What started as a lunch-time drop-in centre at St John's Church where addicts could eat and take part in social activities, has grown into a major rehabilitation project.

The Caleb Project now serves up 4,000 meals a year and is luring dozens of addicts off the streets and into a Drugs treatment programme.

It boasts a manager, six support workers, a cook, an IT assistant and volunteers and is operating from a former car showroom in Bolling Road, East Bowling, Bradford.

Apart from the cafe area, which can seat 65, the building has a table tennis room, offices, toilet and bathroom, a small IT room which can be turned into a cinema, a teaching room and an impressive IT room with 20 computers funded by a £40,000 European grant.

One of the support workers Giles Hather, a reformed addict himself, said the main point of contact was the Friday lunchtime cafe.

"Among the world of drug users and alcoholics, it is a place to come for a free meal," he said. "They can chill out and that allows us to build a relationship with these people in a very non-clinical environment."

Addicts are referred to Caleb from a variety of sources, including agencies like the Bridge Project, Drugs Intervention Programme, Drugs Treatment Testing Orders, Government agencies, social services, Salvation Army hostels and housing associations.

Others take the first steps to recovery by making the decision to refer themselves to Caleb, which is run by Christians, but with a spiritual rather than religious outlook.

Mr Hather said: "Every day these people will be treated as under-class, when really they are not. They are wrapped in a cycle they cannot get out of.

"They made the choice that got them there, but that doesn't mean we treat them as third class citizens."

The users they deal with are mainly addicted to heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol.

They are encouraged to take part in the five-days-a-week day-care programme which aims to give them a purpose in life. 'Clients' are encouraged to adopt a 12-step programme of self-help to recovery and many take inspiration in their fight from those there who have already changed their lives around.

Mr Hather said: "Some of the people I see here are still living on the streets using drugs. I used to use with them, but I am now married with children, a mortgage and a car.

"They look at me and want to know how I have done it."

Clients come in between midday and 4.30pm every week day and are subjected to a 'regime'. They have lunch and then go into classes where they learn life and behavioural skills, relapse prevention and the 12 steps.

Mr Hather said: "We provide structured day care which brings structure into the life of an addict whose life is chaotic.

"Clients are learning. They are being educated in life and educated in things they need for employment and areas they need help in. They have their own personal support worker who helps them with issues like benefits, housing, employment and education and generally resettling them back into society.

"Our growth has been steady. Now we are getting to the point where people are getting clean from their addictions. We now have 20 people on the programme."

Of the 20 clients on the programme, six or seven are now totally abstinent and the rest are working towards it. There is a waiting list of half a dozen people wanting to get on the programme.

"Our success rate for people becoming totally abstinent is about 20 per cent, which is very high. The others will achieve some improvement of their addiction.

"We teach them they have a choice. The choice is they don't have to use drugs every day, there is a way out."

In the 'capture' area of the cafe are jigsaws and games like Trivial Pursuits, mixed with educational and support leaflets. The idea of the games is to offer them entertainment without drugs.

Giles added: "It is hard for them to chill out because they are used to chaos. Here they get chill-out time and we teach them relaxation techniques."

In the smaller IT room, a peripatetic worker teaches recovering addicts, with poor literacy and numeracy, how to find what they want on computers. Some are learning to read and write, others have to deal with anxiety and panic attacks and many addicts are dyslexic.

Another teaching room has cosy chairs for more relaxed classes with interactive groups and role playing.

The main IT room allows support workers to teach the clients.

Mr Hather said: "We even made a documentary about Caleb which I show to other agencies. It was written by the clients, filmed by us together and I edited it on a computer with one of the clients."

He said the 12 steps programme helped addicts deal with what had happened in the past, giving them the ability to look at their shortcomings and where they had failed.

"It gives them the ability to turn it around and a need to say sorry for the stuff in the past. The power of apology is very strong. It gives people a life and a positive future."