Dear National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month Planner:

This September is the 17th annual celebration of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month (Recovery Month), and we anticipate the celebration will continue to grow in communities nationwide. This year, we ask you to "Join the Voices for Recovery: Build a Stronger, Healthier Community" and celebrate people and families in recovery from substance use disorders who have overcome stigma, discrimination, and other barriers to treatment and recovery support services.

To help reach your local audiences throughout Recovery Month and beyond, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), through its Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), has created this comprehensive planning toolkit in conjunction with national planning partner organizations, including treatment providers and other community organizations.

Whether this is your first Recovery Month or your 17th year participating, the events and activities you plan for this September will help raise awareness throughout the year about substance use disorders and the effectiveness of treatment and recovery. From college students, clergy members, veterans, and other groups to affected families and children of those experiencing substance use disorders, entire communities can support and encourage people with substance use disorders to take an important step toward health and recovery.

In this planning toolkit, you will find everything you need to plan your Recovery Month activities. To help with your media outreach, you can customize the included media materials to reflect your local area and events. The kit also includes background materials tailored to key audiences that outline treatment and recovery issues and suggestions for educating your community about treatment and recovery. Using these sections, you can plan, launch, and publicize an effective Recovery Month campaign in just five simple steps:

1. Target. two or three specific audiences, such as clergy and affected families, whom you think will gain the most from your campaign.
2. Plan.programs and events that involve your selected audiences. You can use the "Promotional Event Ideas" document enclosed in this planning toolkit's "Media Outreach" section for examples and tips to help plan your activities.
3. Publicize. your event(s) before Recovery Month kicks off by customizing the media outreach templates provided in this planning toolkit and distributing them to local media outlets. Please promote your events on the Recovery Month Web site at  www.recoverymonth.gov.
4. Manage. your event(s) and disseminate the audience-specific information provided in the "Targeted Outreach" section of this planning toolkit to your attendees.
5. Share. the success and important lessons learned from your campaign by returning the customer satisfaction form in this planning toolkit and sending samples of your materials to the address provided on the "Customer Satisfaction Form" in this planning toolkit.

You can download PDF files of these materials by clicking on the "PDF Versions" link at the bottom of this page. In addition to posting the planning toolkit and news about Recovery Month events, the Web site provides additional resources, media updates and alerts, and Web events. To order extra hard-copy planning toolkits at no cost, call 1-800-662-HELP.

Your efforts at the local level are vital. Along with others from across the country, you will help us create a society that erases stigma and supports the recovery of people and their affected families who battle substance use disorders. Thank you for your continued support.

MEDIA OUTREACH

Here you will find event ideas, planning instructions, and sample materials to help you interest your local media in your Recovery Month activities. The first two items are for your reference:

• Promotional Event Ideas - This section will help you plan your events.
• Speaking Effectively With the Media About Recovery Month - This section will help you prepare for media interviews about your Recovery Month activities.

The remaining materials will help you promote your Recovery Month events to local media. These items can be customized with specific information about your events and programs. Please refer to the instructions on when and how to use these media materials, as well as suggestions on how they can be tailored to fit your organization. You can print your media documents on your organization's letterhead or photocopy them onto the camera-ready letterhead provided. You can also customize your materials using the camera-ready logo sheet enclosed.

Materials in this section include:

• Media Advisory
• News Release
• Op-Ed
• Official Proclamations
• Radio Public Service Announcement Scripts
• Camera-ready Letterhead
• Camera-ready Logo Sheet

TARGETED OUTREACH

These materials provide background information about substance use disorders. They can be distributed at your Recovery Month activities and events, and also to the media.

The audience-specific materials contain suggested action steps your target audiences can use to help support Recovery Month during September and throughout the year. At your events, you can distribute relevant audience-specific information, adding the general background information provided and selected materials from the "Resources" section of this planning toolkit to create an information packet to distribute.

Background Information

• Overview - Discusses the effects of stigma and discrimination and ways to overcome these issues
• Commonly Misused Substances - Highlights the major substances misused in the United States
• Join the Voices for Recovery - Personal stories in the words of people in recovery and those who support recovery

Audience-Specific Information

• Adolescents and College Students:  Helping Students, Educators, and Administrators Understand Substance Use Disorders and Overcome Stigma and Discrimination
• Affected Families:  Helping Families and Children Cope With the Substance Use Disorder of Someone Close
• Labor Organizations:  A Guide for Unions to Help Deal With Substance Use Disorders
• Military and Veterans:  Substance Use and Co-Occurring Disorders Among Military and Veterans
• Clergy and Faith-based Groups:  A Guide for Religious and Spiritual Leaders to Help People With Substance Use Disorders

RESOURCES

These resources can help you plan your Recovery Month events, and also can be useful to the audiences you wish to target with your events. To help prepare for and evaluate your Recovery Month activities, the following resources are included:

• Building Your Recovery Month Coalition or Community Team - Tips on how your organization can join forces with others to create a community-wide coalition for Recovery Month
• Planning Partners List - Organizations you may want to collaborate with when planning your Recovery Month events
• Customer Satisfaction Form (PDF Version) - An important way to share the successes of your activities and provide your reactions to this planning toolkit to influence the continued improvements of these materials

The remaining resources can be distributed as part of any information packet you create for your audiences. These resources include:

• Additional Resources - A comprehensive list of substance use disorder resources
• Single-State Agency Directory - A state-by-state list of substance use disorder office contacts for local information and support

SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie and CSAT Director H. Westley Clark, along with HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, encourage Americans to participate in this year's Recovery Month.

PDF Versions

You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader here