The North East Regional Alcohol Forum (Neraf) has been chosen by charity Alcohol Concern as a site for the project, which will help victims of domestic violence affected by alcohol misuse.

Kevan Martin, Neraf chief executive, said: "We are a relatively young organisation – so, of all the organisations in the North East that applied to be part of this project, we are very honoured to be selected."

Neraf will work with a variety of agencies over the next three years to develop the programme.

These will include statutory bodies, social services, the police and the Domestic Violence Forum.

Neraf has been running a support group with Wearside Women in Need for two and half years, and the pilot will build on what has already been done.

The charity, based in Angel House, in Borough Road, offers informal drop-in sessions at which people can talk about their alcohol problems with others who are going through the same thing.

They are also supported by mentors who are reformed alcoholics trained by the charity under accredited courses.

The mentors help addicts build up their confidence, and show them how to rebuild their lives – from referring them to treatment services to helping them with housing, debt, relationships and employment.

The new pilot will see Neraf staff working with families of victims of domestic violence as well as the victims themselves.

Kevan, a reformed alcoholic himself, added: "We will develop links with other statutory agencies so we can pull together the best services possible for each person.

"We will using our life improvement plan – a toolkit we use for everybody – which identifies the areas of life which need to be tackled.

"We are looking at rehabilitating their lives again, how we can get them specialist help and how we can work with them through lifestyle issues."

Training for the pilot will get under way soon.

For more information about Neraf, log on to www.neraf.org or call 514 5852 or 565 6688.