He said: "I'd already been drinking at family events - it was the norm - but I found myself using alcohol and cannabis to cope with those feelings at 12 years old and it very quickly became a problem."

'The distrust, the fear'

Mr Attwood said he began selling cannabis which "worked up until I was 21 and I got caught".

He ended up in prison where he progressed to using heroin: "I needed it in that environment."

He said while prisons were meant to be places of rehabilitation "they're really not".

"The distrust, the fear within them - for recovery you need to get to a place of vulnerability to get this stuff out but if you're vulnerable in that environment, you're a target," he said.

Mr Attwood said he wanted to change but could not see a way out when he found himself before Judge Peter Ross at Oxford Crown Court and begged to be sent to rehab.

Mr Attwood was sentenced by Judge Peter Ross more than once

The sentencing guidelines meant the only option was a prison term but, after serving his time, he did attend rehab.

Mr Attwood found himself back before Judge Ross in 2018, who sent him to Yeldall Manor, a drug and alcohol recovery centre near Reading, Berkshire.

It was an experience that he said changed his life and he came up with his plan for Hope and Vision Communities, asking the judge to be a trustee.

Judge Ross told the BBC: "It resonated with my own experiences of having seen people do really well in rehab and then, for a lack of accommodation, relapse and go back to their old ways. This is a really worthwhile thing to do and be involved in."

He said there was an "unlimited need to be met", adding: "It seems we are the only organisation working in this field and we need all kinds of support to help us grow - financial support, we need landlords who will let to us and we need to recognise that we must provide services to women and families as well as extending our wings geographically around the country."

"Service is a big part of recovery, it's given me a sense of purpose, it's given me worth," Mr Attwood said, adding: "This is applying my lived experience honestly."