Recovery Comes First is a collaboration between the West Virginia Council of Churches and Step by Step West Virginia that is designed to put a face to a large group of people who have until now been in the background of society. These people are fighting valiantly to win against an enemy that is taking many people’s lives daily: substance use disorder.
This project is designed to use multimedia techniques to bring together posters with stories and to link those with audio stories in the individual’s own words and voice. We will record each individual’s story through interviews and connect those with pictures of them and the work they do on posters. These posters and recordings will then be portable and available to be moved to any location for display.
Along with these interviews, we are also collectiing stories written by those in recovery, including the women at Recovery Point Charleston.
We hope in the future to expand this project by creating a podcast, a website and/or database to organize all of the stories in their different mediums, and social media accounts.
This work is being done in hopes of showing that recovery from addiction is available and can work – there are people succeeding at it every day.
To see more of Recovery Comes First check out our Medium Publication Series.
To submit a story or request our mobile gallery: