On September 7th 2019, record crowds attended the Recovery Day BC event that was held in New Westminster BC.
With research being vital to overcome Canada’s addiction crisis, the Recovery Day Planning Committee saw the voices of people in recovery not reflected in many of the evidence based research that is currently used to create drug policy in Canada.
Our goal over the years is to improve our “I am Evidence” survey and to have Health Canada participate in future data collection.
The days of experts saying abstinence based recovery is not evidence based, will soon come to an end.
Volunteers with ipads asked individuals to complete a quick survey to gather information about their lived experience .
The overwhelming crowd helped us gather close to 1,500 responses. Special thanks to our volunteers. Next year the I am Evidence booth will be double in size in order to be better able to accommodate more people and move through the line up quicker.
Close to 30,000 people attended the one day free street festival according to New Westminster Police.
Activities included 4 stages with live music and speakers, health and wellness booths, vendors, food trucks, a kidszone, memorial tree, and several Metro Vancouver Area addiction recovery services and harm reduction providers, in UNITY a total of 150 booths were set up covering six city blocks in Uptown New West.
Below are the results of the surveys from Recovery Day BC. We’re proud of our people with lived recovery experience, their voices matter too.