The GLOBAL RECOVERY INITIATIVE (GRI) is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 social enterprise that seeks to help transform social attitudes and policy while expanding opportunities for recovery and removing social, cultural, legal, and policy barriers to recovery. Substance use problems are at the root of a number of our nation's costly social problems. While addiction is well documented, the hope and possibility of recovery is often not recognized or acknowledged. Addiction is perceived as overwhelming and recovery from it often futile. By demonstrating the reality of recovery, and providing the tools to achieve it, GRI seeks to shift the paradigm from hopelessness to empowerment. Recovery is more than abstinence, it is about living a healthy, productive, and expansive life. That reality has been missing from the social conversation on addiction. Without the promise of a better life, individuals and families affected by drug and alcohol problems remain trapped in the vicious cycle of active addiction, with innumerable costs to themselves, their communities, and to the nation.