Noreen Oliver MBE has dedicated decades of her life to rehabilitating literally thousands of people. The Founder and Managing Director of the BAC O’Connor Centre in Staffordshire can truly empathise with those in need of the services her organisation offers as she has had her own personal experience of alcoholism and a subsequent journey into recovery.
Noreen has extensive experience in the field of addiction and for more than 25 years she has developed a Recovery Community in Staffordshire which has received numerous awards and rehabilitated thousands of individuals and families.
The needs of those she works with range from active addiction to medical detoxification and from intensive rehabilitation through to independent living and employment.
The BAC O’Connor has services across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent with 78 beds and employs 144 staff including clinicians, specialist therapists and resettlement staff.
Around half of those staff are in recovery themselves and have gained qualifications from NVQs through to Master’s Degrees.
In 2006 Noreen was awarded a Tackling Drugs Changing Lives accolade by the Home Office along with The Daily Mirror People’s Justice Award. In 2007 she was presented with both the Community Services Award and the Impact Upon Communities Award.
A Lifetime Achievement Award from the Centre for Social Justice which was presented to Noreen by the Rt Hon Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP in 2010 for her commitment to transforming the lives of those dependent on drugs and alcohol. She now sits on the Board of Directors at the Centre for Social Justice.
In 2011 Noreen became the first woman to be named an Honorary Freewoman of the Borough of East Staffordshire and was a torch bearer in the Olympic Relay the following year.
Then in 2013 she became a member of the CVLS Honours Committee and was also awarded the Burton Mail Community Champion Public Service Award in June of that same year.
The honours and accolades just keep on coming. Noreen has been awarded the Touch FM Pride of Burton Award, which recognises the work of an individual who makes an outstanding contribution to life in Burton and South Derbyshire.
She became an Honorary Fellow of Burton and South Derbyshire College in 2019 and a Fellow of Rotary International.
Alongside the BAC O’Connor Centre Noreen is the founder of the O'Connor Gateway Charitable Trust which offers a gateway to independence, education and employment. Recovery Champions R.I.O.T. (Recovery is Out There) works within the charity and comprises ex-service users who have turned their lives around. They work within schools to educate pupils on the dangers and consequences of substance misuse. They also work in police cells, A&E departments, GP surgeries, prisons and many more.
The charity has opened two social enterprises and a training centre which is based at Langan’s Tea Rooms in Burton-on-Trent, providing voluntary and paid work placements for those who have undergone rehabilitation at BAC.
Noreen is also the founder and co -chair of national umbrella organisation RGUK, (Recovery Group UK), whose members include rehab providers, academics, clinicians, representatives from young people’s services, family organisations and peer-led service user organisations around the country. The Recovery Group UK is one of the largest representative bodies for abstinence treatment, rehabilitation and sustainable recovery.
The Award of Honorary Doctor of Letters is bestowed upon Noreen in recognition of single handedly setting up one of the UK’s most successful addiction rehabilitation programmes saving thousands of lives across the country including within Staffordshire. Often in the face of adversity, she has continued to support local communities and research from Staffordshire University students to improve the services provided and to highlight the importance of rehabilitation.
The award also acknowledges her advocacy and diplomacy skills in establishing an alliance of academics, rehabilitation service providers and drug and alcohol related organisations to form The Recovery Group UK which is working toward a balanced, integrated, seamless treatment system focused on recovery. Noreen champions a step change in the field of rehabilitation and abstinence-based recovery by speaking at UK and European symposiums and in her role as a member of the Community, Voluntary and Local Services Honours Committee and Director of The Centre for Social Justice.