James Deakin has been in recovery for 15 years and now shares his experiences of active addiction and offending to support other people to bring a positive change to their own lives. He believes strongly in the concepts of mutual aid and shared experience, and these are underlying foundations of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC), which he founded in 2014.
NWRC delivers a programme of meetings and recovery activity from Penrhyn House and members of NWRC contribute significantly to the local community in various ways. Their cafe/restaurant, Bwyd Da Bangor, provides the best food on High Street, Bangor, whilst their Growing for Change initiative supples food to a number of local restaurants. NWRC’s helping of the local community during the first Covid lockdown was something very special.
James is a straight-talking, man of passion who offers, through his personal experiences and the story of NWRC, a brilliant insight into the nature of a peer-led recovery organisation and how it is so different from, and is beyond, the world of treatment.
My interview with James in March 2023 was edited into 14 films totalling over 80 minutes, the links and summaries for which can found here. Here is a short Film Teaser with clips taken from this interview. Our apologies for the cinematic quality of the film, due to James’s slow internet connection, but what is said during his interview easily makes up for this problem.
Biography
James Deakin has been in recovery for 15 years and is now sharing his experiences of active addiction and offending to support other people to bring a positive change to their own lives. He believes strongly in the concepts of mutual aid and shared experience, and these are underlying foundations of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) which he started to develop in 2014. NWRC delivers a programme of meetings and recovery activity from Penrhyn House and members of NWRC contribute significantly to the local community in various ways. Their community cafe, Bwyd Da Bangor, provides the best food on High Street, Bangor.