Kenny Williamson (61) runs Turning Point Craft Initiative in the Shetland Isles, which aims to teach basic woodworking and woodturning skills, in a purpose built workshop, to people from all over Shetland, who wish to move on from a life of alcohol and/or drug misuse.

When his first wife died in 2002, he planned to sell his home and workshop, in which he produced hand-made furniture and ran woodturning courses for the general public. But as he stood in the workshop, a “still, small voice,” told him he had to do something about all the lives he had seen that were being devastated by alcohol and/or drugs.

Turning Point Craft Initiative was born. Working in partnership with and taking referrals from local statutory agencies and the whole Shetland community the project's aim is to major on woodturning as a therapy for people recovering from alcohol and/or drug misuse. However, as Kenny explains, much of the real work takes place outside the main woodturning sessions:

“Some days the client and I don’t even make it as far as the workshop but we just sit and talk. My prayer is to see lives changed and for people to move on from this chronic drain on their lives. It’s a difficult area to work in because there are a lot of ups and downs, but I just know I’m supposed to be doing what I’m doing.
 
“It’s a hard line of work if you don’t have a faith. I could not do this job without it. But I know, without question, God is in all this. I’m doing everything through Him, and He gives me the energy to keep going.”

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