Faith-Based Approaches: The Role of Faith and Religious Institutions in Addressing Substance Use
Faith, spirituality and faith-based organisations can play an important role in addressing substance use, supporting recovery and responding to related vulnerabilities as well as crime. Across different cultural and community settings, they can provide identity, belonging, hope and sustained relationships, while often reaching individuals and families in ways that formal services cannot.
But recognising this potential also raises important questions. How can faith communities ensure that the support they provide is informed by evidence? How can faith leaders be equipped with the knowledge and skills they need? And how can faith-based support connect effectively with health, social and government services while respecting individual beliefs and choices?
These questions were at the heart of Faith-Based Approaches: The Role of Faith and Religious Institutions in Addressing Substance Use session, which I had the honour to chair on 23 September during ISSUP’s 2026 Virtual Conference. Drawing on research, professional practice, regional initiatives and lived experience, the session explored both the distinctive strengths of faith-based responses and the challenges and limitations that need to be addressed.
Perspectives on faith-based responses
Tim Rosier opened the session by exploring what we mean by faith and faith-based approaches and considering the potential and purpose of faith in the recovery and desistance journeys of adolescents and young adults. His presentation highlighted how faith can provide identity, purpose and belonging throughout recovery and desistance. It also introduced an important concept for professionals working in this area: faith literacy. Professionals and faith communities need to better understand one another if they are to recognise the role faith may play in an individual's life and work together effectively.
A useful lesson for practice is that faith should neither be assumed to be important to everyone nor overlooked when it is important to someone. Understanding a person's own experience of faith or spirituality can form part of a genuinely person-centred approach.
Sofia Serú then moved the discussion from understanding the role of faith to translating faith-based approaches into practical resources for communities. She presented the Latin American Pastoral Manual for Addiction Prevention and Support, developed through an extensive collaborative process across Latin America. What stood out was the scale and participatory nature of that process: experiences and knowledge were brought together from communities across 18 Latin American countries, involving hundreds of people and 20 thematic rooms. Rather than separating faith and science or theory and practice, the initiative sought to build bridges between them and produce a practical resource that can continue to evolve.
This provides an important lesson for anyone developing resources for faith communities. Local knowledge and community experience should not simply be added after a programme has been designed; they can be part of the process of creating it.
Dr José Luis Vázquez Martínez shared CICAD's experience of strengthening faith-based responses to drugs and youth criminal recruitment in the Americas. His presentation demonstrated how faith and science can complement one another in addressing substance use and protecting young people from criminal recruitment. A particularly important message was the need to invest in local leadership, regional networks and continued support beyond initial training. Building capacity cannot be reduced to a single training activity. If change is to be sustained, communities need relationships, networks and opportunities for continued learning and cooperation.
This is particularly relevant when addressing youth criminal recruitment, where substance use is part of a much wider picture involving young people's families, communities, vulnerabilities and opportunities. Faith organisations may be valuable partners within that wider response, but they cannot and should not work in isolation.
Andy Partington invited us to consider the Christian contribution to prevention and recovery through both its strengths and its vulnerabilities. His reflections highlighted the importance of community, connection and compassion. Churches and faith communities can provide spaces in which people experience belonging, relationships and opportunities to reconnect with others. At the same time, faith-based support needs to be holistic, inclusive and respectful of individual choices.
That balance is important. The distinctive strengths of faith communities should be recognised, but so should the boundaries of their role. Spiritual and community support should connect with appropriate professional care rather than attempting to replace it.
Babangida Lawal Ibrahim brought an important African perspective through his research examining religious leaders and institutions in Nigeria. One of the most interesting findings was the contrast between the high level of trust placed in religious institutions and the gaps that remain in providing structured support for people experiencing substance use problems. His research therefore raises a practical question: how can we build on the trust that already exists while equipping religious leaders with the training, referral pathways and professional partnerships needed to support their communities more effectively?
The answer is not to expect faith leaders to become addiction professionals. Their position in communities can instead be strengthened through appropriate knowledge and training, an understanding of the boundaries of their role and clear pathways for connecting people with specialist services when needed.
Finally, Huseyin Djemil brought together personal lived experience of long-term recovery and more than 30 years of professional experience across treatment, recovery, commissioning, criminal justice and service leadership. His contribution brought our discussion back to the individual and reminded us that recovery is about much more than stopping substance use. It is about rebuilding a life, finding hope and belonging, developing meaningful relationships and discovering that we still have something valuable to contribute to others.
He also highlighted how people can move beyond being defined by addiction or by their role as a service user and become active and valued members of their communities. Faith communities can provide opportunities for this kind of belonging and contribution. But an essential principle is that faith must be offered rather than imposed, individual beliefs and choices must be respected, and spiritual support should work alongside evidence-informed treatment.
Connecting faith, science and lived experience
Despite the very different contexts and experiences represented in the session, a common message emerged: faith-based organisations have significant strengths through their trust, reach and community presence, but their contribution can be strengthened through evidence-based practice, appropriate training, clear referral pathways and stronger collaboration with professional services. This is not about choosing between faith and science.
The presentations showed different ways in which scientific knowledge, professional expertise, lived experience and faith-based community support can complement one another. Faith communities can provide relationships, belonging and continuity. Professionals can provide specialised knowledge, assessment and treatment. Researchers can help us understand what works, for whom and in which contexts. People with lived experience can ensure that responses remain connected to the realities of recovery.
Bringing these perspectives together can create more comprehensive and compassionate responses than any one sector can provide alone.
Putting the learning into practice
For faith and religious leaders, one practical starting point is to consider what happens when somebody affected by substance use seeks support. Is accurate information available? Do leaders understand when specialist help is required? Are there clear referral pathways to treatment, health or social services? Strengthening these connections can allow faith communities to build on the trust they already hold while recognising the boundaries of their role.
For prevention, treatment and recovery professionals, greater faith literacy can help them recognise when faith or spirituality is meaningful within someone's recovery journey. This does not mean introducing faith where it is not wanted. It means being able to understand and work respectfully with an important part of someone's identity when they themselves identify it as relevant.
For researchers, the session highlighted the need to continue building the evidence base around faith, substance use, recovery and desistance. Research needs to move beyond broad questions about whether faith is beneficial and examine how faith-based responses operate, for whom, in which contexts and under what conditions.
For policymakers and international organisations, there is an opportunity to recognise faith communities as partners while investing in the structures that allow those partnerships to work: capacity building, evidence-informed training, referral systems, local leadership and sustained networks rather than one-off engagement.
And across all of these areas, people with lived experience and young people themselves need to remain part of the conversation, not simply as recipients of programmes but as contributors to the development of responses that affect their lives.
From discussion to continued collaboration
The level of engagement during and following the session showed that there is considerable interest in developing this work further. Audience questions explored how faith-based approaches can be translated into effective practice and how collaboration between faith communities and professional services can be strengthened. Participants also reached out following the session to continue discussions and explore opportunities for collaboration.
For ISSUP members, one practical next step could be to start a conversation in their own community and reach out to ISSUP National Chapter in their country, ISSUP Regional Nation Chapter Coordinator, or ISSUP Faith and Youth Coordinator, to get involved and continue the conversation. There is no single model that can simply be transferred across countries, cultures and faith traditions. What is possible, however, is to create stronger opportunities for learning, exchange and collaboration while ensuring that approaches remain evidence-informed, culturally relevant and person-centred.
Ultimately, the session brought us back to one central message: the importance of connecting faith, scientific knowledge, lived experience and community support, while always keeping the individual at the centre.
