By Laurie Johnson-Wade
Co-Founding Director of Lost Dreams Awakening (LDA) Recovery Community
Organization & Peer Recovery CoE Steering Committee Member Recovery Reader Peer Recovery Center of Excellence
February, a month when our nation turns its focus towards Black Excellence and the history of Black citizens of the United States of America, and as I try to celebrate by working on these brief reflections, I must take note that this celebratory month is being eclipsed by the reality that a great number of black citizens still struggle to realize full agency here in the USA; a reality that is substantiated by the most recent public, and traumatic, events that we have collectively witnessed and are now grappling with in 2023.
Black History Month allows me to reflect on the layers of my identity, something I am always hyper aware of, I’m a black female in substance use disorder (SUD) recovery since 1991, coupled with many other intersectional aspects that make me who I am; I recognize “resiliency” as an indispensable strength of my life and other Black citizens of our great nation.
I would like to offer the following as a gift during Black History Month 2023. This is a briefing that was sent to me from Dr. Ryan Niemiec, at VIA, following the murder of George Floyd (a Black citizen who struggled with Substance Use Disorder) in 2020. Click here to continue reading.