Throughout Recovery Month, our Recovery Around the World series is highlighting organisations and initiatives supporting recovery in different parts of the world. This week, we turn to Gothenburg and the work of Vägen ut!, Sweden’s largest franchise network of social enterprises.

Vägen ut! brings together housing, treatment, work training,and employment across its wider network of services and social enterprises. In doing so, its model shows how support can continue beyond treatment, with opportunities to take part in working life, build experience and move towards employment.

Work and participation are central to the model. From the first day, people taking part in work training are involved in running the businesses based on their own circumstances. Vägen ut! also places strong value on lived experience, with many staff members drawing on their own experiences of exclusion when supporting others.

Thank you to Vägen ut! and the wider team for your continued work to support people through treatment, work training and employment, and to create opportunities for longer-term participation and independence.