FACES & VOICES OF RECOVERY UK

Background Purpose & Aims

FAVOR UK (Faces and voices of recovery UK) started life in 2009 with the primary aim of connecting people with living and lived experience of addictions to alcohol and other drugs. We did this through our well-known and respected National Recovery Walks which took place in towns and cities across the UK. These walks gave our communities the strength in numbers to walk together and be open about our experiences with substances, and to show wider communities that we were nice people – breaking down the stereotypes and stigma that normally surrounds us. We officially registered as a charity in 2012, taking pains to recruit a board of trustees with their own lived experiences in order that the concept of ‘lived experience leadership’ remained at the heart of what we do. We recruited a CEO with the passion, drive and eloquence that we needed to spearhead what we wanted to achieve. For those who have met Annemarie Ward or heard her speak, you will no doubt agree that although our charity is small, our voices are not.

The 2020 pandemic had an obvious impact on our activities – forcing us to postpone our recovery walks in 2020/21. One thing we did not want to do is sit and wait it out. We came together as a board and considered what else we could do – where else were we needed? The pandemic gave us time to reflect on our aims and to re-evaluate the direction of the charity.

Together we considered the current UK landscape for people with addictions and reflected on what we were seeing and hearing over the last few years:

• Increasing numbers of people were still dying from preventable overdoses.
• Individuals and family members were reporting inequitable opportunities accessing residential treatment. There appeared to be a post-code lottery with some local authorities investing more than others.
• People were unaware of their rights to publicly funded drug and alcohol treatment, and had no independent advocacy when they needed it.
• There wasn’t enough investment in the treatment for trauma – often one of the underlying reasons for problematic substance use.
• We saw an unacceptable level of stigma around people with living and lived experiences in workplaces and in the mainstream media. Unhelpful and discriminatory language and labels were still being used with impunity.
• We heard that the voices of living and lived experiences were sometimes cherry-picked, and that not everyone was invited to the table.

In April 2021, led by our enigmatic CEO Annemarie Ward, we re-visited our aims, and made the decision to re-focus our energies on our campaigning and advocacy activities, whilst still retaining some of our core activities like our National Recovery Walk.

We are going to be brave and outspoken – calling out social injustice and encouraging our communities to speak out for themselves. We will become a vehicle for the voice of conscience, holding people to account for what we believe is right. We will continue to develop campaigns such as #Youkeeptalkingwekeepdying – reminding society that deaths from overdose are preventable and leave behind decimated families and communities.

We are excited to reveal our revised purpose and set of aims that will give our charity the foundation from which to develop our activities in 2021 and beyond.

Who are we

We are a UK-wide based charitable think tank led by people with living and lived experience of alcohol and other drugs representing the voices of communities affected by addiction.

How We Do It

• Campaigning
• Challenging Stigma
• Advocacy