Canadian artists Sloan and Bif Naked played in the backdrop of a festival dedicated to celebrating those in recovery from addiction and mental illness on Saturday. The Churchill Square festival was part of a three-city movement headed by Recovery Day Alberta to bring together families, individuals, service providers and community resources. Leanne Church, a medical manager at Calgary-based facility Last Door Recovery Society, says days like Saturday are celebrations of how far cities have come in offering support to individuals, and the recovery stories of those individuals. Church grew up in Edmonton, but had to go to treatment in British Columbia when she fell into active addiction years ago. “Now, treatment is becoming accessible. It’s free. Anyone can call and get into it. So now that we’re building these facilities … Albertans have the ability to recover in their province, which is amazing,” she said. Church has since gone back to school and is proud of becoming “a taxpayer, a citizen again, (feeling) like a real person.” “For me, it’s very personal … I think when people enter recovery, there is a bit of shame and guilt and stigma,” she added. “I think days like today help to change that and show that we’re everywhere. There are people in every facet, every job accessing treatment services.” For a “woman in sustained recovery” for nearly 30 years like Alexandra Talbot, Recovery Day Alberta’s event reinforced a common phrase said in treatment circles: “The opposite of addiction is connection.” “(Drugs and alcohol) had become the solution to my every problem. They were ways I coped and dealt with things … So for me today to do that inner work and actually be empowered to live a purpose-driven life is everything,” she said. Recovery Day Alberta comes to Calgary on Sunday. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum
