Community Alternatives Unit

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Part of Criminal Justice Social Work in Renfrewshire Council, the Community Alternative Unit (CAU) provides groupwork programmes for offenders who are subject to statutory orders like Probation or Licence .

Constructs: Positive Steps to Stop Offending is an accredited groupwork programme for men aged 18+ who are assessed as medium or high risk of re-offending. It is 26 sessions long and is run over 3 months twice a week or 6 months once a week.

It is designed to reduce re-offending by targeting 4 areas:

• change and motivation;
• problem solving;
• learning new skills; and
• relapse prevention.

A modular programme is run for women offenders which includes: induction, offending behaviour, alcohol and drugs and assertiveness/anger control.

In addition, Lifeskills modules are run for men and women offenders on relevant topics like employment and education, health and constructive use of time. Partner agencies involved in Lifeskills are APEX (Scotland), Reid Kerr College, Sports Development, Renfrew Council on Alcohol and Community Learning.

The service covers Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire and staff at CAU work closely with social work teams in Paisley, Johnstone, Renfrew and Barrhead.

You may want to look at our

Community Services 'Holding Court' newsletter (pdf 744kb)

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You can also find more information by accessing the following links, North Strathclyde Criminal Justice Authority and Scottish Government.

We welcome your views about the service and if you require any further information please contact us by:

• email: sw@renfrewshire.gov.uk
• phone: 0141 842 3020
• or write to us at:
  Community Alternatives Unit
  20 Backsneddon Street
  Paisley
  PA3 2DJ
  

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