"I've been training for this job all my life," says Jason Ferris, a recovered drug addict with more than 30 years life experience of how deep that hole can be.

Jason, 46, who is originally from Liverpool and now lives in Belle Isle Place, Workington, has established the West Cumbria branch of charity User Voice since April.

A pilot project, it aims to help people stop reoffending with the help of those who have turned their own lives around.

Addicted to hardcore drugs like heroin and crack and stuck in a cycle of crime and substance abuse, Jason spent a total of 17 years in prison before getting clean five years ago.

After his eyes were opened to the damage his actions caused to other people, Jason is now using his experiences to help others climb out of the hole he found himself in.

There's nothing an offender can throw at him that he hasn't heard or said himself before, and Jason says this is why there is nobody better placed to help offenders get their lives back on track.

"The reason I do this is because I've been there myself," he said.

"When I was eight or nine I made bad decisions, when I was 12 or 13 I made bad decisions, when I was 15 or 16 I made them.

"I was very self-centred like all drug addicts. 

"I was getting out in about a year so I stopped taking drugs, started working with prison officers and eventually went into drug rehab.

"Probation workers and social workers can all help, but I didn't know it was possible to change until I met somebody who had."

Jason got clean and volunteered at the rehab for 18 months, establishing an art therapy group, before joining Turning Point to develop recovery groups.

Nine months working with the Amy Winehouse Foundation saw him share his story and deliver workshops to students and teachers about the dangers and consequences of drug and alcohol abuse.

Friends who worked for User Voice then pointed Jason in the direction of a new opening in West Cumbria and he jumped at the chance to use his experience to help offenders.

He says: "After being knocked back for jobs time after time after time, I got it.

"It's a rewarding job to do because seeing people change their lives and helping them to do that is amazing.

"I don't do it for the money, nobody in this kind of work does.

"I encourage them to set goals that are achievable; not what am I going to do in five years but what am I going to do today?"

He now works out of the Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service's office on Peter Street on Tuesday and Thursday, using one-to-ones, volunteering and recovery groups to make an "amazing" difference in West Cumbria and help offenders stop their bad habits.

"We're trying to put in place an abstinence-based support network because there wasn't one here," he says.

"We try to get them to take responsibility, we don't hold their hand.

"The first time people come it might be from word of mouth or a referral but if they come back it will be because they want to.

"The first thing we do is ask what they want and what they think is going to help them.

"We point people in the direction of the services we think will help them.

"It's got to be about the person, they're central to everything we do.

"This week I've had 54 people, be that by talking in the street, group work or phone calls.

"This is a pilot project so we have to produce as much data as we can to prove it's working.

"It's a hard job to do, you're dealing with people's lives not just having an appointment."

For more information about User Voice in West Cumbria, call Jason on 07960006008, email him at jferris@uservoice.org or visit www.uservoice.org