Healing A Village

Reader Comments:

“Well-written, full of practical advice and, most importantly, teeming with hope; Mark Lefebvre’s Healing a Village is exactly the book to help the nation turn back its addiction crisis. It answers the toughest questions, the ones I most often get when I talk about the epidemic: What should I do to help my loved one? How can my community offer love and evidence-based care to those most in need?”

—Beth Macy, author of bestselling Dopesick, and Raising Lazarus

“Healing from addiction begins at home in the community where connections are made and we feel safe. Healing a Village offers a profound message of hope through community recovery. If you’re looking for a blueprint on how to get there, then this book is for you.”

—Seth Kaplan, author of Fragile Neighborhoods.

“This comprehensive guide provides a practical blueprint for any group seeking to build a Recovery Ready Community to address addiction at a local level. Drawing from his personal experience in both recovery and his professional work developing coalitions, Mark Lefebvre presents a clear-eyed view of the human impact of addiction and an evidence-based approach for community response. The book expertly weaves together the science of addiction, trauma-informed care principles, and proven strategies for building sustainable community coalitions. Using the Greater Portsmouth Recovery Coalition as a detailed case study, Lefebvre ably demonstrates how communities can coordinate prevention, treatment, and recovery support services while breaking down silos between stakeholders. He addresses common barriers to implementation and provides concrete solutions for everything from coalition building to measuring outcomes. What sets this book apart is its emphasis on meeting communities where they are – acknowledging that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to becoming “recovery ready.” Written with both compassion and pragmatism, this guide offers actionable insights for community leaders, healthcare providers, and anyone working to build local capacity for addiction recovery services.”

—Alan Gold, Co-founder, Greater Portsmouth Recovery Coalition
President, Pinetree Institute Board of Trustees

“Healing A Village is a guide for our times! Through relatable stories and an accessible integration of the science and process of community building, Mark Lefebvre inspires and provides a roadmap for on the ground leaders to spark action and the healing of our society one individual, neighborhood and city at a time. Inspiring, hopeful, and practical, this guide will fast-track leaders at all levels to build recovery ready communities and restore our innate capacity to heal and thrive through difficult times. “

­—Christina Bethell, PhD, MBA, MPH Professor, Johns Hopkins University

“Substance use disorder is a chronic disorder that is too often mismatched with acute, abstinence-only treatment.  The resulting treatment gap drives the more than 100,000 annual overdose fatalities in the US. There is a critical need for more extensive, inclusive models of care, such as Recovery Ready Communities.  In Healing a Village: A Practical Guide to Building Recovery Ready Communities, Mark combines lived experiences with the latest scientific understanding of addiction and recovery to highlight meaningful opportunities for communities to address substance use disorder.  Indeed, as Mark writes, “this book is about hope”.”

—Alex Elswick, PhD, Assistant Extension Professor Substance Use Prevention & Recovery, University of Kentucky

 “Mark has produced an inspirational story of building recovery communities through drive, passion and commitment to partnership. Healing a village is a wonderful account of that journey that should motivate and drive others to follow in his footsteps. For many years now, we have recognized that recovery is a journey over time. As Mark Lefebvre illustrates in Healing a village, the same is true for communities where partnership, trust and commitment between key stakeholders are an essential component of building a Recovery Ready Community. In essence, what Mark describes is the process of transforming communities to create the conditions that maximize the likelihood of personal change. The learning set out in the book provides a roadmap for building partnerships and alliances based on hope and shared belief that will pave the way for community transformation across the US and beyond. This book captures the ‘essential elements’ of building a Recovery Ready Community, full of insight and inspiration.”

—Professor David Best, BA, MSc, PhD,Director, Centre for Addiction Recovery Research (CARR) at Leeds Trinity University