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CommonStrength is a project for people who want to use the healing power of their recovery to signify a new way of being in this world and to promote changes for the better. It is for people who want to explore giving back in a bigger way and want to learn how addiction and recovery look in a larger picture. CommonStrength urges us to discover the issues of social justice embedded in addiction and recovery that can be seen more clearly within this broader perspective.
In recovery, we learn that we heal ourselves when we help others heal. By coming together to tell our stories, we come to understand that our addiction is connected to many powerful forces, not only inside ourselves, but also in society. As our understanding deepens, we can identify and challenge the conditions and influences that promote addiction, negate recovery, and ravage our communities.
To become change agents in our communities and in society, we need to develop our own leadership. Given the opportunity to identify the issues that matter to us most, we can then move forward with an agenda of authentic and positive change.
CommonStrength creates spaces where people in recovery can come together in small groups. We host guided conversations about recovery among people like ourselves who have experienced it firsthand. We inspire each other to think about the magnitude of addiction beyond our own small selves and about new and imaginative ways to project our recovery:
- These conversations allow us to share what is in our hearts, minds, and spirit with like-minded individuals who have experienced addiction and recovery.
- While these conversations often promote personal healing, CommonStrength supports a greater healing that happens collectively, in groups and communities and in society.
- CommonStrengTH helps us link our personal recovery stories to the larger story. Through this larger story, we explore what it means to be in recovery while living in a culture that promotes addiction and seeks to undermine recovery.
- CommonStrength recognizes that some of us in recovery have been called to come forward and consciously direct our recovery in new and visionary ways. We envision what it might look like for us to stand up—“out, loud, and proud”—and demonstrate the moral courage to challenge addiction and promote recovery in our neighborhoods, communities, and the world.
- CommonStrength helps us to identify the gifts we have received through recovery and inspires us to consider giving them back to the greater world. Part of this process entails identifying and resisting the forces that hold each of us back and keep us from giving ourselves in a manner that enables us to experience true healing and liberation.
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