Second Summit of the Washington Recovery Alliance
We are happy to report that the newly born Washington Recovery Alliance had a second state-wide Summit. Among other things:
-We elected a state-wide representative Board; RC’s Director of Operations, Jason Fitzgerald was chosen to represent King County.
-We created an advocacy committee that has identified the top State Priority to be passing Ricky’s Law. Ricky’s Law would undo decades of discrimination against people with substance use disorder in Washington State. It would finally allow individuals with life-threatening addiction to be involuntarily committed to treatment and parent-initiated (compulsory) substance abuse treatment for children ages 13-17. At the Federal Level the top priority is support for the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). The CARA Act is the most expansive federal, bipartisan legislation to date for addiction support services, designating up to $80 million toward advancing treatment and recovery support services in state and local communities across the country.
-We spent significant time strategizing how to best support the use of peers in recovery—especially as it pertains to Recovery Coaching—a code of ethics and a licensure process are two things now in the works.
-We hosted a presentation by Facing Addiction, which is organizing a March in Washington DC focused on addiction on October 4, 2015. Find more information here:http://www.facingaddiction.org
-Stay tuned for a webpage and check out the Washington Alliance’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/warecoveryalliance
The timing for the creation of this Alliance could not be more pressing. The lack of a unified voice in Olympia has resulted in critical addiction services being cut, from detox beds (over the last 10 years we have gone from over 200 to 20 in King County-the need for these has not decreased) to promised funding, such as revenue from the marijuana tax (which has been re-purposed from addiction services to the general fund).
Recovery Café’s initial work to launch this endeavor would not have been possible without the generous investment of Recovery Café’s supporters (including St. Joseph’s Church which kindly donated the meeting space and Washington State who covered the travel costs for many attendees). Thank you for being on this journey of hope and healing with us. We are committed to serving each person who comes through our doors as well as leveraging our resources to create systematic changes which will directly benefit the women and men who traditionally have suffered on the margins of our society.
