A charity and a community group are joining forces to work on a project that aims to provide help and support for ethnic minorities in Hitchin and Letchworth who are recovering from addiction – after North Herts District Council awarded them a £5,000 grant.

The Addiction Recovery for Ethnic Minorities Project will provide adults from ethnic minority groups with the signposting, support and treatment they need to break the cycle, overcome drugs and alcohol abuse, or behavioural addictions such as eating disorders, obsessive compulsive behaviours, self-harm or gambling.

The Living Room and North Herts Ethnic Minority Forum are working together in partnership on delivering the project after received the four-figure grant last week.

The grant was awarded jointly by the council’s Hitchin and Letchworth area committees subject to completion of the necessary formalities.

The project will last for 12 months from April, and will offer one-to-one addiction recovery treatment by a qualified counsellor together with community outreach work in the towns of Hitchin and Letchworth.

Councillor Judi Billing, chairman of the Hitchin committee, said: “Some black and minority ethnic people who need and want help are reluctant to ask for it for fear of bringing shame on their families.

“By holding a surgeries it will enable these people to report their addiction problem and get the required support.”