‘Recovery Speaks’, a series of free interactive learning sessions, is being offered to the public in Victoria and Nanaimo by the Cedars at Cobble Hill Society
Addiction is a chronic and progressive health issue affecting the body, mind and spirit of individuals with chemical dependency. Not only does it affect the addicted person, but it has a significant impact on family, workplace and community systems as well.
Recovery Speaks is a series of engaging interactive presentations designed to educate individuals, families, workplaces and policy makers as well as people in recovery.
Recovery Speaks is a yearlong series of events hosted by the Cedars at Cobble Hill Society, a non-profit organization headquartered on Vancouver Island.
Nearly 5 million Canadians in recovery from addictions
“According to the 2012 Statistics Canada Mental Health Survey approximately 4.9 million Canadians are living in either short- or long-term addiction recovery. Historically, people in recovery have not had open forums to assist in educating themselves and the public. We want to change that” says Neal Berger “We are making a community health investment, these open sessions will occur once a month and will tackle various topics like addiction in the family system, addiction in the workplace as well as presentations from addiction professionals working in the field of recovery”.
The Cedars at Cobble Hill Society is committed to furthering the public’s knowledge and understanding of addictions. This involves developing an extensive outreach program including education and awareness sessions involving individuals, workplaces, health providers, schools and government policy makers.
Public to hear recovery success stories
“Victoria has an incredible recovery community so it was a natural place to begin Recovery Speaks. These events will move back and forth between Victoria and Nanaimo at first before spreading to other locations” says Bill Younie president of the Cedars at Cobble Hill Society, it’s very important for the general public to hear the success stories and that recovery works for so many people”.
The first event in the series will focus on the family system and will be held at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria B.C. on November 17th from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. There will also be a presentation in Nanaimo on December 11 at 6:30 p.m., at Vancouver Island University’s Malaspina Theatre. This event is free to the public, seats are on a first come first serve basis. Space is limited.
We speak with Neal Berger, Cedars at Cobble Hill Society’s executive director.
