Care without conditions — housing-first and employment-first approaches

Background: Across Europe, people who use drugs face persistent barriers to housing, decent work, healthcare and safety. All too often, ‘reintegration’ tends to be tied largely to abstinence, at the risk of excluding those who are not ready, or do not wish, to stop using psychoactive substances. Evidence and front-line practice show that social inclusion increases options for people to gain control over their life and is most effective when it is low-threshold, rights-based and built on harm reduction, peer involvement and practical support for daily life.

Cities and NGOs are demonstrating what this looks like in practice. ‘Housing-first’ programmes secure a home without conditions of sobriety and wrap support around the person. ‘Employment-first’ and ‘Work-activation’ approaches embed job coaching and income pathways inside harm-reduction settings. Social enterprises (e.g. cafés or catering initiatives) provide structured training and paid shifts in supportive environments, creating a clear bridge from purposeful daily activity to paid work.

This webinar brings representatives from three inspirational European programmes to share how they deliver reintegration on people’s own terms, focusing on dignity, health, safety and opportunity rather than on abstinence.

Objective: To equip participants with practical, evidence-informed strategies to advance social reintegration for people who use drugs (without abstinence requirements) by learning from key European models:

• CRESCER’s ‘Housing-first’ and ‘Social-enterprise’ pathways;
• De Regenboog Groep’s ‘Work-activation’ approach.
• Scottish Drugs Forum.

Participants will learn how to help secure and sustain housing and create low-threshold routes into meaningful work and income (e.g. purposeful-activity placements, job coaching, social-enterprise shifts and employer partnerships).

Attendees will leave with actionable tools to adapt locally while building dignity, safety and belonging and strengthening public health (e.g. partnership models, staffing and peer roles, funding options and simple outcome measures).

In conversation with:

• CRESCER, Lisbon, Portugal.
• De Regenboog Groep, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• Scottish Drugs Forum, Scotland, UK.

Opening remarks: Alexis Goosdeel, Executive Director EUDA (tbd).

Chairperson: Eliza Kurcevič-Ramonė, EUDA.

Organisers: Marica Ferri, Anna Ferrara, Marco Costa.

Format: Opening remarks, panellists’ questions, Q&A, closing remarks.

Length: 1.5 hours.

Participants: The webinar is open to all upon registration, after which the person will receive a link to connect.

Webinar etiquette: We welcome participants using the chat during the webinar but kindly ask them to refrain from using it for airing grievances, promoting events/commercial initiatives or misusing contact details. Please engage with courtesy and respect. Violation of these guidelines may result in exclusion from the chat by the administrator. Thank you for your cooperation in making this webinar a positive and focused learning experience for all.

Date: Wednesday 3 December 2025, 12:00–13:30 Lisbon time (WET), 13:00–14:30 (CET).