8,000 views and counting

Honestly!!! 8,000 plus views??!!! Thank you all for your incredible support regards the blog, and our company, Visible Recovery Pty Ltd. The promotion of this blog and the company by all of you has been fantastic. Make sure you get to see The Anonymous People. It is such a great movie. Tickets are available from us via the link on my last post.

The Anonymous People Tickets

Tickets are now available for The Anonymous People screening at Cinema 3, The Piccadilly Cinema on Wednesday December 11 at 7:15 pm. Tickets are only available from Visible Recovery, via this link. This is on a first come first serve basis, with only 180 tickets available. A second screening may happen in January 2014 if there is enough demand. Please go to the following link to request your tickets, and a PayPal invoice will be sent to your provided email address for payment within 24 hours. Thanks.

https://visiblerecovery.wufoo.com/forms/the-anonymous-people-december-11-715pm/

 

A First in Australia - The Anonymous People Screening

Visible Recovery are pleased to announce the first official screening in Australia of the new documentary movie, The Antonymous People. It is a story of the incredibly large recovery movement in America, and describes accurately why we need to make recovery visible everywhere before the stigma and shame associated with addiction can change. It showcases some incredible statistics, as well as some incredible people and their commitment to speaking out about recovery. I would urge you all to see this movie. Visible Recovery have planned for one screening only at The Piccadilly Cinema in North Adelaide on Wednesday the 11th December at 7:15 pm. There are only 180 tickets available, and they are only available from us. Please do not call the cinema for tickets as they have none available. I will be setting up a web link for those of you that would like to come along that will enable you to register for tickets that you require. We will then send you out a PayPal invoice for payment. The tickets will be sold for $10.00 each. This link will be up on this blog, and on our Facebook page on Friday night. Once we hit 180 people, if there are enough people interested in seeing it for a second screening, this will be arranged for January 2014. So...bring your friends!

The Video - from start to finish

The Refurbishment of 307 South Terrace Adelaide

New plants out front, a spit and polish, and we're off!!

Tonight saw the first of three opening events happen very successfully indeed. Ken and I worked hard (with the odd coffee at Bici!!) and got the place looking fantastic prior to our opening for neighbours and contractors. It went really well indeed. I guess about 25 people turned up or so, but they were the right ones, and for their interest in this facility I am grateful. It all ran really very smoothly with cake and coffee being served from Bici, and a presentation from both Ken and I, and I believe that we were able to ensure that our arrival in South East Adelaide has been appreciated and accepted by the folk that reside in the area. That, to Ken and I, is very important indeed.

Tomorrow is the invited family and friends event. I am hoping that goes just as well, and I am sure that it will. There are a few more then 25 coming though, so it will be busy.

The other day when I said that we were the only private 12 step rehabilitation service in Adelaide, I meant that literally. I meant  in the square mile City of Adelaide. I have a good friend in Mim White, who runs a private facility in Kangarilla, does a fantastic job with recovering addicts in rehabilitation, and has done for many, many years. Addiction Counselling Services is definitely still running. I don't want there to be any confusion about that at all.

So here is Kens contribution to the front of the rehab. Brilliant. Thanks Ken. Quite twee isn't it??

  

Presentation went well.

The DASSA presentation I did at 2pm this afternoon was well received. With our main competitor (GATS) folding and finally closing for good just last week, we are now the only private service in Adelaide remaining. (I couldn't have planned that if you paid me to.)

I was taken for a tour of their new facility in Glenside, and very nice it is too. They have a 30 bed detox facility split into three areas; it is light and airy, and comfortable and respectful. They aren't at capacity at all at the moment, and expect that to possibly stay in place until the Xmas and New Years rush, but who can tell.....

Their admission times are very good, and will be able to assist us with our beds at the rehab that we have for Indigenous people with substance misuse issues. Donna is going to bring a few of the staff over for a look at our facility in the very near future, and loved what they saw and heard today. Great partnership development there, I am sure they will be an ally truly worth having onside.

We have managed to get a galley page up for those of you that haven't seen it on the website yet. Why don't you go to www.visiblerecovery.com.au/gallery/ and you will see a few new pics, and the building in all of its splendour. The more I look at these pictures, the more I see the incredible change that we have enabled in this building. I only hope we manage to change peoples lives in the same way, and get them all to enjoy the beauty they deserve to feel within.

A final bit of furniture...

We got our last few bits of furniture today for the rehab. Well, for now anyway. They are nice though. A couple of hall stands and a coffee table for the office. A new entertainment centre for the lounge, and a new office table as well. Robust and funky, yet rustic. A nice vase of flowers on each will work wonders.

