Recovery communities take various forms and develop in different ways. Here’s a story of a recovery community that started in someone’s living room some years ago. The living room belonged to my good friend Kevan Martin, who was to become Founder of NERAF (Northern Engagement into Recovery from Addiction). The events briefly described below follow Kevan’s 25 years of problematic drinking and eight years in and out of psychiatric hospitals. The initial Story was written back in 2012 and first published on my Recovery Stories website in early 2013.
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“When I had stopped drinking for about two and a half years, I started to reflect on how I had tried and failed to find a service that would help me with my personal needs when I was trying to stop drinking. I had met so many people along my journey who had similar needs and who had found that AA did not suit them. The kind of service we all needed did not exist—at least where we lived—so I thought to myself, ‘Why can’t I develop such a service?’
So, I started a support group for people with alcohol problems in my own home. I often used to meet people that I had been in treatment with out and about, and eventually I started to say, ‘Come down to my place Tuesday night.’ Within a month, I had six people attending. Word of mouth ensured that my home was soon packed with people I had met throughout my years of spinning through the revolving door of treatment.
I decided to take this approach further and went through the process of registering NERAF (Northern Engagement into Recovery from Addiction) as a charity. Believe me, I nearly threw the towel in on many occasions due to the red tape and protocol I had to go through in that process. The support groups soon grew to a size where they couldn’t be held at my home, so I knocked on doors for what seemed like an eternity before local service providers allowed me to use their premises free-of-charge. A network of support groups evolved from there.
News travelled fast and I was soon receiving calls from treatment workers who had a person interested in attending a support group, but didn’t have the confidence to walk in alone. I used to meet them for a coffee and chat beforehand and then take them to the group. From this, a 1-2-1 peer mentoring service developed. The common factors for the majority of people joining our support groups was that they were needed assistance with social-related issues and they had not found AA to be to their liking.
At this time, I was funding the work out of my Unemployment Benefits. I was able to manage this because but I wasn’t buying any alcohol. However, I then secured short-term funding for a small project in Sunderland and also a part-time job for myself. I obtained some development grants so was able to secure professional management support to develop a business case for longer-term funding.
Once a business plan was developed, NERAF continued expanding across Sunderland. I started to recruit to our volunteer programme and developed robust support and training for those people who were providing peer mentoring. We also engaged in service user consultation and became strong advocates for service users at a local and national level (with Alcohol Concern).
I was slowly bringing more funding in. We employed a Women’s worker, recognising that we had a high volume of females attending who felt happier working with a female. NERAF continued to thrive; it was a busy service and we were making a difference to peoples’ lives.
I remember receiving a phone call in late 2008 from the head of Substance Misuse services across South of Tyne and Wear NHS Trust and arranged to meet him at his office the following day. I barely slept that night, fearing the worst.
However, he informed me that the NHS wanted to commission NERAF services in Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside. He told me how much funding I would receive, a massive amount in comparison with what we had been pulling in. I remember getting into my car and crying. All the hard work had been worth it. NERAF was a valued service that the NHS wanted. A while later, Darlington NHS also commissioned NERAF to set up recovery coaching and mentoring, and peer support groups, in their area.
I now [back in 2012 – DC] have 41 full-time staff, supported by 50 volunteers, and provide over 50 support groups every week across the patch. We are open 9am – 8pm throughout the week and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons too. We have a women’s only and family care service, and run SMART Recovery groups as well.
Our work with Durham prison ensures that released inmates can immediately connect into a support network. We have recently been asked by commissioners to work with people with drug problems, and we will soon be opening a Recovery Academy (recovery community centre) in Sunderland.
I am particularly pleased with the family service, as I remember how much damage I did to my family during my drinking days. Now, whenever anyone with a drinking problem comes to NERAF, we ask whether they think any family member (adult or child) might need our help. Carers sometimes call us to ask whether we can help someone they are looking after who has a drinking problem, and in some cases the carer accesses our help before the person who is drinking excessively.
There I was, the alcoholic that everyone gave up on—’No hope,’ ‘He’s a loser and will never be any good,’ ‘He’ll never change.’ My recovery has been my recovery and has been very personal to me. I used a way that certain people didn’t agree with, but I got there?”
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Kevan’s story took a bitter twist some months after it was first published on my Recovery Stories website. This part of Kevan’s story was included in an update of his main Story which was written in October 2020.
“In early September 2013, a meeting of the [NERAF] Trustees was held which I attended. Strangely, I had not received a copy of the agenda, which I had always previously received in my position as Chief Executive of NERAF. Lynn Duggan and Graham Frend [two of the Trustees] started to talk about the necessity for a restructuring of the organisation, as well as the need for positions and salaries to be based on professional skill-sets and qualifications. They had earlier discussed these ideas with an external firm of human resources advisors, Professional People Management, again without my knowledge.
I was very concerned about what they were suggesting, as it was biased against recovering people holding key positions, or potentially any position, and it was against the ethos and identity of NERAF. The organisation was built on the premise that it needed to be run by people in recovery (with or without business qualifications), not by people who had such qualifications but knew little about addiction beyond text book knowledge.
I was also concerned about my own position, since I suspected strongly that I would be removed from my Chief Executive position and replaced by Graham Frend, a former police officer who had business qualifications. My concerns increased when I attended a Trustees meeting later that month.
I was so worried about the situation that I posted ‘a word of advice’ on Facebook the following day, warning ‘folks’ who were setting up addiction recovery initiatives as charities to be careful when selecting their Trustees. I indicated that our Chair of Trustees wanted NERAF to be working in a way of working that was against the ethos and identity of the organisation, as well as remove me from my position as I did not have business qualifications. It only seemed fair to warn friends and colleagues working in the field and let them know what was happening with NERAF and me.”
After he returned from holiday in October 2013, Kevan found out that he couldn’t access his work email.
“When I returned to work, Lynn Duggan took me aside and informed me that I had been formally suspended from NERAF for bringing the organisation into disrepute. I was told I couldn’t go anywhere near the building. I was told to hand over my keys and computer. When I remonstrated about the latter, I was told the police would be called if I did not hand it back that day. I was also informed that my NERAF email account had been terminated. I was shocked, devastated! I was being locked out of the organisation that I had started over seven years earlier.”
In December 2013, Kevan was formally fired by NERAF. He felt that he had no option other than to challenge the decision in court. The judge eventually decided in Kevan’s favour and awarded him substantial damages.
‘Taking all of the above into consideration I have found the respondent [NERAF] had failed to show the reason for the dismissal… the way the disciplinary procedure was conducted was inherently unfair. The decision to dismiss and the rejection of the appeal were all done remotely without any input by Mr Martin. The dismissal was unfair.’
There’s a lesson in the latter part of this story. You can find Kevan’s full story (He’s a Loser and Little Never Be Any Good), including more details about what happened in court and the aftermath of these events, on our Recovery Voices website. Please also check out our other Recovery Stories in this section.
The photographs were taken when David travelled to the Lake District to meet Kevan (in person) for the first time in August 2022.