Five newly posted interviews and a newly posted paper explore the birth, evolution, growing pains and growing vibrancy of the new recovery advocacy movement in the United States. This movement grew from an increased awareness that, through our prolonged cultural invisibility and silence, people in recovery have contributed to the public perception that recovery was a rare gift granted to a few morally enlightened exceptions to the rule. Today, Americans in recovery are standing publicly (more than 125,000 in the recovery celebration events of September 2013) and speaking assertively about the reality of recovery, the varieties of recovery experience and the roles of family and community in long-term addiction recovery.
Here are the latest resources that explore some of the historical roots and latest chapters of this movement.
The interview with Cathy Nugent details the history of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's Recovery Community Services Program (RCSP) and the critical role the RCSP played in seeding many of the recovery community organizations that emerged in the late 1990s as leaders of a rising recovery advocacy movement.
The interview with the brilliant young filmmaker Greg Williams discusses the inspiration behind the The Anonymous People and the responses to screenings of the film around the country. The Anonymous People sets the recovery advocacy movement in historical context and vividly captures the faces and voices of recovery advocates around the country.
The interview with Justin Luke Riley profiles the history of the organization Young People in Recovery and the growing role young people are playing in the new recovery advocacy movement.
The interview with Stacie Mathewson outlines the work of the Stacie Mathewson Foundation and Transforming Youth Recovery--efforts that are dramatically expanding collegiate recovery communities in the United States.
The interview with Annmarie McCullough reviews the history of recovery advocacy in Canada and provides a further case study of the spread of recovery advocacy around the globe.
Finally, I have just posted "The State of the Recovery Advocacy Movement"--amplifications of a presentation to the Association of Recovery Community Organizations at Faces & Voices of Recovery (Executive Directors Leadership Academy) on November 15, 2013 in Dallas, Texas.
I found this latest series of interviews to be particularly inspiring and informative. I hope you do also.
2013 Public Recovery Celebration Event, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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