The leaders of Scotland’s two main political parties will visit a community club's recovery group in Glasgow together at the end of November.
Douglas Ross and Nicola Sturgeon will visit Bluevale Community Club in Haghill on Monday 22 November to witness first-hand the group’s recovery and physical health services.
The SNP and Scottish Conservative leaders agreed to the joint visit during exchanges at First Minister’s Questions in early October.
Bluevale Community Club founder Kenny Trainer said he hopes the meeting can be a “turning point” when Scotland’s politicians finally take the necessary drastic action to tackle the drug death crisis.
Bluevale Community Club, who provide a range of services for the local community, have operated a recovery group since mid 2021 and it hopes this will continue to grow and go on to provide a range of services to people struggling with addiction.
Drugs policy minister Angela Constance will also join the First Minister and Scottish Conservative Leader on the visit.
Bluevale Community Club founder Kenny Trainer said: “Our communities have not yet seen the benefits of what Scotland’s politicians promised would be delivered on the ground nor the support that our communities need.
“People in places like Haghill are mostly left to come up with solutions on our own.
“That’s why we started Bluevale Community Club. It’s a place run by local people for local people, so they get access to the support and services they need.
“A visit with the First Minister and opposition leader to a club like ours doesn’t happen often. But this can’t be a one-off photo op.
“This meeting has to be above party politics. It has to be a turning point that delivers a firm commitment towards changing things for the better.
“We have recently seen some funding coming through our service but this is a drop in the ocean to what we need to continue to provide all of the services we offer - we aren't able to do this voluntarily forever, as much as we would love to”.
Stephen Wishart, who volunteers at Bluevale Community Club, said: “Bluevale does incredible work to give people mental and physical health services that they can’t access anywhere else.
“But groups like Bluevale are struggling to even exist at the moment. Many are run voluntarily with little to no money from the government or council.
“There are enormous funding gaps in these community, recovery and addiction services in Scotland that need to be tackled.
“The Right to Recovery Bill would cut through the current addiction system and mean places like Bluevale Community Club will get the right funding to help even more people.”
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said: “Bluevale is a perfect example of the kind of grassroots community project we should be throwing financial support behind across Scotland.
“These essential locally-run services can’t be left to fill in the gaps in Scotland’s system on their own.
“Frontline experts back the Right to Recovery Bill because it would guarantee that everyone gets access to the treatment services they need to get their lives back on track, and whole system programmes like Bluevale would get the support they deserve to help people in our communities.
“We hope this visit can be a watershed moment that secures the government’s support for our Right to Recovery Bill, but we will consider other solutions that the government brings to the table too.”