About the Project

Recovery Voices, developed by David Clark and Wulf Livingston, captures conversations about what works in supporting recovery from addiction, and in the development of peer-led recovery communities, from a range of individuals with lived experience, as well as friends of recovery.

We highlight common messages and learnings that come from these conversations, providing a resource for people working with, and supporting, recovery and recovery communities.

We celebrate the lives and successes of recovering people and recovery communities, and in doing so enhance the visibility of recovery and highlight what can be achieved.

We encourage the development of new peer-led recovery communities and their interaction with other initiatives.

Blogs


20th September 2026

My North Wales Visit, Part 1

On Friday morning, I attended the Service of Remembrance and Hope at St Deiniol's Cathedral in Bangor, a service 'In memory for those who have died,  and as a symbol of hope for everyone affected by addiction.' The Welcome and Opening Address were...
3rd September 2026

Recovery Carriers

North Wales Recovery Communities have been ‘feeding’ the community ‘petri dish’ with charismatic Recovery Carriers. Each one of these individuals is helping change the lives of other people in the wider community, both in terms of the present, but also the future.
26th August 2026

A Healing Environment: Bruce Perry

It’s like having this big, beautiful, incredible extended family with people that are good at horseplay, people that are good at telling stories, people that are good at jokes, people that are good at teaching you how to do a fire, and you use them in your life at the time you need them...

People


14th September 2023

James Deakin

James Deakin describes his drug-dealing days in Manchester and cocaine addiction. He begins his recovery journey after moving to Bangor, and spends ten years as a chef before becoming a mental health worker and then a Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) worker. He becomes disillusioned with the treatment system...
22nd September 2023

Marcus Fair

Marcus Fair, Founder of Eternal Media, describes his descent into an addiction to heroin and crack cocaine that lasted 25 years. His last visit to prison saved his life and helped him conceive the idea of Eternal Media, based on the 'Now What?, which makes high impact documentary films and is an inspiring recovery...
12th June 2026

Rob Havelock and Lianne Jones

Rob describes his developing love of the mountains, becoming a mountain guide, and setting up Sober Snowdonia, a walking and outdoor recovery community. Lianne describes her love of the outdoors and becoming an ultra-marathon participant. Both talk about the impact of their outdoors activities on their recovery.

A RECOVERY COMMUNITY PROVIDES:

Hope
Understanding
A sense of belonging
Acceptance and support
Engagement in meaningful activities
Opportunity to give back to others

A RECOVERING PERSON:

Gains a stronger motivation to change
Possesses an enhanced self-esteem
Becomes an empowered citizen
Overcomes stigma (shame)
Finds a sense of purpose
Acquires a new identity

Communities


10th August 2023

Towards Recovery

Towards Recovery offers a Recovery Cafe in Henley-on-Thames, as well as an online Recovery Cafe, where people recovering from addiction, can get support and encouragement. It aims to help people connect with others, re-connect with themselves and the world around them, and make sustainable changes to create a life of...
10th August 2023

Eternal Media

Eternal Media is a media production social enterprise and charity, located in Wrexham, that makes high impact documentary films. Their professional, award-winning producers empower and mentor volunteer film crews, which comprise people who are rebuilding their lives and are recovering from addiction and/or an involvement in...
10th August 2023

North Wales Recovery Communities

North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) comprises a number of communities, including a residential rehab at Penrhyn House, Growing for Change, with its gardens and allotments, and Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor), a community cafe/restaurant that provides the best food on the High Street. Penrhyn House offers space for various...

Stories


6th October 2024

Enjoying Life in NA: Tim Leighton

Tim fell into drug use in his teens and drugs progressively became more central to his life. However, he led a double life, as even up to the end of his using he was still functioning to some extent—for example, he was attending university. He suspects that his using was was about him feeling very lost in the world.
6th October 2024

Developing ARC Fitness: Gary Rutherford

Gary realised he now had to do a lot of work on himself. For example, he wasn’t a confident public speaker. He decided to create a ‘Thought for the Day’ video every day, which has resulted in over 300+ short films on YouTube that are focused on various aspects relating to recovery.
27th October 2023

On Being Straight: James Deakin

Living in Bangor, James decides he has to go straight. He pictures himself where he’d like to be and behaves in the appropriate way. ‘What would a straight person do in this situation?’ He gains a peace of mind from being legitimate. He doesn’t have to worry about anyone kicking in his door at six in the morning.

