Silkworth Group

The News, Portsmouth

Pompey footballer Harry Kavanagh is adapting to life beyond Portsmouth Football Club after being released by the club in 2021, shattering his dream of making it at the club he'd been with since a child. Harry now plays for Gosport, but is involved with the Silkworth Group, who specialise in providing housing for recovering addicts. The group have been involved in a number of success stories and helping people on the road to recovery

Transcript

00:00So my name's Harry Kavanagh and I'm a director at the Silkworth Project.

00:05We are a substance misuse service, so we house people who are dealing with issues related to substance misuse and homelessness.

00:12So I was in the academy at Pompey from the age of six until I was 19.

00:17I had a one-year professional contract and then I got released in 2022.

00:25What was the reason behind that? Where did that take you?

00:29It just took me on a completely different path.

00:32Once I got released, I had a bit of time to reflect on what I wanted to do next

00:38and I just realised that I didn't want to pursue football, I didn't want to go on trials at other clubs or pursue that type of career.

00:48So I just dived into business as such and just thought I'd try and forge my own path.

00:54Silkworth was founded by my partner Joel, who's got a past history of issues related to substance misuse.

01:03I met Joel about two years ago as I was doing some letting stuff in Portsmouth property management.

01:13He explained what he wanted to do with Silkworth and I just felt I could bring quite a bit of value.

01:19Since we started and opened our first property, we've got about 100 residents in Portsmouth.

01:26There's a team of 12 of us, so we've grown quite quickly.

01:31But it's all about providing the best service that we possibly can for our residents.

01:36What effect have you seen on the residents?

01:42It's a challenging job. People are dealing with a lot of different issues.

01:48But we've got some great case studies of residents who joined us in quite a vulnerable position,

01:55actively using drinking drugs and dealing with some issues,

02:00to now who are at the other end, looking at leaving the project, obtaining their own accommodation, obtaining a job.

02:11In situations like that and those types of case studies, it's massively rewarding.

02:16It's quite meaningful. For me, probably being a bit more of an outsider, not having that type of life experience,

02:25but seeing what people are going through and providing them some nice accommodation and some support,

02:34what they can do with their lives is amazing.

02:38What's the future of Silkworth?

02:41The future of Silkworth is we're going through a period right now where we're really consolidating,

02:48just really working on the service, trying to build relationships in Portsmouth with other services,

02:56and just making sure the support that we are providing is as effective as possible for the residents.

03:01And then moving into 2025, who knows?

03:08For more information visit www.fema.gov

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