We are moving forward when it comes to addressing addiction in our communities. Over the past 15 years, growing numbers of recovery community organizations have opened their doors, recovery high schools have been established, family support organizations have been founded, and both state and federal legislation has been passed. Every accomplishment has terrific positive impact in a community, and should be celebrated.
So why, given the progress we’ve made and what we’ve achieved, does it remain imperative to truly organize our communities to further combat America’s most significant public health crisis?
Community organizing means generating power that is long lasting and sustainable — and that’s the type of power we need to save lives. Power is defined as, “the ability to act or produce an effect.” When social justice movements are not obtaining the results they hope to achieve, inevitably the root cause of this stems from a lack of power.
This is why organizing to combat addiction is so critical. Without power that is long lasting, sustainable, and always growing, we cannot move the ball forward.
When we are only working towards a single objective without a thorough plan that includes follow up steps and actions, we are not building this type of power. When we do not continuously work to expand the network of active citizens in our communities, we are not building a sustainable effort. Perhaps we are mobilizing individuals, or even advocating for legislation. These are clearly positive actions — but if we are not already determining how to continue empowering these individuals beyond a single objective, we are not building power that is long lasting.
True community organizing, rather than simply our own personal ideas of what “organizing” looks like, is the right path to take to move this critical issue forward. Organizing communities around combating addiction and generating power means undertaking the process of aligning and empowering everyone who is directly impacted by addiction. This means bringing people in recovery, affected family members, and professionals across the prevention, treatment, public health, and criminal justice spaces together behind a shared vision. If we continue to operate in our historic silos, we will never build the power we need to bring true systemic change.