Themes


22nd September 2023

Stigma & Kintsugi

Huseyin Djemil describes working in a rehab where staff used to put a cover story together for residents so that when they left they didn’t have to reveal their past. He found that difficult and later said to residents, when he became temporary CEO of the rehab, ‘Do you really want to start your new your new life with a cover story...
4th February 2025

Beyond the Individual: David Best

David describes two important aims for recovery communities or groups: Can the connectedness of recovery communities inspire similar changes more broadly across the wider community? Can they be the glue or the inspiration for re-engaging a range of excluded and marginalised groups and individuals? Wulf reminds us that treatment is too transactional.
26th October 2023

Descent Into Heroin Addiction

Marcus Fair describes having a disease of obsession—an obsession for certain things, be it food, chocolate or computer games—from the time of his youth. ’Whatever I enjoyed, I kicked the arse out of, until it kicked the arse out of me.’ Marcus went through a progression of substances from alcohol, to gas and solvents, cannabis...

Extras


17th September 2023

Without A Life Story: Bruce Perry

‘A fundamental and permeating strength of humankind is the capacity to form and maintain relationships—the capacity to belong. It is in the context of our clan, community and culture that we are born and raised. The brain-mediated set of complex capacities that allow one human to connect to another form the very basis for survival and has led to the ‘success’ of our species...'
12th September 2023

‘We Shall Remain’: The StyleHorse Collective

'WE SHALL REMAIN was created to address the effects of historical trauma in our tribal communities. Many times, these untended wounds are at the core of much of the self-inflicted pain experienced in Native America. Much like fire, this pain can either be devastatingly destructive or wisely harnessed harnessed to become fuel that...'
9th September 2023

It’s Not Just About the Drug

Many of society’s reactions to the so-called ‘drug problem’ are based on the premise that the problems faced by individuals and communities are caused solely by the drug. However, contrary to what is commonly assumed, psychoactive drugs do not produce fixed and predictable psychological effects that are dependent purely on...

About us


Testimonials


  • David’s work across many decades has laid the groundwork for words and practices that today trip off the tongue, such as ‘recovery movement’ and ‘cultural trauma’. The Recovery Voices website brings his insights from the field into one home. It also invites us to the meal table within that house. He and his collaborator Wulf Livingston rightly reserve a special seat for the people and communities whose stories we must hear into full expression to move towards genuine reconciliation. Thank you, David, for your continued groundbreaking work and the wholehearted way you convene us into the heartland of an alternative future. Cormac Russell, Author of Rekindling Democracy and Co-author of The Connected Community.

  • I’m glad that this new website has been launched—it’ll help people share their experience of what it means to be human and help remind them of the simplicity of the recovery journey to wholeness. Congratulations to my friends David, Wulf, and colleagues—their dedication to helping others navigate their humanness is something I’ve long admired. Wynford Ellis Owen, Former CEO at Living Room Cardiff, Wales
  • Congratulations on the new website! Bill White (Addiction Recovery Advocate, Historian and Researcher)
  • The new resource Recovery Voices digs into the lives and experiences of people who, in recovery themselves, spend time with others seeking, or in, recovery from addictions. In identifying themes, it draws out the rich diversity of experiences, showing how there is no single 'grand narrative' of recovery, no single 'recipe', just lots of people living out their own authentic lives in ways that they greatly prefer. The site represents a tonne of voluntary work from David Clark in Australia and Wulf Livingston in Wales. Their collaboration in itself shows how recovery seeds in, and spreads from, the spaces between people in relationships. Professor Wendy Dossett, University of Chester, England
  • I’ve been learning from David’s websites for over 20 years now, and his new Recovery Voices initiative with Wulf Livingston has added a new dimension to my experiences. I love the films and through them I am ‘meeting’ new people, discovering exciting recovery community initiatives, and learning even more about recovery and related matters. It’s a little university… and it’s only just begun! Michael Scott, Australia (45 years in recovery from alcohol addiction, 40 years as a drug and alcohol treatment practitioner)