Het team van Drugstories

Luc studied Romance Languages and Literature, Teacher Training, Business Communication and Marketing (Vlerick). After a career in the communications sector, he travelled around the world during a sabbatical. Luc is a writer and expert by experience and founded Drugstories in 2005. Until 2017, he was also managing partner at Itam, where he provided mindfulness training in companies. He now coaches people who want to cut down on or stop their alcohol or drug use. He is studying psychotherapy. (www.alcoholendrugscoach.be).

Alphonse is a business administrator and is studying social work. As a child of the Flower Power movement, he experimented extensively, which also brought him into contact with the less pleasant side of drugs. That is why he began a career in drug assistance. First in the field in The Hague (NL), then at the European level and since ‘93 in Belgium. First as director of De Sleutel and then as care coordinator for substance abuse for the province of East Flanders. He is also the driving force behind the successful case management system at the Ghent court. Although Alphonse has since retired, he still occasionally takes on assignments for Drugstories. Simply because he enjoys it.

Diederik is a physical education teacher and youth counsellor. He trained as a secondary school teacher and taught for a while, but also obtained a postgraduate degree in the phenomenon of drugs from Ghent University. He worked for a number of years in Kent (UK) as a drugs prevention worker when the ‘bomb’ of ‘legal highs’ exploded there. He tells his story based on his own experiences and the tall tales he heard from young people. He puts young people at the centre of the discussion with and about drugs. He currently works for the East Flanders Regional Fund, where he strengthens local projects with a focus on people and the environment.

Arafat is a social worker. After years of addiction, he decided to give something back to society. He worked with drug addicts for years (De Sleutel, De Kiem) and in 2002 he founded ‘De Eenmaking’, a prevention organisation in schools with extra attention for the underprivileged, ethnic cultural minorities and prisoners. He currently works for De Cocon (home-based youth support).

Geert has worked as an experience expert at de Sleutel as a group counsellor for 15 years. He has a passion for working with groups. In addition to his job at de Sleutel, he coaches people with addiction problems on an individual basis. He has a degree in remedial education and is also trained as an experience-based and body-oriented therapist. For Geert, providing prevention is all about social responsibility and caring for our young people.

Koen started working with young people at an early age. When he was about 15, he and a group of friends became involved with the non-profit organisation HuDa. This organisation held an annual festival in Sint-Truiden. As a result, Koen's young adulthood consisted mainly of going out every week and experimenting with drugs. Despite all this, he managed to graduate as a teacher. After two years of teaching, he started working as a youth worker. Koen ended his career in youth work as a prevention officer at Responsible Young Drivers. He currently works as a Functional Analyst and uses all his experiences in the Drugstories workshops.

Tuur is a French and history teacher. Given his interest in addiction issues and his experience with students, he has been teaching topics such as addiction and prevention in social studies classes for a number of years. Moreover, he himself struggled with addiction in the past. Based on his own experiences and the idea of wanting to make a difference for young people and by extension society, he is also committed to Drugstories in addition to his job as a teacher.

Bert is training to be an educator and will soon start working in youth support. Based on his own experiences with addiction and through working with young people, he realises that he wants to do something that is socially relevant. He soon gets the chance to tell his story in public and that makes him want to inspire people. After a few projects of his own, he ends up at Drugstories. Bert is also trained as a body and experience-oriented therapist and regularly works with groups, circles and ceremonies in the Westhoek region to remove the taboo surrounding addiction, therapy and mental well-being.