'Crime and addiction brought me low before I found recovery - now the Wolverhampton Recovery Walk will inspire others'
One of the team behind the bid for Wolverhampton to host a national addiction recovery event has spoken about the importance of the event and his own journey.
Chris Cole, service manager at the Good Shepherd, was one of the team who led the bid to host the UK Recovery Walk in Wolverhampton.
With the event set to take place on September 13, Mr Cole has recalled his own recovery journey and the impact he believes the walk would have on the city.
He said: "“From my experience attending previous Recovery Walks, I know how significant this event is for both Wolverhampton and the local recovery community.
"It will allow Wolverhampton to showcase what recovery looks like locally and help challenge any stigma attached to the local recovery community.”
He said he recalls growing up in a chaotic household marked by domestic and physical violence before he ran away from home as a child, left school in Year 7 and entered the care system. By his early teens he was involved in drugs, crime, and the criminal justice system.
Despite early brushes with the law, Mr Cole's substance use escalated: having initially experimenting with alcohol and party drugs, he eventually became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine.
Around the age of 17, he said he was homeless and heavily dependent, manipulating treatment systems to sustain his addiction, and recalls sleeping in greenhouses and sheds or wandering the streets at night with nowhere to go.
The turning point came through his engagement with support services and connecting with professionals who had lived experience, putting him on the path to recovery.
Today, he is a service manager and leads the Lived Experience into Action Project (LEAP) at the Good Shepherd in Wolverhampton, an initiative which empowers individuals with lived experience to support others facing similar challenges.
He said: “I have made mistakes, and people will always make mistakes, and that is why we will work with our volunteers on the LEAP project that if they do make mistakes, we can work through it.
“But the most important thing of all is to give people a chance, a chance to improve themselves and to make a difference. Don’t give up on someone, be there for when they are ready to change.
“I am only here now doing what I am doing because people gave me a chance, and that is why I am so fortunate to be in this position where now it is me giving others a chance to take that step forward.”
Mr Cole said he believes that his experiences, however painful, have uniquely equipped him to help others and with the national Recovery Walk coming to the Black Country for the first time, he said it’s a chance to inspire more people to take the first steps of their recovery journey.
He said: “Both personally and professionally, I know of our local recovery success stories, the great work carried out by our recovery community, and the inspiring lived experience advocates of the city.
"This is our chance to show the rest of the country what recovery means to us and how it’s helping to inspire change and develop statutory and voluntary organisations.
“I hope that by raising awareness locally it will help us to reach those that are yet to be reached and at the very least to plant a seed that recovery is possible and they are not alone!”
Each year a different city or town is selected to host the National Recovery Walk, which includes a public march and a celebratory Recovery Village.
The event is endorsed by the UK-wide human rights charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK (FAVOR UK), which advocates for and empowers people with living and lived experience of alcohol and drugs.
Wolverhampton’s successful bid to host the 2025 Recovery Walk was led by the Good Shepherd and Wolverhampton Voluntary and Community Action’s Service User Involvement Team (SUIT), in partnership with Wolverhampton Council and Recovery Near You.
The event, taking place on Saturday, September 13 between 12pm and 5pm at West Park, will be a vibrant, family-friendly day filled with live entertainment, community stalls, and a show of solidarity for those on the journey of recovery.
To find out more about the UK Recovery Walk 2025 in Wolverhampton, go to the UK Recovery Walk event page.
