What Is Voices of the Unheard?

Voices of the Unheard is NACoA’s September 1 through September 30, 2026 campaign for children impacted by family addiction. Throughout Recovery Month, the campaign will raise awareness, invite people across the country to walk, and raise $150,000 to help children feel seen, heard, and supported.

The campaign begins with a question that can be easy to miss during public conversations about addiction and recovery: What about the children?

Nearly 19 million children in the United States lived with at least one parent or primary caregiver who had a substance use disorder in 2023. That is approximately one in four children, according to a 2025 study published in JAMA Pediatrics and summarized by the National Institutes of Health.

Behind that number are children learning how to read the mood in a room, deciding which parts of home life are safe to discuss, or trying to understand why someone they love keeps changing. Their experiences differ. They share a need for honest language, dependable adults, and the freedom to understand that a parent’s substance use is not their fault.

What does Voices of the Unheard mean?

Voices of the Unheard creates space for children, teens, and adults who grew up with addiction in their families to be recognized within the recovery conversation.

The campaign’s central message is simple: Children Deserve Recovery Too.

A child’s recovery may include learning the Seven Cs, identifying a trusted adult, receiving support at school, talking with a counselor, hearing an adult explain addiction in age-appropriate language, or discovering that other families have lived through similar experiences. Healing can begin while a parent is in recovery. It can begin while a parent is still struggling. It can also begin years later for an adult who finally has language for what happened during childhood.

NACoA supports that process by equipping the adults around children. Parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, faith leaders, counselors, treatment professionals, and family friends can learn how to listen without asking a child to defend or condemn someone they love. They can offer consistency without making promises they cannot keep. They can remind a child that adult problems belong to adults.

Throughout September, Voices of the Unheard will share stories and resources that help caring adults respond with greater understanding. Personal stories will be shared with permission and care. No single story will be treated as a universal description of every family affected by substance use.

Why are we walking 19 million steps?

The campaign’s national goal is 19 million collective steps across all 50 states. Each step represents one of the nearly 19 million children identified in the 2025 research.

Singer-songwriter Morgan Wade is leading the effort through Million with Morgan, her personal commitment to walk one million steps during September. Her steps count toward the shared 19 million goal, alongside steps submitted by families, supporters, professionals, recovery communities, and people who recognize their own childhood in this campaign.

Walking gives people a visible action to take. A person can walk around a neighborhood, count steps during a workday, organize a group walk, or submit steps already taken. The collective total gives the public a way to see participation grow throughout the month.

The number is significant, and each child remains an individual. The campaign uses the 19 million steps to make the scale visible while the stories, resources, and conversations keep the children human.

How can someone participate?

There are four ways to join Voices of the Unheard: Walk, Give, Share, and Invite.

Walk by joining the September challenge and adding your steps to the national total. Give to help NACoA continue providing education, resources, programs, and training for the adults who support children. Share the campaign, the Seven Cs, or a Voices of the Unheard story with someone who needs it. Invite your workplace, school, recovery community, professional organization, faith community, or family to participate with you.

You do not need a perfect story, a large audience, or a personal connection you are ready to explain publicly. Participation can be as simple as sending one NACoA resource to a teacher or submitting the steps from your evening walk.

Join Voices of the Unheard between September 1 and September 30. Choose the action that fits you, and help make the children in the recovery story easier to see.

Sources: NIH research summary; McCabe et al., PubMed; NACoA Seven Cs.