Our impact
Rehabit continues to grow steadily
2025-26 was another important year for Rehabit. We strengthened our counselling and peer support offer while holding on to the personal, flexible approach that makes our work different.
Most of our referrals still come from Islington, where our local relationships have continued to deepen. We are grateful to partners including Help on Your Doorstep, Single Homeless Project, Age UK, Mind Islington, Hillside Clubhouse, People’s Recovery Project, GPs, social prescribers, Core Services, and Better Lives. Their trust, encouragement and referrals have helped us reach more people who might otherwise fall through the cracks.
During the year, we received 78 referrals. Fifty-nine people received some level of support from Rehabit, whether through counselling, peer support, or help to access another service better suited to their needs. Twenty-two new people were placed in counselling, exceeding our target of 20, and 11 people completed their journey with us clean and sober, with one further client making a significant reduction in substance use.
Behind these numbers are people facing complex and often overlapping challenges, including trauma, poor mental health, possible neurodivergence, housing problems, abuse and family pressures. Progress is rarely simple or straight. What the year showed again is the value of patient, relationship-based support, offered without judgement and at the pace people can manage.
We also continued to strengthen the charity itself. Our part-time admin and engagement role developed into a service delivery manager role, giving Rehabit more capacity around client assessments, delivery support, systems, outcome monitoring and local engagement. We introduced CORE-10 outcome measures, developed clearer feedback and exit questionnaires, strengthened our risk framework, and updated key procedures around safeguarding, emergency response and disengagement.
Peer support remains central to who we are. It takes time and care to recruit, support and retain volunteers with lived experience, but it is one of the things that makes Rehabit trusted by clients and partners. This year we also began shaping a small lived experience advisory group and started planning a regular coffee drop-in to create a welcoming space for connection, feedback and informal support.
It was also a strong year for relationships and visibility. We were invited to speak about addiction, recovery and our service in a range of settings, including with Mind, PDG, HMP Downview and the anti-social behaviour case management team. We also continued to build our relationship with Arsenal FC, with Rehabit featured in the matchday programme for the north London derby.
Fundraising remains challenging across the sector, but we were pleased to secure support from funders including National Lottery Awards for All, Islington Recovery Fund, Cripplegate, Leathersellers, Caerlow Trust and Arsenal FC. This helped us maintain counselling, CEO capacity and day-to-day delivery during a difficult period.
We are proud of what was achieved this year and grateful to our clients, peer supporters, counsellors, trustees, advisors, funders and partners. Rehabit is still a small charity, but its role is becoming clearer: to offer patient, flexible support to people struggling with drugs or alcohol who need something personal, trusted and free.
What our clients say
When I first came to Rehabit, I was feeling lost, unsure if real change was possible. I was clear that I wanted to stop drinking, but didn’t feel ready or willing to give up cannabis. It started by connecting with a peer supporter who had trod a similar path. I gradually began to feel trust, and when I started working with a
wonderful counsellor, everything began to change.
Today, I’m clean and sober, and I hardly recognise the person I was when I first reached out. I feel grounded, proud of how far I’ve come, and deeply grateful. This journey has changed my life in ways I never thought possible!
I will be forever grateful for this organisation and all the efficient and attentive support they have given me. The CEO goes above and beyond to put all the care needs in place. And I was given a counsellor who has been fantastic and wonderful peer supporters to check in with me on a regular basis. I would recommend them to anyone who’s struggling and needs help. I am truly grateful!
Social services are going to give me a chance with my daughter. That was my miracle. I’m so glad I didn’t give up trying. We DO recover! Thanks to all you did at Rehabit and for setting up the counselling – Natalie’s been really helpful.
I had just come off of a one-week drinking bender and generally, I felt like I didn’t want to do anything, especially work. I had no motivation and felt very negative about everything. I now feel hopeful and excited about pursuing a new career as a fitness trainer!
Meeting with Sean, one of the peer supporters, before I started counselling really helped. We had a coffee and it was nice to speak to someone who had similar experiences to me.
If you are willing to change but just need that help and a push in the right direction, Rehabit is perfect for you. Also, if you have no one to talk to, this will help a lot. If you need help with drugs or alcohol and have limited funds, please self-refer.
Case study 1
Dave (name changed for anonymity), 54, came to us via a borough’s drugs services organisation last year. Suicidal and registered disabled, Dave was struggling with cocaine and alcohol, a divorce he couldn’t get over, troubled relationships with his family and the women in his life, and seemed to bounce around different borough services.
Dave is now 17 weeks into counselling, has regular peer support sessions, is engaging with AA and seeking a sponsor, the relationship with his family is improving, and he hasn’t had a drug or drink for 17 weeks.
He really seems to enjoy meeting for coffee or food and it’s a joy to see him increasingly more comfortable in his environment. And he recently participated in a client focus group / co-production session to help shape a pilot programme we are planning that will influence our future services.
Dave has expressed gratitude for the speed of response, direct support, and warmth he has received from us. He’s someone who just needed that bit more patience, time and care. Once he got to know us he became more open and connected. His relationship with the peer supporter who is a similar age who had experienced the similar outlooks to life and challenges really helped him.
It’s cases like Dave that have reinforced that our uniqueness is in supporting those who fall through the gaps, get stuck in the system, or who need that extra bit of tolerance and care to be guided to changing their lives.
Case study 2
When Sam was referred to us from a GP hub in Islington, he had stopped drinking for a few days and was very nervous about his physical health and that he might start drinking again soon. We responded quickly and a peer supporter met him for coffee within a couple of days of the referral and supported him through his further GP sessions and checks to ensure he didn’t respond badly to stopping drinking.
Suffering from a high degree of social anxiety, we took a gentle and patient approach with Sam and the peer supporter and he built up a level of trust. We also realised quite quickly that Sam was keen to start counselling, something he’d never tried or thought of before. Leaping forward, the great news is that Sam is currently six months sober and has another few weeks of counselling left. To help continue his journey, we teed him up with a Bright Lives coach who is guiding him to the next phase of his life.
Sam is a wonderful example of how to bring about positive change with resolve and the right support in place. Sam said: “I’m doing things now that I simply wouldn’t have thought possible six months ago. I’m a regular at the gym; I’ve changed my diet; and I’m gradually gaining more confidence to try new things. I know that I’ve a way to go, but I’m very grateful for the support I’ve received from Rehabit. They’ve really helped me.”