The annual Recovery Walk takes place in a different city each year, with last year’s event in Wolverhampton attracting 4,000 visitors.
This year’s walk in Bradford is a one-mile route around the city centre, with it beginning on Saturday at 12:00 BST in City Park.
The Shipley-based Create Strength Group is partnering with international organisation Faces & Voices of Recovery for a series of events supporting people in recovery to coincide with the walk.
Create Strength Group director Andrew Rogers is looking forward to showing visitors what Bradford has to offer.
“People come from the south of England, people come from Merseyside, Scotland, because Bradford is a welcoming place,” he says.
“It’s got experience of addiction from really the post-industrial period where economic opportunities have disappeared and there’s been lots of different issues with alcohol and drug addiction.
“Services therefore are very good, very understanding.”
He continues: “There’s a real trauma-informed approach to services in the city, and Bradford Public Health in particular are a great supporter of both treatment services and, critically, recovery service – because treatment in some ways is the easier part.”
The charity runs a mutual aid group, one-to-one support, mental health and wellbeing activities and helps people in recovery get into volunteering, training and employment.
After a year sober, Steve feels the national event has come at just the right time for him.
“This has been a real gentle step for me and hopefully that will continue after this weekend,” he says.
“I’m in a position now where I feel I can look to get back into work.”
