Staff

Marcus Johnson Project Manager

Lived experience service-user involvement working alongside clinical treatment is undoubtedly the most important ingredient for the optimum outcome in the battle against addiction. 

I have the absolute privilege of managing the most incredible team of staff and volunteers at SUIT. We all possess the very unique and special gift of lived experience from drug and alcohol addiction, whether that be a personal journey or family related. Every single person within the team are totally committed to our inclusive vision of delivering the most unique and tailored wraparound recovery support package to each of our service users.  

I have been in recovery from alcoholism for over 10 years now and 7 years ago I came to volunteer at SUIT offering my time for 8 hours a week. Things have evolved quite a lot since then… 

We’ve been working alongside Recovery Near You for 7 years; our directive is to combine clinical treatment with service-user involvement. We are offering individuals suffering from drug and alcohol addiction the greatest opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and break free of the chains of addiction.  

Everyone deserves the opportunity to change, people just need encouragement to find the willingness to change. At SUIT we consistently listen and offer our personal experiences in relation to our individual client needs. Our future is exciting as we forge new links with community partners and national LERO’s, all with the intention of offering new and creative opportunities for our clients, prioritising them always at the centre of our work.  

Jason Spreckley Outreach Lead

Until you become inspired by someone else, the change can’t happen. We have to see it through our own eyes. 

I’m now the Outreach Lead for SUIT, and previously I ran the structured volunteer programme working closely with Recovery Near You. I’ve been with SUIT for over 12 years. I have lived experience of addiction and I value peer-support. I am living testament that sharing knowledge and experience to find strength in recovery really does work. My aim is to help as many people as possible in reaching their recovery goals.  

I support people to develop confidence, reduce the stigma of addiction, and promote education and employment. I believe that you gain confidence from learning and positive environments. Other people can give you motivation, support, and skills that teach you to be in control and think for yourself. My drug use was always influenced by others, but when I started listening to support workers in recovery, they taught me how to decision make, and turned me into who I am now; someone with goals and direction.  

Michelle Lane Volunteer Coordinator

I went from feeling like an outsider, to someone who had found their tribe. The value of understanding that you get from someone who has experienced similar issues cannot be underestimated.

I had a successful career as an English Lead Learning Support in secondary education for over 15 years, but during that time I had always drank heavily. I found that my drinking escalated over time and following a number of difficult life challenges I turned to alcohol more to manage my emotions. Eventually, I had to take voluntary redundancy.  

I lost all sense of purpose or routine and found myself alcohol dependent. I had spiralled into full blown addiction. I was being medicated for anxiety and depression and had developed irreparable nerve damage to my hands and feet, caused by extreme alcohol consumption. 

I was fortunate to get a place in the BAC O’Connor Rehabilitation centre, Burton-Upon-Trent in October 2020, which was where my recovery journey began. After spending eight weeks in residential rehabilitation I returned home but recognised that I would need to find recovery connections within my local area. 

I registered with Wolverhampton Voluntary Service (now WVCA) and was soon given the opportunity to volunteer at SUIT. Although my recovery was going well, I felt unemployable due to the widespread stigma around addiction and had lost my self-confidence. At SUIT, I was able to re-gain my confidence at a pace in which I felt safe. I was instantly welcomed into the team and was made to feel valued. The support I received allowed me to recognise that I had transferable skills and lived experience, qualities that have allowed me to support clients and volunteers. I was also given opportunities for training and development, specific to my needs and the volunteering role.  

At SUIT, I am surrounded by like-minded people also in recovery. It has made me feel normal and helped me to regain my self-respect. After volunteering for just over a year, I was fortunate enough to be offered employment as a Support Worker by SUIT. It is a vastly rewarding, dynamic, and often challenging role. The support given to me by the SUIT team has enabled me to maintain my recovery and get my life back on track. 

Fallon Burnett

Project Support Worker & Shared Care Lead

I am a champion of diversity, and want to break down barriers, remove societal stigma, and bring the community together.

I had been volunteering for SUIT for about 8 months before I secured a job, and I’ve been working as a member of staff now for a year and a half. I support clients on a one-to-one basis, and I support our skilled group of volunteers with service-user interventions in the office and help deliver SUIT’s valuable community outreach.  

I love working with the SUIT team. I’m passionate about the dynamic and unique service we provide, and I have always felt comfortable with supporting our most vulnerable clients. I am strongly embedded in our community and find my role of community support very fulfilling. Support services are an essential part of any community, and within Wolverhampton, SUIT offers crucial help to the people and families struggling through addiction. We provide much needed wrap-around support and assist with the social circumstances and effects of addiction including complex needs, poverty, homelessness, exploitation, and contact with criminal justice. Wolverhampton’s diverse community has many characteristics associated with increased levels of vulnerability, including areas of deprivation, low educational attainment, high concentrations of BAME communities and the largest percentage of population under 25 of any UK counties. 

Christiane Jenkins

Creative Arts & Research Lead

Appreciate connections & social interactions…we are not alone in our emotions.

My role as Creative Arts & Research Lead with SUIT has opened opportunity to people traditionally side lined from society by promoting the creative arts as an uncensored and free practice. Art provides a pure freedom of expression that people with complex experiences can embrace as a non-verbal form of communication. My mission, alongside the contributions of volunteers in my creative outreach team, opens opportunity to vulnerable people that they would never have received otherwise, and my position at SUIT embraces a new energy; one that embodies art & drama with a progressive and powerful attitude.

