S2E9: Building the Recovery Den and Changing the Statistics with Paige BrittonS2E9: Building the Recovery Den and Changing the Statistics with Paige Britton
APC Recovery Cafe
Paige Britton shares how her own recovery led to founding the peer-run Recovery Den in overdose-stricken Walker County, Alabama. The conversation outlines how practical support, local partnerships and community events are changing attitudes and offering people a real chance at long-term recovery.
32:09•25 Jun 2026
Building the Recovery Den: How Walker County Is Changing Its Story
Episode Overview
- Early intervention matters: assessments within 24–48 hours can help keep motivation for treatment from fading.
- Peer-run centres create a no-judgement space where people with lived experience offer ongoing, practical support.
- Strong local partnerships with courts, sheriffs and community foundations can bring multiple services under one roof.
- Recovery support should extend beyond treatment entry to include transport, clothing, job search help and family connection.
- Community events like Overdose Awareness Walk and Soberfest help honour loss while celebrating the reality that recovery is possible.
“I want everybody to know, no matter what the circumstance is, if you want it, it's there. All you gotta do is reach out. We're here to help.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation focuses on Paige Britton, founder and executive director of the Recovery Den in Walker County, Alabama, and her mission to change overdose statistics in a rural area that once ranked among the highest in the nation for opioid deaths per capita.
You'll hear Paige describe what it was like trying to get help in a county with almost no services beyond a single outpatient centre and a faith-based halfway house. She explains how her own recovery, which began on 31 March 2015, and her work as a certified recovery support specialist exposed huge gaps: assessments taking months, people losing motivation, and a community weighed down by stigma.
Paige walks through how the Healing Network and the Walker Area Community Foundation helped bring partners together, from judges and probation to sheriffs and treatment providers, to build a "central hub" for support. That hub became the Recovery Den, a peer-run recovery community centre where, as she puts it, "you walk in and you feel like you're at home".
People can get assessments on site, clothing, toiletries, Norcan kits, computer access for job searches, transport to court dates and treatment, and ongoing support without a time limit. There’s some light humour too, like Paige learning to patch a leaking roof and set up a charity using YouTube videos, and planning a western-themed "Soberfest" with a mechanical bull and fishing at Walker County Lake.
Yet the heart of the episode is community pride and change: judges who once sent Paige and her colleagues to jail are now their biggest fans, and Paige sums up the message simply: "Walker County can recover, and Walker County is recovering." If you're curious how peer-led support and local collaboration can shift overdose trends, this story might be the nudge to ask: what change could start in your own community?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.
Related Episodes
Similar episodes from other shows in the catalogue.