Inclusive Recovery Cities: A visible and inclusive way to challenge stigma

Written by David Best, Centre for Addiction Recovery Research, Leeds Trinity University

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The concept of recovery has changed over the course of the last forty or fifty years from something that is seen as an internal quality to something that has a much more strongly social and community focus.

Recovery Capital and the language of recovery

This fits with the idea of recovery capital – generally referred to as the breadth and depth of resources that supports an individual in their recovery journey. When we classify recovery capital, as I first did in a paper for the Royal Society for the Arts (Best and Laudet, 2010), we think of it as split into three areas:

• Personal recovery capital – those internal qualities that an individual has to support their recovery journey, like resilience and self-esteem

• Social recovery capital – the networks and relationships that can be drawn upon to support recovery

• Community recovery capital – which is the sum of resources available in the community to assist in the recovery journey

A recovery model operates differently from a treatment one based on two different assumptions:

1. Recovery is a journey of around five years that takes place in families and communities after acute treatment has been completed

2. Recovery starts from ‘the outside in’ – it is through positive social networks and accessing community resources that an individual is able to initiate and sustain their recovery journey

Thus, at its most basic, recovery can be described as jobs, friends and houses or, alternatively as ‘somewhere to live, someone to love and something to do’. And so the aim for supporting recovery is to create the conditions the maximises the chances for individuals to achieve these things, according to their own needs and passions.

So what is an inclusive recovery city?

At its most basic, a recovery city is a place which promotes visible recovery, challenges stigmatising and discriminatory attitudes and champions multiple pathways to addiction recovery. However, it is also based on the idea that, through doing this, the whole city will grow and benefit.

Based on an idea originally written up with the Belgian academic Charlotte Colman (Best and Colman, 2018), the aim was to examine what could happen at a municipal level to maximise the likelihood that people could initiate and sustain recovery based on some really exciting things that were going on in Ghent in Belgium, Gothenburg in Sweden and Doncaster in the UK.

However, what started as an idea has turned into a social movement with 10 cities in the UK, 14 in the Balkan region and other cities all over the world (including Africa and America) engaging with the recovery cities movement. At our launch event, at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough, in May 2023, we were able to launch the Inclusive Recovery Cities charter, which was duly signed by the newly elected mayor of Middlesbrough, based on the incredible work done across the city.

So what does a city have to do to become an Inclusive Recovery City?

Essentially there are four basic requirements each of which informs the growth of the recovery community embedded in the wider wellbeing of the whole community:

1. Sign the Inclusive Recovery Cities Charter to commit the city to embracing the principles of inclusion, recovery and reintegration

2. Host at least four public-facing recovery events each year, that are inclusive and fun, promoting ways of celebrating recovery while contributing to civic life

3. Create an Inclusive Recovery Cities board, that involves grass-roots recovery and community organisations, some specialist addiction treatment services and representatives from the city or municipality

4. Participate in the Inclusive Recovery Cities movement and exchange of ideas and innovation at a national and international level

So how does this challenge stigma?

As with many anti-stigma methods, the primary method of challenging discrimination and, in particular, social distancing, is through increased levels of contact between the public and people in recovery (regardless of how that is defined or where people are in their own personal journeys).

For Inclusive Recovery Cities, the mechanism for generating this contact is celebration events like dry dance nights, festivals and Christmas markets, recovery walks and running clubs. Things that bring people together regardless of their background in a spirit of wellbeing and fun.

From a theory point of view, this is designed to generate bonding social capital (bring people in recovery together to create new social supports and networks) but also linking and bridging social capital between different and diverse groups to create new kinds of positive contacts, while challenging myths and prejudices about both addiction and recovery.

Great examples from the UK are the Recovery Games held annually in Doncaster, the Sober Social Nights at Recovery Connections in Middlesbrough and the recent Recovery Park Run in Leeds. These events champion wellbeing, bring people together and create the conditions for effective community engagement.

Conclusion

What is unique about the Inclusive Recovery Cities model, and where we are currently focusing our efforts is in demonstrating that recovery events not only serve the recovery community but can be an intrinsic and vibrant part of civic life, dispelling stigma through positive connection and the generation of new assets for the whole community.