 I’m 9 years into recovery, and have come a long way since walking into support services feeling exhausted, ashamed, and terrified. When I quit drink and drugs, I thought I was going to be missing out on something. But I didn’t realise what I was going to gain.

I found confidence when I started volunteering for SUIT in 2018, supported by peer-led staff and volunteers, and I was encouraged to take on a position of guidance to clients, providing advice and delivering outreach. It gave me worth and value knowing that my experiences, however difficult, could support others suffering as I had, and give them optimism and ambition.

I believe that we need to challenge the current power balance by celebrating and reporting biographical, lived experience. Society can remove stigma by understanding the individual settings, relations and meanings of drug use that medical research overlooks.

Using art for support in recovery introduces vibrant and productive networks, environments, and opportunities. SUIT clients and volunteers take part in the annual Wolverhampton Literature Festival, Wolves Arts Festival, public art projects alongside Asylum Artist Quarter, community projects with the incredible Geese Theatre, Arts Council funded collaborations with the Good Shepherd, alongside a well-attended and established weekly art group.  

All forms of creativity help to communicate our complex journeys of addiction, recovery, and lived experience. The creative arts help us reflect; they contribute to purpose, happiness, and place value towards health, wellbeing, and recovery.

I work as SUIT's Data illustrator, after volunteering for 6 months I was lucky enough to get a job as a Data Illustrator. A family member went through their recovery with SUIT so I saw firsthand the support given and how we here at SUIT help vulnerable people. In my job role I keep track of all the support we give to people and see how I can improve the efficiency of the office by tracking the amount of people we see and the amount of help we give out to people. I also provide IT support if anybody in the office needs it.

Being part of the SUIT family gives me purpose, and I can use my lived experience of addiction to show others that recovery and change is possible.

I work on outreach in the community, attend home visits, volunteer on the hospital DALT ward, and support Punjabi-speaking visitors at the office. I was a client who progressed to a volunteer with SUIT, and I am happy to say, now a member of staff. My work in the Punjabi-Sikh community is exciting, diverse, and I build trust and reduce barriers, as many people know me from my music career in bhangra group The Sahotas.

At SUIT we have an incredible team of volunteers, and support from Public Health & Recovery Near You to work directly with Punjabi-speakers, and in other communities where there is an unmet need for drug & alcohol support.

It takes real bravery to seek help. Be brave and reach out and you will find a team of people that will offer patience, calm, and a care of duty built on our wealth of lived experience & strength.

My relationship with alcohol and drugs started at a very young age. Quickly progressed to becoming a real problem, affected everything, controlled everything, and I had to face things and seek help. I understood quickly that recovery from addiction is not a solo journey, and I’m happy to say that drug free. I started volunteering with SUIT after being in residential rehab and I’m now part of an incredible and supportive recovery family, where I can use my lived experience complications from drink and drugs. The people I visit in hospital present with severe complications from alcohol & drugs, but I am able to offer them hope and inspiration and show that recovery is possible. I build trust and encourage engagement into groups and services, and I support them by visiting at home after discharge.

Warren Sutherland

SMART & Lived Experience Day Hab Coordinator

I hope you appreciate the words, but more than that, I hope it makes you think.

Since joining SUIT as a volunteer, I have made new connections, found creativity, and I seek out what I can do for others. I found spoken word and writing as a volunteer, and channelled my recovery into powerful social commentary on addiction and its far-reaching impacts. I’ve been lucky to have been supported to share my work at prestigious events such as the Wolverhampton Literature Festival, and organisations including the Geese Theatre & Arts and Homelessness International. I’ve performed at the Arena Theatre with 14/48 and independent productions, on BBC Radio and podcasts, and have frequently spoken at the University of Warwick.

I’ve now secured a full-time job with SUIT, as SMART Group and Lived Experience Day Hab Coordinator, which is a perfect way for me to help and inspire the clients into recovery and total abstinence. I want to bring my knowledge and experience of addiction and the lifestyle to the group and show them that I am living proof that recovery and a great future are both possible.

By sharing and reasoning with the clients I want to let them know that a different life path is possible know matter how hard or painful it may seem. I want the clients to see that even after suffering with addiction, dreams are still possible. I am now achieving mine after many years of fighting with addiction. The clients need relatable role models to inspire and occasionally push them. I feel this is a role that was made for me, and I can encourage people to try new things such as the arts, or group work. Anything is achievable if you decide to chase your goals in life.

My addiction wasn't wasted time it was my lesson getting me ready to help others.

Everyone deserves to have supporters on their side, to keep believing in them, to help them achieve. To keep being different, unique, valued. To survive.

I started as a volunteer with SUIT, and from day one, I have been so motivated to support people experiencing hardship. I work with dedication to help people where there is a language barrier, difficulties with refugee status, and the challenges that come with migration. Many of our Eastern European clients have experienced stigma, poverty, and the community can feel isolated. I want to build trust in the community & encourage engagement where they may be fright or distrust. I work in the community, on home visits, I volunteer on the DALT ward at New Cross Hospital, attends client appointments to support access to welfare, healthcare, housing, and employment, and I translate for Recovery Near You.