Recovery Rally 2009
The A&E Recovery Rally was held in New York City on Saturday September 12th, 2009 and it was my great privilege to attend as the delegate from South Carolina. The goals of September recovery month events are to generate widespread awareness that addiction is a treatable disease, recovery is possible, to help erase the stigma of addiction, and to bring about a just public response to this lifestyle related health disorder.
Recovery from addictive health disorders is a reality in the lives of millions and millions of people. This fact was in abundant evidence when more than 10,000 people came out to celebrate recovery
On a rainy Saturday morning in New York City, the delegates from every State and the District of Columbia gathered and were transported to Foley Park in lower Manhattan. We were a diverse group, representing treatment centers, governmental agencies and recovery advocacy groups from all over the country. In what seemed like just a few minutes, 10,000 recovering people and their supporters arrived and filled the small park. The A&E network did a very good job coordinating the event and speakers rallied the crowd, the Harlem boy’s choir sang for us, and very inspirational speeches were delivered. With such a large crowd, the media certainly took notice, with every major media outlet represented at the event.
Many of us had filled out and were holding signs saying how long we had been in recovery (my sign said 22 years!). In the midst of all the excitement, my wife Pam snapped a photo of a young man in the crowd, holding a sign that said “In Recovery for 2 ½ months”. The joy and excitement in his young face and in the faces of the many young people in attendance gave me hope for the future.
Then it was time for all of us to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The excitement was palpable with cars honking and passersby waving and calling out how long they had enjoyed recovery. The crowd was so large that when the first people had gathered in the park across the bridge, we were told that the last of the crowd was just getting onto the bridge!
As New York Governor David Patterson, The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Gil Kerlikowske and other powerful people addressed the crowd in Brooklyn, I couldn’t help thinking about that young man and his first months of recovery. After the rally, we delegates would go back to our comfortable and stable lives but he would likely return to a very different reality. I thought about the struggles he will need to endure in order to be successful in recovery:
· withstanding multiple messages promoting alcohol use in his environment
· coping with triggers to use drugs everywhere he turns in his neighborhood
· high unemployment rates and a lack of alcohol and drug free work places
· an educational system that has not met the needs of many young people, and
· a criminal justice system that still does not fully recognize that criminal behaviors motivated by addictive disorders are best addressed with treatment and structure, not jails and institutions.
The chances of this vibrant and excited young man achieving lifelong recovery are still very poor despite decades of advocacy and effort.
He is going to need housing and education, transportation and healthcare, and most of all; he will need the ongoing support of his friends and family, his community, and he will need our public and private sectors to step up and provide adequate services.
The movement to raise awareness that addiction is a treatable disease and that recovery is possible needs your support, not just in September each year, but every day. To bring about a just public response to this public health problem, we will each need to continue to advocate, every day, for recovery oriented systems of care to be available whenever and wherever recovery is sought. The recovery advocacy movement is growing with organizations like the A&E Recovery Project, Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) and the efforts of members of The South Carolina Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors and The South Carolina Association of Prevention professionals and Advocates. With our continued advocacy and hard work I am sure that one day we will wake up to a world where addiction is prevented before it ever begins.
Dave Seward
September 2009
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