David Best has travelled the world through his recovery activities and has inspired many people. However, he would be the first to say that he has been inspired by many initiatives around the world. Here, he briefly describes two recovery initiatives from the USA.
US Recovery Initiatives [3’48”]
Second Chance Opportunities in Albany, New York, is a recovery housing organisation and social enterprise janitorial service. Their philosophy is that in your first year of recovery you work as a cleaner of office buildings, a job that helps you avoid mixing with people who are not in recovery. The job isn’t going to cause you stress or lead you to temptation. After that, the recovering person can focus on their vocation and career. It is very much predicated on the idea that recovery is a phased, long-term project of personal, social and community growth.
One exciting place that David has visited is Chesterfield County Jail in Virginia, where they have a Therapeutic Community (TC) in the jail. None of the staff decide who can go into the TC or get chucked out; it’s all peer-based decision making. What’s more, when people graduate from the drug programme in the jail, they go into one of three recovery houses in the community in Richmond. They also go back into the jail one day a week to continue the TC programme and carry the message about what it is like in the outside world, so it becomes a dynamic system of support and engagement.