Our Origin

Established in 1976, DACA has been supporting people from our local communities for over 40 years.

The organisation grew out of the ‘Quality of Life’ experiment run in the old Dumbarton District Council area in 1975 which is where our name comes from.  We were founded by a small group of local volunteers, and although we’ve grown into a highly specialist and professional agency, we’ve still retained our local culture and our commitment to volunteerism.

In 1996 we extended our service to include the Clydebank areas, and we now work right across West Dunbartonshire.

Services We Provide

We have a small, friendly team of staff and volunteers supporting our mission to reduce the harms of alcohol being experienced across the communities of West Dunbartonshire.  Most of the team live in West Dunbartonshire, and we all care deeply about our work and the people we support.  We help save lives, and we take that responsibility seriously.

We have eight core teams at DACA…

• Executive Committee (DACA’s Board)
• Management Team
• Administration Team
• Groupwork Team
• Counselling Team
• Supervision Team
• Steps to Recovery Project Team
• Steps to Wellbeing Team

Many of our colleagues are multi-functional and sit across more than one team; this helps us keep our running costs low and invest more in direct service delivery.

Every single member of our team is vital to our mission, and we couldn’t achieve what we do without the generosity of our volunteers.

Volunteering at DACA

Over the last two decades, we’ve benefited from the support of more than 150 volunteers, spanning the entire breadth of our operation.  Right now, we have around 20 active volunteers, and they contribute hundreds of hours of service every month.

Most of our volunteers have a connection to DACA; some have come through our service themselves, and others know someone who benefited from our services.  All our volunteers are motivated by a desire to give something back to the community of West Dunbartonshire.

If you’d like to join them, and learn new skills and be part of an amazing team doing important work, then please do get in touch with our Volunteer Development Worker to discuss our pathways to volunteering.

Annual Report 2020/21

Please click the ‘download’ button below to download our 2020/21 Annual Report.