Servant Leadership on the Frontlines: Yvonne Thomas & Dani Sims (2024 Gala Honorees)Servant Leadership on the Frontlines: Yvonne Thomas & Dani Sims (2024 Gala Honorees)
APC Recovery Cafe
Frontline leaders Yvonne Thomas and Dani Sims talk about servant leadership, lived experience and collaboration in addiction recovery and street medicine in Birmingham. Their conversation highlights how purpose, community partnerships and honest boundaries shape meaningful support for people facing substance use and homelessness.
39:35•17 Sept 2026
Servant Hearts on the Frontline: Yvonne Thomas & Dani Sims at the APC Gala
Episode Overview
- Effective recovery work grows out of listening to what people say they need and adapting services accordingly.
- Community partnerships and collaboration are essential to reaching populations most affected by the opioid crisis.
- Lived experience and long-term recovery can bring maturity, patience and credibility to frontline teams.
- Anyone entering the field should prioritise their own spiritual, emotional and family wellbeing to avoid burnout.
- It is acceptable to step away from intense recovery work when it stops serving you; there is no shame in setting limits.
“"If you would put a camera inside our centre, we'd probably be closed down because we do whatever it takes... to get them to understand that you've got to at least move one inch."”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation at APC Recovery Cafe’s The Shield brings together two women who live and breathe frontline recovery work: Yvonne Thomas and Dani Sims, both being honoured at the Addiction Prevention Coalition’s first gala. You’ll hear how Yvonne, Executive Director of the East Lake Recovery Drop-in Centre, built a space that simply responds to whatever her community needs.
From hot lunches and clothing to ID support and mental health partnerships, her team meets people where they are—particularly Black men heavily affected by fentanyl use. As Yvonne says, "If you would put a camera inside our centre, we'd probably be closed down because we do whatever it takes...
to get them to understand that you've got to at least move one inch." Dani, Assistant Director at the Recovery Resource Center, shares how a decade of IV heroin and fentanyl addiction shaped her sense of purpose. She once thought she had to work overseas; recovery showed her there were people at home struggling just as much.
Her gentle presence carries serious weight in meetings, where she consistently centres those who aren’t in the room: people using drugs, people who are unhoused, and people living with trauma. The episode also digs into street medicine and the "Care for Our Journey" collaboration in Birmingham, linking doctors, nurses, peer support, housing advocates, and food outreach to those rough sleeping. Both women stress the importance of community partnerships, lived experience, and adapting services as drugs, needs and systems change.
For anyone curious about what servant leadership in recovery really looks like—complete with boundary struggles, humour, and heartfelt honesty—this is a grounded, human look at people doing life-saving work without chasing recognition. It might just leave you asking: where could you move one inch in your own recovery or support journey?
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