Welcome to the Choose Life Project

We use the first-hand knowledge and experiences of recovered drug users to educate young people and professionals on the dangers of Class A drugs. We go into schools with recovered addicts and teach the pupils about the pitfalls of substance abuse, with the addict’s own experiences offering a powerful and cautionary voice about the risks that lie on the road to addiction.

Staying true to our roots we also work with prisons, and the police, to provide effective and memorable addiction education to inmates.

When the Choose Life Project was founded over 25 years ago drugs training of the time generally consisted of someone standing up in front of the class, showing some brown powder, and saying that that was what an illegal drug looked like! There was in general very poor training and knowledge regarding addiction, and police officers simply were not equipped with the skills or experience they needed to properly handle the large number of drug users they would be arresting. In HMP Liverpool in the late 80s education around substance misuse was non-existent, and there wasn’t even a poster on the wall or any other form of support for the inmates.

There is no-one better to educate and inform about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse than someone who has been there and experienced it all for themselves. Hearing about their often harrowing and emotional pasts, and the sequence of events that led to their growing addiction, instils a raw and forceful warning into the class that simply cannot be acquired from any other means.

“It can really change your mindset and not just look at

one thing one way, and actually put yourself in somebody else's shoes”

Ashanti / Level 3 Health and social care student