“Wired In developed a strong and trusting relationship with people affected by substance use problems, their families, practitioners, and researchers.
David Clark set up the grassroots initiative Wired In (originally called WIRED) over 20 years ago as a way of empowering people to tackle substance use problems. Wired In was developed with the following aims:
- Provide information and tools that help people better understand and use the options they have to overcome the problems caused by their own, or a loved one’s, substance use;
- Develop and maintain online and real world recovery communities that help people find their pathway to recovery, and receive and provide support, and act as a forum for recovery advocacy;
- Develop education and training packages that help improve the quality of treatment and support services in the community;
- Help reduce prejudice towards people with substance use problems and their families, to create a society that better facilitates recovery from substance use problems.
Whilst Wired In comprised a small number of core individuals and always existed on minimal funding, it established itself globally as a unique grassroots initiative through a wide range of activities. These activities include the writing of Personal Stories, research focusing on a variety of issues (e.g. recovery, treatment, addiction, family), development of a film archive, production of filmed Personal Stories, and the development of the Daily Dose portal and online recovery community Wired In To Recovery.
Wired In developed a strong and trusting relationship with people affected by substance use problems, their families, practitioners, and researchers. It had an Advisory Board comprising world-leading practitioners, scientists and recovery advocates.
A key element of the Wired In mission was to facilitate development of the recovery agenda. David started to write about recovery—he had a bi-weekly educational column in the leading magazine Drink and Drugs News—and give talks about the new Recovery Movement, starting in 2006, when he was first introduced to the new recovery advocacy movement in the US. He constantly promoted the seminal work of William White and colleagues, and also arranged for Bill to visit the UK to give a talk to leading recovery advocates in this country.
