1991 RAPt started as the Addicted Diseases Trust when Peter Bond, a recovering alcoholic, observed the success of abstinence based programmes in the United States. He, Jonathan Wallace and RAPt trustee Michael Meakin, set up a charity to meet the needs of drug addicts in UK prisons.
HMP Downview -
where RAPt started in 1992
1992 RAPt opens the first intensive drug rehabilitation programme in a UK prison in a Portakabin at HMP Downview in Surrey. The actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, an early supporter, provided much-needed funds and remains a patron today.
1995 HM Prison Service provides funding to RAPt for the first time. A second treatment programme opens at HMP Coldingley.
1996 New programmes are established at HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth. An aftercare service is initiated to support graduates after they have completed the programme and to help them resettle into the community.
1997-8 RAPt's Addiction Counsellor Training Course is designed for people who work in prisons. Almost half the participants are prison officers.
1999 RAPt develops new programmes specifically targeting the needs of women and young offenders.
Sir Anthony Hopkins helped to launch
RAPt
2000 RAPt wins a contract to set up a rehabilitation unit at HMP Send. This is the first 12-step treatment centre to be set up in a woman's prison in Britain.
Publication of independent research undertaken by the Centre of Crime and Justice Studies and King's College London indicate that 53% of RAPt graduates remain drug free and 80% remain crime free six months after release.
2001 Following our successful accreditation, RAPt is approached by six prisons to implement programmes. The organisation begins to work in HMPs Swaleside, The Mount, Wandsworth, and Everthorpe.
2002 RAPt opens a programme in the London Borough of Southwark designed to support released prisoners and young people. This unit signifies an extension of RAPt's services into the community.
2004 RAPt opens 'The Bridges' a drug treatment unit in Hull, Yorkshire. This is a primary and secondary residential project for both male and female ex-offenders.
2005 Following the re-tendering process, RAPt receives an increased number of contracts to work in prisons. As a provider of CARAT teams, RAPt's work with these groups is now focussed in prisons in London, Surrey and Kent.
2006 RAPt launches the Island Day Programme a new community project in London. This centre is a 12-step day programme for men and women with drug and alcohol problems who live in Tower Hamlets.