SUIT were honoured to attend the British Library in London to deposit ground breaking new book on addiction and recovery into the national archives, alongside Dame Carol Black!
On Tuesday 20th January, Marcus & Christiane were at the British Library in London with Dame Carol Black, for an incredible milestone in SUIT's history!
SUIT's contribution to "Lived Experience Recovery Organisations: Peer Generated Epicentres of Personal Change and Collective Transformation" appears alongside other innovative and inspirational lived experience testimonies from leaders of #LERO's nationally, and has been created by Dr David Patton, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Derby & Dot Smith of Recovery Connections who launched New Central Media publishing together.
The event at the British Library saw the book deposited in the British Library, ensuring that the work it contains from contributors including SUIT, becomes part of the national archive and is recognised as a meaningful contribution to the knowledge of lived experience.
A huge thank you to Dr Ed Day, Dr David Patton, and Dame Carol for being absolute champions on the heroic mission to change the addiction recovery landscape.
“This is a significant milestone in the journey of lived experience models of support with regard to recovery from addiction…as part of WVCA, SUIT has been supporting those in recovery for 20 years. 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".”
Marcus Johnson, SUIT Project Manager
“Since first meeting Dr David Patton at various events, he has championed SUIT and LEROs nationally. 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.”
Christiane Jenkins, SUIT Creative Arts and Research Lead
Lived Experience Recovery Organisations: Peer Generated Epicentres of Personal Change and Collective Transformation (Recovery Pathways Series Book 3)
SUIT are thrilled to have contributed to this amazing lived experience series of books, and you can view our chapter in “Lived Experience Recovery Organisations: Peer Generated Epicentres of Personal Change and Collective Transformation (Recovery Pathways Series Book 3). The series has been created by Dr David Patton and Dot Smith of Recovery Connections, who have launched New Central Media together. Since meeting David through events & conferences, he has championed our organisation, and we are humbled to be published alongside innovative, inspirational, and diverse lived experience testimonies. The book has an introductory chapter by Dr Ed Day, SUIT ally, and the government’s official Recovery Champion.
“This ground breaking collection brings together 14 powerful, first-person accounts from leaders of Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (LEROs) leading the climb to transform the way recovery is done in the UK. These grassroots, peer-led initiatives are transforming the addiction recovery landscape. Born out of personal journeys through addiction, incarceration, and marginalisation, these organisations are reshaping how recovery is understood and delivered: not as a clinical destination, but as a cultural, collective, and community-driven process.
Spanning cities, towns, and rural communities, the 14 chapters document the struggles, triumphs, and deep-rooted commitment of people who have turned lived experience into lived expertise. With contributions from across England, Scotland, and Wales, this book showcases the innovative work of LEROs in building inclusive, recovery-oriented systems of care.
This book is both a celebration of recovery communities and a manifesto for embedding lived experience into the heart of national systems.”
Saida Chowdhury
Congratulations to SUIT champion, poet Saida Chowdhury, who has recently published her debut poetry anthology, "Broken Minds", with beautiful cover art by SUIT's Creative Arts Lead, Christiane.
The powerful work contains reflections of mental health struggles, and pushing forward through a system that marginalises Muslim females. Saida is a warrior, and has supported our organisation through shared values and a mission to raise the voices of people on the sharp edge of society.
Filmmaker and photographer Graham Stubbs has made a short film about her journey to becoming a published writer: watch here.
“Broken Minds”
Review by Francis Sheppard of Saturday Books
Headlining at the Poetry after Chai, part of the Bangla Festival at the Midland Arts Centre, she had such presence, and such a smile. Yet if the tough issues her poetry presents are fit for wry smiles only, the issues resolve themselves in the joy of recovery, of finding love and of deepening faith.
I read her first book Broken Minds over two days, anxious to know if the writing matched the performance. First impression was of lines ten syllable long, or five units of rhythm, called ‘feet’. Lines faired into rhyming couplets, a forthright statement followed in the next line by an attachment, always relevant, sometimes forcefully pushing forward the meaning…
Made for the stage (Saida brings it to the fullest life there) it nonetheless flows on the page. And covers a range. She goes bravely into modern ills; betrayal, separation, drugs, of which the result is always the same: broken minds. It is the recovery of mind that she charts, through trust, community and self-belief. A poem that begins ‘The first time in decades that I no longer fear the weather’ continues to the source of the courage to resist ‘the rain, the wind, the frost…’ It is through a presence beyond the individual self.
Performing Recovery Magazine
In 2023, Marcus and Christiane visited Liverpool Hope University, for the Addiction-Recovery Arts Futures conference, held by Addiction-Recovery-Arts founders Leon & Alex. It was a total game changer…
We listened to people that shared a vision and a mission to create opportunity through co-design, creative expression, and the huge power that comes with lived experience.
Performing Recovery have continually supported our mission and we are so very grateful of them publishing our work happening in the Wolverhampton community, putting SUIT on the map as a leading organisation working in creative practice for recovery, and for introducing us to some brilliant people!
