Recovery Happens on September 13th in SanMateo County was a milestone event for Recovery for our County's substance use and Mental Halth Communities and families!

Welcoming the Crowd!

Recovery Happens San Mateo County 2011 Kick-Off Rally

Stephen Kaplan (Director, San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services), Nikki Adams (San Mateo County BHRS), Ray Mills, (Executive Director, Recovery Happens San Mateo County), and Jairo Wilches (San Mato County BHRS - photographer)

(Click Photo to go to the Photo Gallery)

Recovery Happens 2011 Celebration

The theme of this year’s Recovery Happens celebration, which coincides with National Recovery Month, was “Join the Voices for Recovery: Recovery Benefits Everyone.”

“Ivette Torres, Associate Director of Consumer Affairs for the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Washington, D.C., said that one of the goals of Tuesday’s events — which included a rally, walk and picnic in Red Morton Park — is to increase visibility, educational opportunities and acceptance of recovering addicts in the community.Recovery doesn’t just benefit the individual,” Torres said. “It benefits families, it benefits the community, it benefits everyone.” (Chris Cooney - Bay City News Service and Stacie Chan – Redwood City Patch) We were honored to have Ms. Torres join our celebration this year.

This year marked the first year that AOD and MH joined together to celebrate recovery. The Recovery Walk line stretched more than six blocks along the route, and there was energetic supportive response from the public along the way.More than 700 people attended the celebration at the park (687 lunches were served).

People who stopped by the Welcome and Photo Booth reported 943.8 years total recovery time! (Only a fraction of attendees, and few MH clients reported).40% of those who reported had become employed in recovery, 26% of those who reported had resumed to or begun higher education.That speaks volumes for the quality of treatment and recovery in San Mateo County considering that a large percentage of those reporting are still in treatment programs.

MC Richard Ayala captured the hearts and humor of the crowd and Main Speaker, Roland Williams delivered a message of hope and inspiration that touched everyone present.

San Mateo County BHRS and dozens of partners, providers and individuals collaborated to make the event such a huge success.The list is much too long to publish here, but much more information and details can be found on Voices of Recovery San Mateo County’s website: voicesofrecovery-SM.org.News coverage and media pieces can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/28624833 (Sheila Meadors and Cindy Famero), http://vimeo.com/28479608 (Ray Mills VORSMC) and http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=167375&title=Hundreds march for recovery and http://redwoodcity.patch.com/articles/photos-recovery-program-participants-celebrate-sobriety-being-clean#photo-7751854