‘Recovery in the Streets’ holds 4th annual event outside Flint Riverquarium to celebrate addiction recovery

ALBANY, Ga. – ‘Recovery in the Streets’ started just a couple of hours ago with the stage already rocking behind me.

Crews were setting up outside the Flint Riverquarium all morning to celebrate addiction recovery and make this a teachable night for families.

Many of the people we spoke to had gone through a period of addiction and for them, Thursday night is a very teachable opportunity.

“I think with recovery, it’s more of the ‘each one, teach one’ model that we use. I personally am in long term recovery, and I have been since December 17, 1989. So, I’ve been down that road. I know what addiction looks like, I know what addiction feels like…” said Chris Thrasher, CEO, Substance Abuse Disorders & Recovery, Clinton Foundation.

“…Such as myself, if you have that scream inside, where you want to change and you want to be a part of society again, be a part of your kids, and your family, it means a lot,” said Tommy Hollis, Change Center.

And, with overdose deaths being a problem at a national level, having those first hand experiences of addiction helps.

“Listen, we know that last year we lost 109 thousand Americans to opioid overdoses alone. We’re averaging 200-300 overdoses a day. That’s a 737 plane crashing every day. So, as deadly as addiction is, we know that recovery is real,” said Jeff Breedlove, Community Manager, Georgia Department of Behavioral Health.

And, celebrating that recovery is paramount to teaching the next generation about addiction.

“It’s pretty special. It’s really important to have community and to connect with other peers so that people know that recovery is real. We are out here and we are recovering every single day…” said Trysh Fleurn, Co-responder, Albany Police Department & Aspire Health.

Some truly powerful advice from people who’ve lived through hard times.

And, if you want to come out to ‘Recovery in the Streets’ this evening, it’ll be going on until eight o’clock tonight.

‘Recovery in the Streets’ is also the latest stop in the ‘Mobilize Recovery Across Georgia’ tour.

Brian Roche reporting.

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