Building Inclusive Recovery Cities: An international movement for community building, recovery and prevention.

ISSUP, in collaboration with the Centre for Addiction Recovery Research (CARR), presents its webinar on Building Inclusive Recovery Cities.

This webinar combines key innovations in public-facing recovery programmes that challenge stigma and exclusion through visibility and active citizenship promoting community engagement, early intervention and prevention. This work is based on five years of innovation, research and evaluation across a number of European cities.  

The Inclusive Recovery Cities model has been live since 2018 and currently involves around 30 cities in eight European countries. The aim of the movement is to celebrate the achievement of addiction recovery through public events that challenge stigma, increase access for recovering populations to community resources and contribute to civic society and active citizenship. The targeted outcomes are higher rates of successful recovery and more engaged and connected communities with strong local partnerships. This has implications for help-seeking and prevention through community engagement and increased public awareness. The seminar will describe the logic and history of the model, the impact today (partly based on evaluation data from the Balkan component of the project) and case studies from the UK. The session will also include policy overviews from WFAD. Moderated by Amy Ronshausen, structure of the webinar will be: 

• David Best: History and growth of Inclusive Recovery Cities  

• Mulka Nisic: Implementation and roll-out in Montenegro and Serbia  

• Dot Smith: Recovery Connections and Middlesbrough as the first chartered UK Inclusive Recovery Cities 

• Regina Mattsson: The impact of Inclusive Recovery Cities on policy and practice  

Intended audience:

• Policy makers, practitioners and community activities in the areas of prevention, early intervention and recovery as well as individuals and families with lived experience .

Learning outcomes:

• Understand the concept of Inclusive Recovery Cities  

• Understand the impact of Inclusive Recovery Cities for family and community wellbeing  

• Understand the potential benefits of Inclusive Recovery Cities for prevention and early intervention 

Presenters:

David Best
Professor of Addiction Recovery, Leeds Trinity University, UK: as well as being the Director of the Centre for Addiction Recovery Research in Leeds, David also holds honorary academic posts at the Australian National University, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) and the Public Health Institute (California, USA). He is also chair of the Prison Research Network for the British Society of Criminology. He has led a number of international recovery research projects and is a leading researcher in the area of recovery capital    

Mulka Nisic
Research Officer at the Centre for Hate Studies, University of Leicester, Secretary General of RUN- Recovered Users Network; and a founding member of the Global Gender Committee within the World Federation Against Drugs. She brings decades of active engagement in the field of drug policy and recovery from addiction. Her current research explores the lived experiences of individuals in recovery and gendered recovery pathways across nine European countries, focusing on recovery capital and stigma's role. 

Dot Smith
CEO of Recovery Connections, a lived-experience recovery organization located in the northeast of England. Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2017, Dot visited collegiate recovery programs in the USA, a concept not yet recognized in the UK at that time. Inspired by the film "The Anonymous People," which she watched in 2013, Dot became deeply involved in the visible recovery movement. After her fellowship, she successfully launched a collegiate recovery program at Teesside University and has been instrumental in fostering the development of similar initiatives across the nation. 

Regina Mattsson
Secretary General of WFAD and supported in the implementation of the WFAD 10-year strategic plan to focus particularly on Children’s Rights and Women. As Board Member of UN Women Sweden, Chair of UN Women Gothenburg, and previous Vice-Chair of GADIP (Gender and Development in Practice), Regina has long experience of women’s rights issues. Regina holds a Bachelor in Social Work and a Master in International Global Studies with focus on Gender issues and Conflict Resolution. Prior to engaging in the WFAD, Regina worked for the City of Gothenburg, Unit of Integration, supporting unaccompanied minors and refugee families arriving in Sweden. 

Moderator:

Amy Ronshausen
Executive Director of both Drug Free America Foundation, Inc. and Save Our Society From Drugs (S.O.S.), national nonprofit organizations that work to defeat drug legalization attempts, promote sound drug policies, and prevent drug use, abuse and addiction. She is also International President of WFAD and has dedicated most of her adult life to the work of reducing illegal drug use and drug prevention. In her ten years with Drug Free America Foundation and S.O.S, she has assisted in coordinating successful grassroots advocacy campaigns to defeat marijuana legalization efforts, coordinated statewide prevention summits, analyzed and tracked state and federal drug policy legislation, and trained prevention professionals at local and national conferences. 

Webinars and online events delivered and hosted by the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP) are provided for informational purposes only. They are educational in nature and do not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.