Earlier this year, the Edmonton Downtown Business Association was invited to participate in Recovery Day Alberta, an event that brings people, families, service providers and communities together to celebrate recovery, reduce stigma and make support more visible. At the time, we were hesitant.

Our attention remains focused on the challenges facing downtown Edmonton. Safety remains a concern for businesses, residents, employees and visitors. Edmonton continues to lag every other Alberta community on key addiction and overdose indicators. Looking at those realities, we struggled to see what there was to celebrate.

Over the past year, the Government of Alberta provided our business association with the opportunity to see Alberta’s recovery system firsthand. We visited the Integrated Stabilization Centre at Edmonton police headquarters, the Navigation Centre in McCauley, the Lakeview Recovery Community in Gunn, New Beginnings north of downtown, and the Therapeutic Living Units at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre.

We entered these visits expecting to learn about facilities and programs. We left thinking about people.

We met people confronting addiction and other self-destructive behaviours, rebuilding their lives, and reconnecting with children, families and communities. What stood out was not their past, but their determination, energy and willingness to do the difficult work of recovery.

We also learned that many people leading these efforts bring lived experience to their work. Recovery is not someone else’s journey. It touches every part of society and every walk of life.

Many professionals leading these efforts have moved from across Canada and around the world to be part of the recovery work taking place in Alberta. At a time when conversations often focus on our challenges, it was encouraging to meet people who see our city and province as places of innovation, leadership and possibility.

On Sept. 19, more than 8,000 people gathered in Churchill Square for Edmonton’s first Recovery Day Alberta celebration. Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Rick Wilson spoke about overcoming his own challenges. Dr. Wilton Littlechild, former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, reminded attendees that recovery, healing and reconciliation require persistence, support and hope. Canadian rock bands Bif Naked and Sloan brought energy to the day.

When we were first invited to participate, the reality of holding Recovery Day Alberta in Churchill Square, where downtown’s challenges are visible, contributed to our hesitation.

After seeing recovery in action firsthand, the location felt fitting. In the same public space where some of downtown’s most visible challenges play out, thousands gathered to celebrate recovery and support one another. It reminded us what remains possible.

Downtown’s recovery is a human story.

The challenges facing our downtown are real. Businesses continue to experience safety concerns. The intersections of addiction, mental health, crime, public safety and reconciliation remain complex and demand ongoing attention. But these challenges do not tell the whole story.

Behind many of those challenges are people rebuilding their lives, seeking treatment, reconnecting with family, returning to cultural roots, finding stability and choosing recovery, often one difficult day at a time.

Most of us know someone facing addiction, mental health challenges or self-sabotaging behaviours. That person may be a family member, friend, colleague or member of our business community. For some of us, those struggles may be personal.

Recovery matters not only because it changes individual lives. It also contributes to stronger communities and a stronger downtown. Every person who finds stability, reconnects with family, enters the workforce, pursues education or becomes more engaged in community life contributes to Edmonton’s social and economic recovery.

Recovery requires action and continued commitment from all orders of government, Indigenous partners, service providers, community leaders, and business associations like ours. If we want Edmonton’s recovery to continue, we must scale up investments in people, programs and partnerships that support recovery.

There is still much work ahead. But after seeing recovery firsthand, we are more hopeful than we were before. Downtown’s recovery is tied to individual recoveries. The journeys are worth celebrating. Rock on.

James Robinson is executive director of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association.

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