Eve, an 18-year-old former heroin addict and single mother, says she would have ended up "in the gutter for definite" if she hadn't taken part in the project.
The enterprise which has turned her life around is a pilot scheme for about a dozen teenage heroin addicts in Dublin's north inner city. The Crinan Youth Project - said to be the first of its kind in the State - offers young addicts "creative alternatives" to drugs, as well as counselling and medical care.
It includes detoxification treatment, acupuncture and random drug tests, as well as individual, group and family therapy and educational activities such as art, literacy, yoga and computers, and youth work. It also offers parent support groups and a parents' education programme. Participants receive a weekly allowance at the same rates as those paid in Staterun community training schemes.
"We offer the young people alternatives, but not necessarily in a competitive way because we wouldn't compete with the buzz of heroin, but to fill the void of the day," says Father Joe Lucey, the project's leader and a member of the Salesian Community.
"There's a whole life-style really built around the addiction which we are asking them to give up. The therapy explores the addiction and the cluster of activities around it but the programme also gives them the opportunity to explore other options like hobbies. The young people are used to polar opposites of being strung out or bored, so it's exploring the middle ground."
The project is funded by the Eastern Health Board and managed by the board, the Salesian Community and the Inner City Organisations' Network. It is based in the Salesian Community's residence in Sean McDermott Street, off Gardiner Street.
An evaluation report marking the first anniversary of the project recommends its continued funding and the development of outreach facilities to encourage teenage drug addicts to join it.
"The project was set up on a pilot basis a year ago to try to learn what kind of services are needed for teenagers with drug dependency and the hope is that, having learned from this project, others will be set up in other communities both in Dublin and in other areas," said Father Lucey.
"Drug dependency is a symptom of the lack of opportunities and personal and social empowerment needs to be central to the process of recovery."
Father Lucey said there was "huge resistance" among the teenagers to admitting they had a heroin problem and "a lot of slippage" in making them drug free. If they relapse, they are not allowed to take part in the core programme, although the counselling continues and they can use the project's drop-in facilities.
The profile of the project's participants confirms that young people who left school early and have had family difficulties are most at risk of addiction, according to the evaluation report by Dr Mark Morgan from St Patrick's College in Drumcondra, Dublin.
All the participants began by using legal drugs before progressing to "soft" illegal drugs and then opiates. All were involved in shoplifting and handbag snatching but not in violent crime. Dr Morgan said the most promising feature of the project was that half of the participants had long periods when they were heroin-free, "with consequent effects on their involvement in crime".
The report calls for a tracking system between primary and post-primary level to ensure that students do not "slip through the net".