Community Organizing

	“The recovering community is a sleeping giant. Our goal is to wake it up.” Samantha-Hope Atkins, volunteer advocate for people in recovery and creator of SoberCity.com and HopeNetworks.org

Sharron Ayers has been an advocate for one progressive issue or another in Louisiana for most of her adult life. When Ayers, who directs the Louisiana Alliance to Prevent Underage Drinking, met Samantha-Hope Atkins she knew she had encountered a force of nature. Both women had come to the Louisiana State capitol in Baton Rouge on the same day in February 2002 to support legislation that would increase the state excise tax on alcoholic beverages for the first time in 50 years. But while Ayers was there with about 20 other prevention advocates, Atkins—a volunteer advocate for people in recovery—came with 150 people in recovery and another 150 supporters and allies.

“I’ve been saying for years that we need to get more people working for environmental prevention,” said Ayers. “It seemed like I was seeing the same 200 people at all the national conferences. And here I was talking to someone who could bring 300 new people to the Louisiana state capitol.”

Atkins was also impressed with Ayers, but not in quite the same way. “I was stunned that prevention advocates like Sharron would try so hard to get people fired up about something that had zero personal relevance to them,” recalled Atkins. “But it’s the people in recovery, and our children, who stand to experience the most impact.”

Sharron Ayers

Earlier that year, Atkins, who has been in recovery for over 12 years, learned that Louisiana was equipped to provide alcoholism treatment for only eight percent of those seeking services. She and others trying to find help for alcoholics had independently decided that they needed to take action to increase access to treatment services in Louisiana. Meeting the overwhelming unmet need in Louisiana was clearly going to cost a significant amount of money. When the Governor’s Commission on Addiction asked Atkins to help generate support for an excise tax bill, she was appalled to learn that a potentially vast source of funding for alcohol treatment and prevention— raising taxes on alcoholic beverages—had gone untapped for so long.

“I saw increasing the excise tax as a way to get people through the first door of recovery—by providing the money needed for detox and primary treatment,” said Atkins. “We have a grand total of seven juvenile beds in a state with 4.4 million residents. It blew my mind that the prevention advocates supporting the tax didn’t get how important it would be to people in recovery.”

But Atkins became even more committed to the cause when she learned that increasing the excise tax on alcohol is an effective way to reduce underage drinking. “My children are genetically predisposed to alcoholism. I’m interested in anything that we can change in the environment that might be protective. It’s too late to change their genes.”

Proponents of the excise tax increase did not succeed in 2002. But Atkins and Ayers recognized that there was much they could learn from each other. “I thought I knew a lot,” said Ayers. “But I really didn’t understand the recovery process. It takes a lot longer than I thought. And I had no concept of the vast Internet resources and networks supporting recovery and policy advocacy for the recovering community.” (See sidebar)

Atkins, despite past activism in support of recovery, admitted she was naïve in the beginning. She honestly believed that the liquor industry wouldn’t mind paying a few more pennies in taxes on a beer if it would provide treatment for alcoholics. “I had never spoken to a legislator in my life,” she recalled with laughter. “I really thought they worked for us.”

Fortunately, Ayers is only too happy to share what she has learned from many years of haunting the halls of the State capital. In return, Atkins introduced Ayers to the recovery community and is helping her learn its language and culture.

“We are constantly translating for each other,” said Atkins. “The first time Sharron told me about outlet density I had no clue what she was talking about. Now I understand why we need to pay attention to availability, and I can explain it to my recovering friends — without using public health jargon that is meaningless to them.”

Two years into their working partnership, Ayers says that her work with Atkins has brought her a new sense of optimism. “Samantha represents a new constituency for environmental prevention. If those of us in public health can resist the urge to tell the recovering community what to do — and instead take the time to listen and learn — we can earn their trust and mobilize unprecedented numbers of people in support of alcohol policy reform.”

For Atkins it is simple, “At the end of the day, working for environmental policy change is part of my recovery.”

To learn more about the Louisiana Alliance to Reduce Underage Drinking visit: www.maddlouisiana.org/lapud.html

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