An episode of “Changing the Conversation” podcast
Brother Jeffrey Lewis and Jill O’Brien share strategies for training the Massachusetts substance use peer support workforce with host Ashley Stewart. This episode is sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS).
April 22, 2024
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Ashley Stewart, Host (00:05): Hello and welcome to Changing the Conversation. I’m your host, Dr. Ashley Stewart, the director for the Center on Equity at C4 Innovations. And today we have an exciting episode about the Recovery Education Collaborative, also known as the REC. This episode is sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, also known as BSAS. I’m so excited to be joined by two very special guests. We have Jill O’Brien, who is the program director of the Recovery Education Collaborative, joining us from Boston Massachusetts and the Bay State Community Services. Jill, we’re so excited to have you here with us today.
Jill O’Brien, Guest (00:50): Thank you, Ashley, so much.
Ashley (00:52): We also have Brother Jeffrey. Brother Jeffrey is the Recovery Education Collaborative Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator.
Brother Jeffrey Lewis, Guest (01:01): Thank you, Ashley. I’m humbled and honored to be here today. Very excited as well.
Ashley (01:05): I’m excited too. And Jill, you’re here joining us from Bay State Community Service, and Brother Jeffrey from Torchlight Recovery. Before we talk a little bit about the REC as a whole, I’m wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your organizations, the populations you serve, and just a little bit about them.
Jill (01:21): Bay State Community Services is a leader in providing social services. We are promoting emotional and social well-being to the communities that we serve, and we are seeking to empower individuals and families through culturally competent behavioral health, substance use recovery, prevention, and rehabilitative justice programs. We have over 80 programs in the South Shore of Massachusetts.
Ashley (01:51): Awesome. Tell us about Torchlight, Brother Jeffrey.
Bro. Jeffrey (01:54): Torchlight is an organization, a nonprofit organization that was established I believe three years ago. And our goal and purpose is to uplift the people, meet them where they’re at, and come at our people with a lens of love, respect, and non-judgment. So that entails the whole BIPOC community and those that don’t have a voice and we’re their lens and we’re their voice. So it’s incorporating our reentry. Any resources that we could come across, we’re going to get those resources into the people’s hands and any table that we could sit at to advocate for equity and all that would better the life of humanity overall, that’s what we’re about. And the group that we have is very dynamic and we continue to rise on a yearly basis in regards to outreach and in regards to who knows about Torchlight. So overall, our goal and our purpose is to help our people.
Ashley (02:56): Amazing. So two organizations with dynamic missions and visions for the work that you’re doing. And Jill, if I’m correct, there’s two other organizations that are part of the REC. Is that correct? Can you tell us a little bit about the other two organizations?
Jill (03:12): That is MOAR, which is the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery, and they’re a peer-led and -run organization whose mission is to advance recovery through advocacy. And they hold several large public policy events every year. They’re statewide throughout Massachusetts, and they mobilize the recovery community to advocate for themselves. And we also have C4 Innovations, who is an amazing, amazing partner. Their mission is to advance equitable access to recovery, wellness, and housing stability for people who are systematically marginalized through training and technical assistance. And all four of our organizations have come together to form the Recovery Education Collaborative.
Ashley (03:57): So we have, okay, four really dynamic groups of people coming together to do what exactly? So our listeners might not be familiar with an education collaborative. They may be familiar with a recovery education collaborative. So Brother Jeffrey, can you tell us a little bit about what the REC is for someone who’s brand new to this? Never heard of it, wants to know more.
Bro. Jeffrey (04:21): The REC is four dynamic organizations like you stated already. And what we do is we deal with recovery education, we deal with the trainings for the state of Massachusetts. Some of the trainings consist of self-care or multiple pathways or, all the trainings — I’ll say this about the trainings is that even myself as a facilitator of the trainings, we learn so much about recovery. I’m a person in long-term recovery for eight years now. And when we give these trainings, they’re done by people in long-term recovery and that way it’s from a lens of those who have been through it. So that’s one component.
Jill (05:00): The four organizations that we have in the collaborative, we’ve come together and the thing that we have in common that makes us so powerful is our commitment to equity, advocacy, and empowerment of recovery community, and we also have a strong group of people that have lived experience in recovery. I would be remiss if I also did not mention the 14 amazing facilitators that we have that have experience and expertise, both lived experience in recovery and expertise in their work in the recovery field, that on a daily basis are providing the training for the community. So while we have these four amazing organizations, the people that are doing the work day to day is what is the heart and soul of the Recovery Education Collaborative.
