ADVISOR

Mark Johnson’s father had ‘LOVE’ tattooed across his left hand, but that didn’t stop the beatings. The Johnson children would turn up to school with broken fingers and chipped teeth, but no one ever thought of investigating their home life. Mark just slipped through the cracks and kept on falling. For years. Constantly in trouble at school, Mark began stealing at the age of seven, was drinking by the age of eight, and took his first hit of heroin aged eleven. A sensitive, intelligent boy, he could never stay on the right path, and though Art College beckoned, he ended up in Portland prison instead After that, he was homeless for years as a heroin and crack addict. No one, least of all Mark, believed he would survive. And yet, astonishingly, Mark somehow pulled himself through. Mark is bestselling author of Wasted which documents his descent into the depths of addiction and criminality.

Mark now has an OBE and is founder of the charity User Voice. Mark’s story embodies the transformative change which User Voice strives to achieve. Mark’s direct contact with the criminal justice system, and later as an employer of ex-offenders and consultant for government and other charities, left him convinced of the urgent need to create a model of service user engagement that is fair for all involved. His principal aim was to foster dialogue between service providers and service users that is mutually beneficial, aiding rehabilitation and recovery and results in better and more cost-effective services.