Equinox
177 Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 0ED
020 7939 9800
Our history goes back to the 1980's when a group of organisations – Greater London Council (GLC), Metropolitan Police, London Probation Service, Alcohol Recovery Project, Deptford Day Centre and North Lambeth Day Centre - came together in an effort to address a gap in services for homeless people with substance misuse problems, primarily alcohol. Their efforts led to the development of several new services.
As one of these new organisations, after three years in development, we were formally constituted in 1986 and opened our first service in 1990. Our initial aim was to provide people drinking on the streets immediate help and pathways away from the streets on to rehabilitation, housing and eventual resettlement.
This was complemented by our commitment to services for women and people who could/would not take part in more traditional abstinence based rehabilitation programmes. This led to the development of our outreach service, two high support services for people with enduring alcohol and associated physical and mental health problems and, following our merger with the Griffins Society in 1996, an extensive range of women’s provision.
Over the next ten years we continued to expand our services, opened services across SE England, through competitive tender developed a range of community based drug and alcohol services and completed a further mergers with Alcohol Services for South London and, most recently, Finsbury Park Street Drinkers Initiative.
Over the years our commitment to working with more vulnerable and marginalized service users has shaped our strengths and current priorities. Our enduring themes include: