Event Planning

Need Help With Event Planning?

Community and media events are the cornerstone of National Recovery Month (Recovery Month); holding an event can be an exciting and important way to make a difference in your community. The impact your organization can have by spreading a lasting message of recovery throughout your community can be beyond measure.

Recovery Month events, no matter how large or small, can go a long way in promoting the benefits of recovery. Search Recovery Month events for examples of events of all sizes that resulted in the dissemination of positive and personal messages of recovery in communities across the country. The Recovery Month toolkit provides extensive information on event planning, media outreach, and other resources.

Recovery Month Planning Partners and other organizations provide many useful resources for planning, promoting, and holding your event.

Promote Your Event with a Billboard
 
Billboard promotions have the potential to expand your audience and event participation through placement in high traffic areas. FAVOR and PRO-ACT provide a step by step overview of their successful billboard sponsorship initiative and offer assistance to organizations that want to promote their recovery event with a billboard.

• Download the PDF version of "How to Plan a Town Hall Meeting" (314 KB)

  Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Faces & Voices of Recovery and Join Together have created a planning guide, Maximizing Outreach Through Town Halls.

   

  How to Organize a Walk

  The Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) has put together materials that you can use to plan your event.

   

  How to Speak Out for Recovery

  The Power of Our Stories: Speaking Out for Addiction Recovery is a training video from the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization Faces & Voices of Recovery.

  "The Power of Our Stories is designed to empower people in recovery, their family members, friends, and allies to speak out for addiction recovery," stated Merlyn Karst, chair of Faces & Voices of Recovery and co-founder of Advocates for Recovery in Denver, CO. "We encourage individuals and organizations to use the video and the training materials to hone their skills as advocates."

  Through example, the video emphasizes the importance of standing up and speaking out. It demonstrates how people are using their stories to change attitudes and policies that stigmatize and discriminate against people seeking or in recovery from addiction to alcohol or drugs.

  The 44-minute video includes an instructional session with three recovery advocates - Dona Dmitrovic of the Johnson Institute; Chris Kelly of Advocates for Recovery through Medicine; and James McClain of Oxford House - who practice telling their stories with trainer Julia Ritchie.

  The video also features prominent individuals from the recovery community including Ron Williams of the Recovery Association Project; the Rev. Marcus Harvey of STRENGTH, Inc., Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), co-founder of the Congressional Caucus on Addiction, Treatment and Recovery; and historian William White. These individuals and others share their stories and discuss the importance of putting a face and a voice on recovery.