About SOLVE IT

BACKGROUND

SOLVE IT was established in 1989 following the death of my son Darren, in 1988, due to Volatile Substance Abuse (VSA) and since then, it has continually provided VSA education, training, and awareness for parents, professionals, the community and most importantly children and young people.
As a responsible parent, (and qualified nurse) I had informed my children about the dangers of smoking, alcohol, and illegal drugs, yet before my son's death my knowledge of VSA was non‑existent, this type of substance abuse was not discussed. A few months on from my son’s death I began to think about the general lack of awareness on this subject and in 1989 I began taking positive steps to learn and then inform children, young people, parents and professionals to the consequences of VSA. SOLVE IT was born and prevention through education was its main objective. By promoting a greater awareness to the types of products abused and emphasising the dangers of such abuse, free of charge, to children, young people, parents, professionals and the community in general, I hoped to make a difference.       
In the Queens Birthday Honours 2000 I was extremely proud to be awarded an MBE for the work that I had achieved to date, in relation to VSA and in April 2002, due to increased demand for the services provided, SOLVE IT became a national registered charity.

1. In 2003, SOLVE IT received The Queens Award for Voluntary Service
2. In 2004, SOLVE IT won the Barclaycard/Northants 96 “Making a Difference Award”
3. In October 2004 SOLVE IT hosted its 1st of 4 annual National Conferences on Volatile Substance Abuse.
4. In February 2007 the Charity was one of ten national winners of The GlaxoSmithKline-King’s Fund IMPACT Award.
5. In July 2007 SOLVE IT led the first ever VSA Conference for Young People – “Action for Youth”
6. In January 2008 SOLVE IT was one of 90 national winners of the Royal Bank of Scotland/Daily Mail Making an Impact Award
7. In July 2008 Barbara Skinner MBE was awarded the Institute of Trading Standards Hero Award

Perhaps, most importantly, to date SOLVE IT has provided input to over 309,000 children, young people, parents, carers, professionals and organisations.

Today 22 years on from the death of my son, SOLVE IT has progressively developed its service provision, increasing its contacts and widening its geographical growth yearly whilst providing a free service to children, young people, parents, carers and those affected by such abuse. It promotes a general awareness to the consequences of this type of substance abuse and works towards the prevention of related deaths, illness, accidents, crime, and social exclusion. In addition, it provides out-reach for those who do not access main stream school, a counselling, family support, signposting and referral service for those affected by such abuse both locally and nationally, and training for professionals.
Requests for information, universal and targeted education, training, counselling and family support continue to increase and contacts are growing rapidly each year.

There remains no other similar charity that encompasses all of the services currently provided by SOLVE IT in relation to VSA.

SOLVE IT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To provide a specialist service dedicated to increasing the knowledge and awareness of VSA thereby reducing the level of abuse within all sections of the community subsequently reducing VSA related illness and death, social exclusion, truancy, anti-social behaviour, crime, and disorder.
2. Decrease vulnerability for children and young people in relation to VSA, through specialist preventative education which will empower them to make informed choices and enable them to be healthy, stay safe & crime free.
3. To ensure children and young people are encouraged and have an equal opportunity to participate at all stages of our service development.
4. To ensure parents, carers, communities & community groups have the opportunity to increase their knowledge of VSA and its consequences, to enable early identification through specialist community awareness events.
5. To provide VSA related targeted education and support through out-reach for children and young people.
6. To offer a specialist rapid response VSA out-reach service to “Hot Spot” areas of need.
7. To enable the cessation or reduction of VSA for the individual user through the provision of a specialist Counselling and Support Service.
8. To provide direct support and/or counselling to the families and/or siblings of those who may be abusing volatile substances through a specialist Family Support Service, thereby reducing the risks associated with family breakdown due to VSA.
9. To ensure that the Counselling and Family Support service is available within 7 working days from initial requests for input.
10. To provide the opportunity for professionals working with children to increase their knowledge of VSA & develop the ability to respond to early identification of its abuse through specialist training.
11. To provide the main point of contact for initial enquiries and act as a referral point for children, young people, their families, carers and others who may be affected by VSA.
12. To increase shared information to improve understanding of the consequences of VSA for the voluntary, community and statutory sector.

Barbara K. Skinner MBE
Founder & Chief Executive - SOLVE IT