  

  

The end is nigh...

Well dear readers, the end of this mission is very nearly upon us. There is really very little to do at all now at the rehab bar making a few beds,  going around with tins of paint and snagging here and there, grouting the staff bathroom where 6 new tiles have been fixed back to the wall, a general clean up and there you go. One business ready to start changing lives.

We have our opening events for family and friends and neighbours on two nights next week, and the media release planned for the first week in December. We have asked that Steve Marshall (the leader of the Liberal Party) officially open the event, and we are just waiting to hear back from his Executive Assistant on available dates. Channel 7 have already thrown their hat into the ring to get this out there, and I am certain there will be other coverage, and perhaps even radio interviews as well. Exciting times.

Cause he's the renderer, yeah he's the renderer....

Ken has been busy rendering the front porch, ably assisted by Gandalf, the co-dependant dog. I'll let the pictures do the talking....

"Now...if I just put that on there.... "

"...looks to me like you missed a bit Ken..."

Looking much better...

Plumb tuckered....!

I managed to get a few good meetings under my belt today. I have a presentation next week with DASSA (Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia) at the new detox facility in Glenside, so I am looking forward to that. It is meetings like this that will become referral business for clients seeking treatment, so very worthwhile.

The final week of refurbishment

We are finally there. We are looking down the barrel of finishing the work on the building by the end of this week. I managed to get the external windows finished off today, there are a few tiles in the staff bathroom to replace, a fence to repaint, and a bit of rendering under the patio, a building clean and a few snags and that is all folks. 

We can then start the mighty task of marketing the business to the various doctors, counsellors, psychologists, mental health practitioners, and other services, as well as sports clubs, mining companies and other blue chip employers with large staffing levels. I think we should be able to find the first 4-6 people to start the ball rolling fairly soon, but  if there is anything that any of you can suggest that might be helpful, please email me at firststep@visiblerecovery.com.au with your suggestions.

This has been a mammoth task, and I will write a list of thanks when we finally pull stumps later in the week. Just the thought of being able to come to work in a clean clothes and go home clean will be a whole new experience for me, and one I am certainly looking forward to. The thought that soon there will be people there that want help changing their lives thrills me no end. Personally, I can't wait....

Before and after....wow!!

Before....

...after!!

7000 hits and counting

Wow! that was quick. The last 1000 views happened in just 21 days, with a total 1457 views in the last month. We had 92 hits yesterday....Ha ha...awesome. I never thought that writing this would reach so many people, and it is. a lot of that will be repeat visits as you check in to see what's been happening, but that still amounts to a lot of people that read this blog. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

With Rachel Sanderson MP

We had a visit by Rachel Sanderson MP today. It was a really nice hour or so long chat about the state of affairs in SA with regards the current system, and its desperate need for services. We talked about Visible Recovery and our plans, and they were all well received indeed. Rachel will be attending the Australian release of the new film "The Anonymous People" that we are showing at The Piccadilly Cinema on the 11th December. Tickets for that event will be available soon, and publicised on this blog. All in all it was nice to see an MP that shows a bit of interest in what we are doing, is coming to our media opening event in a few weeks time, and I am certain help us to champion the cause.

Rachel, Ken and I at the entrance 

to Visible Recovery today

The Money Shot!

There you go, beautiful.

Meeting the State MP for Adelaide, Rachel Sanderson

We managed to get the rear of the building painted today. That was three doors off their hinges and rolled, as well as the surrounding woodwork, and all of the woodwork around the rear windows. It looks great and yet another step closer to finishing. 4 window frames to do tomorrow, and one more coat on the rear black exit door. Then it's a few tiles to replace in the staff bathroom, cement render to the front of the building under the patio, and a thorough snagging in every room and we are done. Did I say done??? Not quite.... but so very nearly....

I was lucky enough to receive a call from the office of Rachel Sanderson MP today. Rachel is the State Member for Adelaide, and wants to meet with me to discuss policy matters regarding Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation and to learn more about our work. Personally, I'm chuffed about that. It is nice to see that we have generated enough interest for this type of thing to happen. Suffice to say that I am sure that it will definitely be a mutually beneficial meeting, and one I am particularly looking forward to. We get together on Thursday afternoon. Photo opportunity as well...!

...probably the best rehab in the world...

Emma Rieger, thanks for the photo shoot today. Stunning work.
 

 

Oooops...forgot this one!