Bro. Jeffrey (05:59): Another interesting and important component of the REC is our leadership team, which consists of two individuals from each organization and we meet on a weekly basis every Tuesday, and we talk about whatever information we gather throughout the state, and we are trying to pretty much uplift people in the communities and in the state. We’re pretty much looking for information, how we could better the trainings, how we could better work within our organizations and utilize the resources and our capabilities to better assist the people.
Ashley (06:35): One of the things that you both mentioned that I think is so important is you talked about the critical component of this that is centering lived expertise and lived experience. Jill, you talked about there’s these organizations, but there’s the people who are doing the work. You also mentioned Brother Jeffrey, you mentioned that even the organizations are very much centered in the value around lived experience and lived expertise. What role does lived expertise have in informing the work of the REC?
Bro. Jeffrey (07:02): The lived experience component is essential because if you’re given the trainings, let’s say, and you have experience, you’ve been through it, the conversation within that training is going to be one that is going to be recognized by those that also have lived experience. A lot of the people who have become recovery coaches come from that world, have been through the fire pretty much, and are now at a point where they want to help and give back because they’re on the road to recovery. They’re bettering their lives and recognize that someone helped them and they want to help somebody else. A lot of the people that are recovery coaches and in these trainings are dedicated to the work. So the lived experience component as a teacher, given it to someone who’s already experienced the same thing you experienced, there’s a certain dynamic there that you can’t make up. You can’t learn in academia. You know what I mean?
Ashley (07:56): You’re right. There’s no book that could teach it. There’s no certification that could teach it. This is about real life everyday experiences and creating an opportunity for folks to learn from that. What kind of impact have you felt like that’s had, Jill, with being informed so much by that lived expertise?
Jill (08:14): So much. We have the privilege and honor to get to train people that are new to recovery coaching and peer support work. We do a five day Recovery Coach Academy as the base of where people would start in their journey for becoming a recovery coach or peer support worker. And a lot of times people come in brand new, excited about doing the work, wanting to learn more, and we have seasoned facilitators that have experience having been recovery coaches and have been doing this work for a long time, and they’re able to share through listening and helping to build the knowledge and skills of people that are just coming into this.
(09:04): In addition, we are also responsible for doing the CARC recertification trainings as well. So people that have been doing this work for a long time, but that would like to have additional skills and maybe they’re feeling burned out and maybe they need to come together with their peers and have a place where they can share things that they’re struggling with in a specific area and they can have support within a training, maybe learn something they’ve never known before, have their knowledge shifted in a way that they needed it to. So we’re here to provide experiences, learning experiences and opportunities for people in their recovery field and peer workers.
Ashley (09:52): That seems so supportive. And I can imagine how people who have the opportunity to interact with REC feel so supported in having this collective, this collaborative. You mentioned an acronym, I think you said CARC. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is, maybe for a listener who’s unfamiliar with that acronym?
Jill (10:11): Yeah. There’s so many acronyms in this world, isn’t there? The CARC is a Certified Addiction Recovery Coach, and that’s in Massachusetts what the coaches receive as a certification once they’ve completed their trainings and their 500 hours of coaching and supervision, they’re able to then apply for their certification. We do the certification training and the recertification training to help people keep those certifications up.
Ashley (10:43): One of the things that I can’t help but to notice as we’re talking about this, we have these individual organizations, these people within the organizations, people on the ground who are doing this incredible work, and I’d imagine in a lot of capacities, have been doing so independently as organizations prior to this unity that is the Recovery Education Collaborative. So one of the questions that I have is why did the REC come together and what goals helped to form it? And I know, Brother Jeffrey, you started to begin to describe the impact of that unity of these organizations, but what was the catalyst for that. Why did these organizations come together?
Bro. Jeffrey (11:24): Initially, there was an RFR up, meaning that there was an opportunity for an organization or organizations to be contracted for a ten-year period to provide recovery education for the state of Massachusetts. And my brother, Minister Randy from Torchlight and Daurice from Bay State were already working together. And when this came up, Daurice brought it to Minister Randy and said that Torchlight would be a good group to be part of this collaboration. And Daurice and Bay State already have partnerships, I believe, with MOAR and C4 Innovations. So it kind of came together in such a way that the organizations that were already connected would’ve made an amazing collaboration. So that was the initial joining of the Groups. BSAS which is the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services is a key component to the collaboration forming.
