about

The Services Directory for Drug and Alcohol Users 2007 is published by the Fitzroy Legal Service, which is one of the oldest community legal centres in Australia, opening in 1972. We provide information and free advice to members of the community.

The new updated edition of the Services Directory has been funded by the Department of Human Services and is also supported by various community organisations. It provides comprehensive information for drug and alcohol users, including an up-to-date directory of service providers in Victoria. Workers in organisations working with clients who have drug and alcohol problems also find the Services Directory to be a useful resource.

Extraordinary care has been taken to ensure that the information provided is factual and current. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the contributors to the book, who provided their time and expertise for free, and the Fitzroy Legal Service staff and volunteers who have contributed to this work, for producing such a quality community resource.

acknowledgments

We wish to thank the following organisations for helping to provide funding for the production of the Services Directory for Drug and Alcohol Users: the Danks Trust, the City of Yarra, City of Melbourne, City of Darebin, City of Moreland, City of Port Phillip and the Terumo Corporation.

Members of the Steering Committee who gave generously of their time and expertise in overseeing the production of the original Directory were Sam Biondo, Fitzroy Legal Service; Jocelyn Snow, North Yarra Community Health (NYCH); Cristian Becerra and Sarah Lord, Victorian Drug Users Group (VIVAIDS); Chris Hardy, Melbourne Inner City Needle Exchange (MINE); Robyn Szechtman, City of Port Phillip; Kealy Smith, City of Melbourne; John Fitzgerald, Department of Political Science, University of Melbourne; and Amanda Bolleter, Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA).

Thanks to all the agencies, services, self-help groups and individuals without whose co-operation we would not be able to produce the Services Directory. In particular we wish to thank: VIVAIDS; NYCH; MINE; focus groups at VIVAIDS and FLS; Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre; SHARC; and Fitzroy Legal Service staff and volunteers for their support, in particular Louise Kay and Kate Crabtree for the 2007 agency directory update.

Thanks to John Spooner, Cathy Wilcox and Ron Tandberg of The Age for generously allowing us to reproduce their cartoons; Malcolm Doreian for the drawings in Chapter 3; and Phillip Adams and the Weekend Australian for the opening story. Thanks also to Meghan McBain of The Design Bus for layout and design of the cover and content of the Directory, and Puddingburn Publishing Services for the indexes.

Finally, an enormous thank you to all the contributors who worked overtime to produce their sections and provide all the additional information we asked for.

Fitzroy Legal Service