Mobilize Recovery

Our Mobilize Recovery project was spearheaded in 2019 by the Facebook Community Leadership Program and will build capacity for organized civic advocacy around the country. We will identify, train, connect, and work with recovery advocates in all 50 states. Each of these selected community organizers will have lived experience with substance use disorders. By sharing resources, coordinating our agenda, and taking action as a powerful, confident constituency, we will create change that affects millions of people in a positive way.

Mobilize Recovery 2021 was the third annual conference for recovery advocates across the United States. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the national advocacy event was a hybrid event, making it the largest and most accessible training to date. Over 300 advocates attended in person, while nearly 1,000 participants logged in to network, share skills, and cultivate community. The conference was hosted by the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino and supported by Nevada’s public health department, ensuring that participants would stay healthy and safe. 

The conference included a two-day training in public narrative, led by storytelling coaches and based on the work of Marshall Ganz at Harvard University. Participants worked with coaches to learn to tell their stories in compelling, persuasive ways to help change the narrative around addiction and recovery. Other trainings helped advocates gain skills in community building, relational organizing, creating culturally responsive recovery support services, and including families in recovery support. Advocates led panels about unpacking and dismantling racism in recovery spaces, as well as developing cultural humility in delivering services to the LGBTQIA+ community. The power of inclusive recovery spaces was a central theme of Mobilize, as participants were challenged to consider recovery from an intersectional lens and fill the gaps to support our most marginalized and historically excluded community members.

The hybrid event was popular and accessible, with high engagement between participants. Mobilize Recovery 2021 built on its successful platform by bringing people together to celebrate our wins, honor our struggles, and plan for our collective future.