(12:23): Each organization was already working and having their own goals and working within the state, but BSAS and the funding from BSAS allowed us to come together and collaborate in such a way that if you ask me, I don’t think — there’s no collaboration like the one in Massachusetts, so. The REC is one of a kind, and Danielle O’Brien is a key component of that who leads BSAS at this time, and she’s humble. She’s a very nice person and she’s dedicated to the work as well. So that lived experience piece we’ve been talking about. It’s full circle. When it comes to the collaboration, when it comes to BSAS, when it comes to the work that we’re doing. One key component that I would like to share about the Recovery Education Collaborative is each one of the different organizations has an expertise.
(13:14): There’s things that we all do as a collective and within our organizations, we do a lot of similar things, but each group brings a special, I would say, a secret sauce to the collaboration. And when it all comes together, the work that’s being done and the way we’re able to engage not only the peer support workers, but directors of organizations, clinicians or whoever is in the state of Massachusetts, it’s received in such a way that it’s understandable. So that’s something that I feel is very important is that it’s a universal language that the REC has the ability to project.
Ashley (13:54): I love that idea of it being a universal language. And in those early conversations, as this formed with the groups coming together and talking about how to even submit for this, Jill, what were some of the goals that were established through this critical partnership for the broader vision for the REC?
Jill (14:19): A lot of it was prescribed by the RFR and what BSAS was looking for in a collaborative group to do, they recognized that the field of recovery support services was growing rapidly, and they saw the need for training and quality training and skill development for peer support workers. And so, that really has become our goal. We’ve taken it on to deliver and to really take it to the next level of what’s already been done to continue to support the peer support workers and just to bring it into the next generation of what’s being done. In addition to that, we’re also extremely committed to equity. We really see that there’s a need for more coaches and peer support workers from communities that have been traditionally marginalized communities that don’t have the representation in the BIPOC community, in the Spanish speaking communities, in the deaf and hard of hearing communities and the LGBTQ+ communities. So the organizations that have come together have made a commitment and to really help to develop coaches in those specific communities. And so, we’re really excited to see how that unfolds.
Ashley (15:49): And this is something that’s needed far and wide. I know that this is happening uniquely in the Boston area, and as Brother Jeffrey already alluded to, there’s some secret sauce that’s associated with this process too. And as you mentioned, these are really important things to be thinking about equity access. What are some of these unique features that could be replicated? So I’m thinking about someone who’s listening to this and they’re like, “Yeah, there’s definitely some secret sauce. We want some of that sauce too. We want to be able to replicate this. We want to be able to prioritize these same areas of focus for recovery in our state.” So what are some of these unique things that you feel can be replicated, and what would you offer if you were to share a little bit of the secret sauce, Brother Jeffrey?
Bro. Jeffrey (16:36): It’s supposed to be a secret but I’ll share some things that I believe key components to the collaboration. One of the main things is the different organizations can do what they’re good at and still be part of the collaboration. But at the same time, with this collaboration, there’s a lot of cross work being done. One of the main things that we are, I believe, is humble as an organization, willing to share, willing to listen, and if maybe we’re not on point, take that in and try to do better. So there’s a lot of humility going around even on the leadership table. So humility is a key component. And on top of that authenticity, several of the people that are part of the REC have lived experience and being able to share that openly and bring it to the work that we do and keep it at the forefront, I think is a key component as well. That’s a little bit of the secret sauce. I can’t give it all to you though. [Laughter]
Jill (17:36): I’ve, I’ve got a couple more ingredients I could add. I would sprinkle in a twelve-person peer steering committee that we have that adds diversity and strength, and they all have lived experience on our peer steering committee, and they all bring something unique in the work that they do, and they’re bringing to advising and guiding the Recovery Education Collaborative, and then also funding and state support. [Laughter] We couldn’t do this without the support of BSAS, and so we’re very thankful for them and for the funding that they’re providing. It definitely takes an investment from the state in order to do this, so we’re grateful for that.
Ashley (18:23): I love it, and I appreciate you all being so generous with these ingredients. I’m wondering from each of you, what excites you the most about the impact or the potential impact, so current or potential impact of the REC and the work that you all are doing?
