My last update to this site was in 2019! A lot has happened since then including:
- I paused doing specialty training on substance use disorders, addiction, and the intersection of children’s services for the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program (OCWTP) so that I could focus on some work in my home county, Summit County, Ohio.
- I was the Project Coordinator for the Summit County Opiate & Addiction Task Force. I developed and maintained from early 2019- to late 2021 a community coalition of 800+ members from the healthcare, criminal justice, policy & advocacy, public awareness, youth, family and harm reduction community providers and stakeholders.
- I worked as a Program Administrator for Catholic Charities, developing and running the St. John’s Recovery Outreach Center and its peer recovery supporter team. We developed partnerships with three local hospitals to provide a peer in their emergency departments to patients who wanted to meet with someone with lived experience of a substance use or mental health disorder, to provide them with information and support and connections to services and resources.
- I was the volunteer coordinator for the Summit County Peer Recovery Supporter network. I conducted bi-monthly meetings and training of all the peer recovery supporters living or working in Summit County, Ohio to inform and build capable and competent professional peer recovery supporters for our area.
- In October of 2021 I accepted a new full-time position as the Director of Advocacy & Public Policy for Thrive Peer Recovery Services.
I’ve been in this advocacy game for 15+ years now and have developed a strong voice on the advantage of including the voice of lived experience to improve outcomes for a variety of sectors which interface or serve people with behavioral health disorders (MH or SUD), trauma and trafficking issues. It’s not time to take that experience to the next level…excited to see what is in store.