Conferences & Events
SUIT regularly attend conferences to raise awareness and promote our community and shared experience for professionals and peers within the support sector. We attend and deliver a diverse range of events in the community, including arts, literature, and music festivals, PRIDE, university & Student’s Union Freshers, theatre & performance events, and even the odd tattoo convention!
Favor UK National Recovery Conference 2025
Our team had a brilliant day at Wolverhampton Wanderers FC Molineux for the Favor UK National Conference in September and delivered a memorable presentation at the event, which brought national recovery organisations together.
On display was artwork by SUIT, Recovery Near You, & Good Shepherd clients who kindly let us display their incredible work, and speakers including Pat McFadden MP, Dr Ed Day, Dr Jane Booth, and community hero Alan Jarvis from Base 25.
There were lived experience shares; life changing & inspirational stories of overcoming the (almost) impossible from the Good Shepherd team, Sabrina from NICS, and Navraj Dhesi of No More Pretending, who gave a fantastic presentation about cultural engagement in recovery.
SUIT would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that organised, participated, & showed their appreciation and love. An enormous thank you goes out to Neil Reading, Artistic Director of the Arena Theatre, for writing and narrating our impactful bit of drama. We really should give security a heads up when we plan these immersive theatre experiences…
Image Credits
Mark Hand Christiane Jenkins
The National Recovery Walk 2025, West Park, Wolverhampton
The National Recovery Walk was an exceptional celebration of our recovery community in Wolverhampton! The Favor UK event, held on September 13th in Wolverhampton’s beautiful West Park, was a true reflection of the unity, diversity, creativity, and strength here in our city, and the partnership between SUIT, Recovery Near You, the Good Shepherd, and Wolverhampton Today Public Health have put our city at the forefront of addiction support in the UK. SUIT want to thank everyone involved for their outstanding dedication.
Image Credits
Leon Clowes Wendy Dossett Saida Chowdhury Bash Chamberlin
Christiane Jenkins Marcus Johnson Karolina Sowinska
Halloween Tattoo Bash 2025
We had an incredible time at the Halloween Tattoo Bash on Sunday 02/11/2025 at Wolverhampton Racecourse. It was an incredible event to be part of and so creatively inspiring. There were vibrant and engaging stalls, wonderful conversations and connections, and the art & tattoos were exceptional. Thank you to everyone who came to see us and dropped some art & stickers on our plastic body parts!
An enormous thank you to Mac McCarthy and everyone involved in the weekend. This year’s Halloween Tattoo Bash have kindly picked SUIT as their donation organisation this year and we are humbled by the sincere and genuine support for our lived experience service.
All donations go through WVCA Wolverhampton Voluntary & Community Action (our host charity) and are ring-fenced for SUIT's work as a #LERO in Wolverhampton's recovery community.
DDN Conferences 2023 2024
Click on the image to read September 2024’s DDN Magazine featuring SUIT.
Click the image to view SUIT in the September 2023 issue of DDN magazine
Wolverhampton PRIDE
Pride is a wonderful celebration of inclusivity, identity, freedom, & LGBT+ rights. Over the years we’ve attended with Recovery Near You, with exciting and colourful outreach stalls, raising awareness towards support and information about our essential lived experience service.
SUIT Book Chapter Contribution is Placed in the National Archives!
In January 2026, staff from SUIT attended the British Library in London to help launch a ground breaking new book on addiction and recovery. The book, “Lived Experience Recovery Organisations” was co-authored by internationally renowned experts in the field of recovery, Dame Carol Black and Dr Ed Day.
The book, part of a series, has been created by Dr David Patton and Dot Smith of Recovery Connections, who launched New Central Media publishing together. David Patton describes the book as helping to “transform the addiction recovery landscape.”
“Since first meeting David Patton at various events, he has championed SUIT and LEROs nationally,” comments Christiane Jenkins, SUIT’s Creative Arts and Research Lead. “We were humbled to be asked to contribute to the important volume, and see our work published alongside such other innovative and inspirational lived experience testimonies.”
The event marked a significant moment in the lived experience movement as the book was deposited in the British Library, ensuring that the work it contains from contributors including SUIT, has become part of the national archive and is recognised as a meaningful contribution to the knowledge of lived experience.
“This is a significant milestone in the journey of lived experience models of support with regard to recovery from addiction,” comments Marcus Johnson, SUIT Project Manager. “To have our work recognised in such a prestigious publication really does validate, not only what we do here in Wolverhampton, but what the LERO movement is achieving nationally.”
Click on the book cover for purchase options!
Annual Aquarius Recovery Conferences 2024 2025