Bro. Jeffrey (18:39): So for me, just a little background on top of working with the REC, work with an outreach team and have been for several years, and when I initially started doing that work resources and doors being shut was something that I had to face. Something I appreciate about the REC and that excites me is that the work that we are doing here as a collaborative, it’s going to directly impact those that are in the community that need assistance. And I see it as it’s better than, it’s like if you could put a bandaid on a wound that needed stitches, that’s only going to last for so long. But it’s like we literally have the ability to make a major impact on the people’s lives that are hurting the most, and that excites me.
Jill (19:30): I just love recovery coaching and peer support work. I absolutely love it. Walking alongside someone that is struggling and the benefit and support that a recovery coach or peer support worker can have in someone’s life is transformative. And I get to see it firsthand as a recovery coach myself. And to be able to build a workforce that can do this across the state and can do it well, and for them to feel confident in their work for the recovery coaches, to feel confident in their work and capable in their work, and to get to see results, that is exciting to me. We have an opportunity. We have a nine-year contract, so to be able to see that over time and to really see the strength and the numbers that we’re going to be able to help to build and develop is incredibly, incredibly exciting to me.
Ashley (20:36): Yeah, absolutely. Brother Jeffrey.
Bro. Jeffrey (20:39): Jill hit it on the head talking about the contract and the amount of years. If you think about it, we have an opportunity to shape the recovery education in the state of Massachusetts, and we can also share it throughout different states. So we have the ability to pretty much establish something that spreads throughout the United States, if not the world. And that’s not a far-reaching statement. I believe that’s accurate and that can actually happen. That’s the REC. That’s exciting.
Ashley (21:06): That is exciting. I’m certain that there are listeners who are tuned in who are thinking about, okay, I want to do this in my state. What are some pieces of advice that you would have for them? One, you all have been able to demonstrate and I think really communicate where the possibilities lie. And I’m sure there’ve been some challenges that you have overcome in this process of lessons learned. So what are, just a couple takeaways you would have for listeners who are interested in doing this in their states.
Bro. Jeffrey (21:39): Anything of value has a difficulty factor attached to it. So you’re going to have bumps, you’re going to have issues maybe within collaboration, but at the end of the day, my key advice would be to keep your focus on those that are going to be assisted by the work that you’re doing. Because a lot of people get involved in this work because they had to deal with it themselves. Or even if they didn’t deal with it themselves, they may have family members that have dealt with it. We’ve all had somebody impacted by substance use disorder and just don’t give up is what it is, don’t give up and don’t quit. Just keep fighting and you guys will be able to do it. And also, recovery Education Collaborative is in Massachusetts, but we have an email and a phone number so you can reach out to us anytime.
Ashley (22:29): And that’s the collaborative nature, right? That’s the beauty of it. Say we’re here for you too. [Laughter] What about you, Jill? Any thoughts you’d have for listeners who are excited to think about this and want to be as best prepared as possible?
Jill (22:45): I don’t think any one organization could have done this on its own. I think it really, the strength comes from all of the organizations that we have together, the support of the state and the peer participatory process that we’ve engaged in since the beginning with folks with lived experience being both on our leadership team and from the peer steering committee and from doing listening sessions with the community and engaging with the community. And Brother Jeffrey and the more regional coordinators have been out doing community engagement sessions. We continue to lean in to asking people what they feel like they need.
(23:34): And so, I think it’s important that we listen and we try to create unity within the recovery community that often times is amongst itself not supportive of each other. And that is, I think, probably is the most heartbreaking piece of it coming into this work myself. But somewhere that I see that we can really shift is being a relationship builder and being a partner builder and not gate keeping, but really inviting people into the process and really inviting partners and bringing unity to the recovery community and holding that as a leader in this work.
Ashley (24:19): I can’t think of more uplifting and encouraging note to bring our podcast episode to close on. And so with that, Brother Jeffrey, Jill O’Brien, thank you for joining us.
Jill (24:33): Thank you so much, Ashley, for having us. This was awesome.
Bro. Jeffrey (24:36): Thank you, Dr. Ashley, we appreciate you and the opportunity.
Ashley (24:40): And to our listeners, join us next time on Changing the Conversation.
Erika Simon, Producer (24:44): Visit c4innovates.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more resources to grow your impact. Thank you for joining us. This episode is sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, also known as BSAS, and was produced by Erika Simon and Christina Murphy. Our theme song was written and performed by Peter Hanlon. Join us next time on Changing the Conversation.
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