Our Stories
Share the power of long-term recovery. If you are in recovery, a family member, friend or ally of someone in recovery, we want to hear your recovery story!
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Faces & Voices of Recovery's book page
has information on many of the growing number of recovery-related publications. It’s a work in progress, so please let us know of other books that you think we should include. Check it out!
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Event Organizing
Organizing Your Recovery Walk: Everything You Want to Know
by Phillip Valentine
Click here to read Phillip's story
Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) has put together materials that you can use to plan your event. There are samples below and you can change and customize them to fit your organization’s event.
Click here for information about Project VOX in Flint, Michigan’s Soberfest 2004.
The Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) envisioned recruiting 50 people to walk near our state capitol to "put a face on recovery" five years ago. Amazingly, 700 people showed up. The walk struck a chord that continues to resonate within the heart of the recovering community. The next year, on a picture perfect Sunday five days after 9/11, over 2000 people joined us for Recovery Walks! Together, we proclaimed our support for recovery and stood firm as Americans. In 2004, more than 3800 people in recovery, their family members, friends and allies rallied, marched and celebrated, publicly declaring their support for recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction. For five consecutive years Recovery Walks! has painted the recovering community in the light of respect using the broad strokes of courage, healing, hope and love.
Today we are organizing the 6th annual Recovery Walks! All of us at CCAR, a private non-profit organization, are "putting a face on recovery." We are a well-respected, highly visible and vibrant grassroots organization with more than 2500 members. We are the faces of our neighbors, business leaders, schoolteachers, legislators, clergy, police officers and others in our community. We believe that by being public about our recovery and through the power of our personal stories, we are becoming a teaching and healing force. Indeed, by having the courage to proclaim that "recovery from addiction is a reality" in our lives, CCAR members help shape public policy, reduce the stigma surrounding addiction and actively promote recovery through all our activities.
We’ve learned a lot about organizing recovery walks – lawn signs are the best way to spend our advertising dollars, the event should be as family-friendly as possible, the program short (4 hours), use vendors instead of trying to prepare your own food, and much, much more! CCAR has developed all kinds of materials, that we’ve changed and improved each year. Everything’s available on a CD if you email us. We hope that you will use this information to plan your own walk, put a face on recovery and strengthen your recovery community organization. Walk on.
Recovery Walks! Resources
Recovery Walks! 2001-2003
- Program, announcements and speeches
- Registration form, media advisory, flyers, save the date postcards and newsletter
- Complete report including executive summary, welcome note, news article and more
- Planning materials including planning committee timeline and budget
Other Recovery Walks! Resources
- Sponsorship materials including sample sponsorship request letter, sponsorship packages, pledge incentive flyer and more
- Survey Materials
- Volunteer materials including job descriptions, applications, code of ethics, sample recognition and thank you letters and awards
- Team materials including invitation, registration and roster form