Case Study – Tara Cresswell

Tara Cresswell, vulnerable young people’s substance misuse co-ordinator, London Borough of Croydon
‘No glamour in crime’

Tara Cresswell is the vulnerable young people’s substance misuse co-ordinator at the London Borough of Croydon. She has been taking young people she works with to the CDS for five years.

She says: “It really avoids glamorising crime, which contradicts the way our young people talk about it. They go in all hard core but they find the prisoners very credible.

“They have so many professionals in their lives and are aware that we’re being paid to advise them, and so in a way that detracts slightly from the credibility of what we are saying. They know the prisoners are doing it because they genuinely want to pass a message on and it adds weight to what they’re saying.”