The Nelson Trust is a drug and alcohol abstinence-based treatment provider working with some of the hardest-to-reach and most complex substance misusers, helping hundreds of people find a life of independence – a life beyond addiction.

The Nelson Trust runs two Women’s Centres, one in Gloucester and one in Swindon. Both centres provide support for women in a safe environment where they can be assisted to identify their needs and helped to find strategies and solutions to them. The centres aim to contribute toward the prevention and reduction of offending through the provision of an alternative, community-based service for women.

The Nelson Trust Women’s Centres provide a range of support services to women who have been involved in the criminal justice system and tackles the root cause their problems. They work in partnership with a variety of other community based specialist voluntary and statutory agencies to deliver responsive, accessible provision, which enhances and builds upon existing services already in operation.

The Nelson Trust Women’s Centres offer individual and outreach work in the community, alongside a full five day timetable of activities to encourage engagement, including a lunch club, women’s AA and NA meetings, psycho-educational groups and Open College-accredited courses. They have a crèche, a garden, an IT suite, a training kitchen and a café area. Partner agencies, voluntary and statutory, use the centre to provide a range of specialist drop-in services; and also engages in outreach work to the local women’s prison. They address needs across the nine criminogenic pathways which include housing, employability, debt and benefits, physical and mental health, substance misuse, family and relationship issues, domestic abuse, sex work, attitudes thinking and behaviour.