CAPITAL have been commissioned to bring the voice of service users to the Drug and Alcohol Partnership and how people with lived experience could help to offer solutions.

The Coproduction Community Fund will be available for people to support the Drug and Alcohol Partnership priorities in the county, through their own community initiatives and leadership.

On the 5th November 2024, we heard people’s stories, held workshops to get ideas and inspiration going about potential projects – to improve support for people in West Sussex who use drugs and/or alcohol.

People had a range of ideas for projects that could be funded.

On Friday 16th May 2025 we held our third event in the drug & alcohol partnership series at Field Place in Worthing.

This event had a focus on creative recovery and the power creativity holds within the recovery process. We celebrated recovery with poetry readings, lived experience stories and art activities. We also heard from some of our latest community projects as well as hearing updates on the latest news from our commissioners and CAPITAL.

We welcomed attendees from community sector organisations as well as CAPITAL members and peers.

Capturing Lived Experience

​Watch this video to hear from our Lived Experience Lead, Sara Shepherd, about her own experience of drug harm.

Combatting Drugs Partnership Report – March & April 2024​​

West Sussex County Council and CAPITAL collaborated to run several online and in person events to gather feedback around substance misuse issues in the community to inform Combatting Drugs Partnership priorities, and development of a county wide action plan for 2024/25.

View the full report below.

Understanding the experiences and impact of temporary accommodation on adults who use drugs and/or alcohol

Nationally, and locally in West Sussex, the need for more permanent housing options exceeds the availability, which has resulted in a reliance on the provision of temporary accommodation (TA). Given this situation, the placement process for TA is often based on availability, rather than choice, which can be challenging.

In 2023-24 the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities awarded a grant to West Sussex County Council (WSCC) and 27 other local authorities to enhance support to people in accessing and maintaining more permanent housing to help them engage in specialist drug and/or alcohol treatment and sustain their recovery. This grant is part of the Government’s ten-year national strategy to reduce drug and alcohol harms and improve treatment and recovery services. As part of this work, WSCC Public Health commissioned CAPITAL, as a local lived experience organisation, to conduct focus groups with people to gather their views and experiences. The objectives in commissioning this report were to:

1. Understand people’s experience of TA, and the extent to which it assists or inhibits their ability to engage in specialist treatment and support and sustain their recovery, including their individual physical, social, and mental wellbeing.

2. Identify, from the perspective of people with lived experience, what ‘good’ looks like in terms of TA conditions and what additional support could benefit recovery

The findings of this report will help organisations across West Sussex to understand the risks and harms that drug and/or alcohol dependent people experience when living in TA, and how this impacts on their ability to access and engage in specialist treatment and sustain recovery.

Recommendations will be outlined at the end for professionals, organisations, and commissioners to consider how support for them can be improved.

CAPITAL contributed to the Sussex Trauma Informed Framework July 2025

Sussex has a growing Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) Community of Practice, with around 300 members from 70 organisations including people with lived experience, frontline staff, service leads, and system leaders.

We also have a Collaborative Implementation Group made up of leaders from across the Health and Care partnership in Sussex that helps build shared learning and keeps up momentum for change.

Sussex has strong knowledge and experience in this area, and we’re combining it with learning from across the UK.

This document brings together learning from the Sussex Community of Practice and beyond. It provides a summary of some of the great practice already underway, ideas about overcoming some of the challenges, and suggested methods for evaluation and monitoring.

See more below

CAPITAL Drug & Alcohol Partnership Coproduction Annual Evaluation Report with WSCC for 2025 – 2026

This document shares the early insights from a unique collaboration between CAPITAL and the West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership.

Co-produced by professionals and community members, this project reflects the power of working side by side to reimagine services with those who know them best.