Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Whole Health Campaign

The website for this Recovery Caucus effort at the DNC-

Lots of stuff already on the website from early activities:

Magic in these rooms…


August 26th, 2008 · No Comments



Author: Carol McDaid, Faces & Voices of Recovery Board Chair


Monday, August 25, 2008


The Whole Health Campaign, in conjunction with Faces & Voices of Recovery, NAMI Colorado, Advocates for Recovery Colorado, Caron Treatment Centers, the Betty Ford Center, NAADAC, the American Society for Addiction Medicine, Mental Health America, the National Council, and the Denver office of Drug strategies launched the first historic “Recovery Caucus” at a political convention today.


After the initial excitement and flurry, it finally occured to me when I heard Colorado Speaker of the House of Representatives Andrew Romanoff and Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island both
speak so passionately about recovery what I was actually in the midst
of. The realization of the recovery community becoming a constituency
of consequence.


I looked around at the beautiful 1600 square foot room with all the
amenities we have, and realized the recovery caucus with our 50
attendees had more participants than some of the other caucuses at the
convention. This proves that we had seen fit to afford us with all of
the trappings and more of other convention caucuses.


When it came time for me to go over the recovery friendly platform
provisions, I was overwhelmed with the posibilities, that just may be
our advocacy efforts might be coming together, almost being too scared
to believe it could be true.


Later on this afternoon, the real importance of having recovery
rooms at the convention was evidenced when a young man with 27 days of
recovery showed up in the room needing a meeting. When he shared we
all knew that regardless of whether you have 27 days clean, 5 years
sober, or ten years clean , we were all there for the same reason.


Recovery resources at the convention this week.


August 24th, 2008 · No Comments



Author: Aaron Kucharski is the Recovery Voices Count Field Organizer for Faces & Voices of Recovery.

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

As a person in long term recovery, someone who has not used
alcohol or drugs since September 6th 2003, I am grateful for the
opportunity to be part of something that is truly a magnificent first
for Political Conventions. This year, the conventions are the most
recovery friendly conventions ever, as faces of recovery will be seen,
and voices of recovery will be heard.


As thousands of people travel to Denver and Minniapolis for
the National Conventions, the environment can be intimidating to
someone in recovery. This year, for the first time recovery resources
will be made available to anyone who needs them. A space this week has
been made availablein Denver (Room 405 in the Colorado Convention
Center). Just to name a few resources that will be made available
include recovery fellowship, refreshments, and daily mutual support
meetings that will be held Monday August 25th-Thursday August 28th.


The strength of a growing recovery community is showing what it is capable of. We do matter and we will be heard!




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