MTV announced a four-part docuseries on Monday, 16 and Recovering, which will premiere on September 1 to mark National Recovery Month and highlight a national crisis impacting today’s younger generation.
16 and Recovering follows nine students at Northshore Recovery High School, a public school in Beverly, Massachusetts, for teens recovering from drug addictions.
“I founded Recovery High School because I started seeing the face of my students change,” principal and founder Michelle Lipinski says in the trailer. “These children, in their worst day, come here. That doesn’t happen in regular schools. They just disappear.”
In the limited series, viewers will follow students and families’ paths to recovery as they are guided by faculty members who have gone through their own experiences with addiction.
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The students’ experiences will provide insight into the complexities of treatment, including healthcare coverage and financial barriers, as well as the difficulties of navigating the judicial system.
MTV is also collaborating with leading experts in recovery and addiction, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, to provide critical information and resources for 16andrecovering.com, a new site that will launch in conjunction with the premiere.
“It has been a privilege to earn the trust of Michelle and these remarkable teens who bravely share their journeys and demonstrate such extraordinary resilience as they work to overcome addiction,” said Nina L. Diaz, president and chief creative content officer, ViacomCBS Entertainment & Youth Group, in a statement.
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“When I opened Recovery High, my goal was to create a community for students to safely recover from addiction,” Lipinski said in a statement. “I’m grateful to partner with MTV in order to tell this story of resilience and showcase that recovery is possible with the right community. I hope we can be a model of other schools and communities who are addressing this issue.”
16 and Recovering premieres September 1 at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.
