James Deakin’s Recovery Voices Teaser

I’m really pleased to post the second of our Recovery Voices Teasers, that of James Deakin, the Founder of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) in Bangor, North Wales. Having edited the film of my colleague Wulf Livingston’s ‘s interview of James, and then interviewed James myself, I’m really impressed by him and what he and his colleagues have achieved at NWRC.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Wulf to NWRC’s Penrhyn House and to their restaurant/cafe Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor) in September last year. I had a really good breakfast at the latter. Sadly, James was out of town. I look forward to meeting him on my next visit. For now, we’ll be chatting on Zoom.

James has been in recovery for 15 years and is now sharing his experiences of active addiction and offending to support other people to bring a positive change to their own lives. He believes strongly in the concepts of mutual aid and shared experience, and these are underlying foundations of NWRC, which he founded in 2014.

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Rising Above Covid: James Deakin

During a Covid lockdown, 18 North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) members, including a number of former chefs in recovery, are locked down in the recovery community’s Penrhyn House. They start to feed vulnerable people in the community, using food from the community allotment and provided by supermarkets. The food is gathered, cooked, frozen and delivered. A total of 80,000 meals are provided to families and individuals.

The recovery community responds quicker to feeding vulnerable people than the Welsh government and local councils. In fact, the Welsh government eventually provides some funding for the initiative, at least during the Covid lockdown. NWRC currently runs a surplus food club at their cafe, Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor). [7’30”]

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