Building a recovery network

For her, it was a chance to help others heal as she continued to heal herself. Clowney-Robinson intimately knew the effects of family violence; growing up, she witnessed her father abuse her mother.

“We all had different outlets for coping with the uncontrollability of the situation,” she said.

“My coping mechanism was an eating disorder.”

So for her class project, she set out to create an online community for individuals recovering from eating disorders, the Eating Disorders Recovery Support Network.

“When I went through recovery, it was important to have people around who understood what I was going through,” she said.

Other organizations have websites, Clowney-Robinson said, but they’re not always monitored and anyone can post comments.

“I wanted a safe and private place where victims could share information as they were going through recovery,” she said.

To help with monitoring, Clowney-Robinson enlisted the help of a network of graduate students from around the world to approve content 24/7. Visitors to the portal also fill out a brief questionnaire and register an account.

The Recovery Support Network has grown quickly. Since launching the site, more than 4000 people have signed up for membership and 3500 are active in using the resources. Clowney-Robinson has partnered with S.P.E.A.K., an eating disorder awareness group on Ann Arbor’s campus, where she serves as a coordinator and community outreach leader. She hopes to branch out to other Big Ten universities as well.

Lora Lempert, professor of sociology, isn’t surprised by the growth of the online community.

“Marna’s project was both far-sighted and sustainable because she anticipated potential glitches and solved them in advance, and because she used her own experiences to empower other women,” Lempert said.

This weekend, Sociologists for Women in Society awarded Clowney-Robinson the Undergraduate Social Action Award for her project. The award recognizes students “making a substantial contribution to improving the lives of women in society through activism.”

Clowney-Robinson’s message of recovery could reach an even larger audience in the next couple months. Talk show hosts Katie Couric and Ricki Lake both have interviewed her for upcoming show segments.

But Clowney-Robinson isn’t concentrating on the awards or fame. She’ll continue to build her support network to let others know they don’t have to go through recovery alone.

“It’s hard to find the time to keep everything going. I’m trying to finish school, and the work on the website has to be ongoing,” she said. “But I won’t let these people down.”