As Im sure you know, Recovery Month here in the UK was amazing this year – with daily events off & online. Much of this amazingness came from the energy & enthusiam of our latest board member Calliese. We asked her to write a blog about what it meant for her & here is what she said. Im sure you will agree that with this level of humity & grace the future of tthe UK recovery commutiy is in good hands.
You can reach Calliese here Cal@facesandvoicesofrecoveryuk.org or read more about her here.
When we include YOU in our plans
Faces and Voices of Recovery are known as the Nation’s leading recovery organization, changing the way addiction and recovery are understood and embraced through advocacy, education, and leadership.
When I moved to the UK, the CEO Annemarie supported my mom, believing in her when she couldn’t believe in herself. As I got more involved in the recovery community here in the UK, I naturally fell into my mother’s footsteps and became passionate about supporting Faces and Voices of Recovery here in the UK. The first recovery event I attended here in the UK was the Faces and Voices of Recovery Walk in Middlesbrough 2 years ago, that was the first recovery walk mom and I attended as a family in recovery.
When we were speaking to Annemarie it became clear she could not deliver Recovery Month alone so applying what we know we worked together to remove the barriers and obstacles and come together to collaborate and deliver something for recovery month. It became an opportunity to make connections, learn, and spread hope.
Recovery Month is about celebrating recovery, but it’s also about increasing awareness that recovery is possible, advocating, educating, having those sometimes difficult conversations, and putting a face and voice on recovery. The theme for recovery month this year was “Recovery is for Everyone: Every Individual, Every Family, and Every Community” thankfully most of us are now well equipped to use zoom so we took advantage of that virtual space! Let’s be honest we didn’t get it right, a lot of mistakes were made and a lot of lessons were learned… But what we did well was carry a message of hope.
Our hope was to share resources, provide education and put a face and voice on the many individuals and pathways of recovery. We received some amazing feedback as well such as;
“I just want to say you guys are amazing. I’m learning so much from your sessions and lives this week. I wish I had these in my life 3/4 years ago x”
We managed to reach over 30,000 people to share a message of hope.
Overall we learned a lot ourselves, and we’re hoping next year we can definitely improve!
Thanks for reading 
Hugs Calliese