Joy Esther Phillips Butts

Joy will create a documentary, Right to Recovery, about the work of New Jerusalem Now, Inc., a self-run community of formerly homeless people helping each other overcome the obstacles caused by addiction to drugs and alcohol. Sixty residents live in five formerly abandoned homes in North Philadelphia, which they rehabilitated and maintain themselves. Joy wants the video to increase understanding of the devastating impacts of substance abuse and alcohol addiction and show what one group of people have accomplished while helping themselves and their community.

Joy will use film and video to explore issues of substance abuse and holistic rehabilitation. A homeless rights activist, Joy has produced and hosted the Kensington Welfare Rights Union show Marching On for the past seven years where she explores economic human rights violations, including access to health care. For this project, she will videotape interviews of current and past substance abusers, primarily in the North Philadelphia community, as well as family members, friends, co-workers and experts in the field. The film will explore how people overcome their addictions through holistic healing, as well the economic realities and costs to society of drug and alcohol abuse. One of the project’s goals is to enlighten and encourage social service providers to support and expand existing alternative treatment plans as alternatives to incarceration.