The Role of Social Networks
Marcus sits across from his sponsor, sharing something he couldn't tell anyone during his using years. This conversation wouldn't happen without the relationships he's rebuilt. The article explores ho…
Building a Recovery-Friendly Community
A person in recovery walks into a community center for the first time. She's nervous about judgment, but finds others like her, a job board, and counselors who know her name. This is what recovery-fri…
Steps to Well-being: Navigating Recovery with Hope and Support
You're lying awake at three in the morning, your body aching for something it no longer gets. This excerpt explores what comes after you decide to stop, when the real work begins. Learn how attending…
Recovery Allies – Spiritual Health in Recovery
Sarah finds peace washing dishes, mopping floors, sensing wonder in tasks most people rush through. Alison Webb's Recovery Allies explores how spiritual health shapes recovery differently for each per…
Recovery Allies: Supporting the Pillar of Health
Sarah sits in her doctor's office for the first time in five years. Her recovery journey is months old, but her body carries the weight of years of substance use. This article explores how health beco…
Recovery Allies
Someone asks you what you can do to help. Maybe you know a person in recovery searching for housing, or you want your neighborhood to embrace recovery-friendly communities. "Safe housing is the founda…
Book Review: The 12 and 12
Someone walks into an AA meeting feeling lost, then finds themselves in a room where a stranger's story mirrors their own. The book "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" explains why these meetings wor…
Recovery Capital
Brittany moved into a recovery residence with nothing but chaos behind her. Five years later, she owns a house, works at the Maine Association of Recovery Residences, and parents an eight-month-old so…
The Pillars of Recovery
Ron Springel knows exactly what makes a recovery residence work: it's the place where someone actually got well. This simple wisdom points to something larger. Four pillars support recovery for everyo…
What’s Your (Ally) Language of Love?
A person in recovery celebrates a milestone. A coworker shows up. A neighbor asks the right question. These moments matter because allies shape how recovery is seen and supported. Learn how to express…
We Have Superpowers!
Erica Buswell sits with six community members around a table, planning how to help their friend find work and fix a broken car. What started as a simple idea, that people in recovery have gifts to off…
Probation Officers
Alicia Smith sits across from a person on probation and asks about their hobbies, their family, what matters to them. She's a probation officer, which most people assume means enforcing rules. But Smi…
Recovery Residences
Josh Leonard wore out his welcome at home before finding Portland Sober Living. Two years as a resident transformed his life so completely that he stayed on as house manager. Recovery residences, from…
Medication Assistance
Sarah Siegel stood at a crossroads, feeling death hover over her shoulder as heroin gripped her life. Then a doctor offered another path: methadone. She chose it, and that choice became her choice to…
Five tips for being a recovery ally
Ron Springel sits across from someone newly in recovery and asks an open question: What is your recovery journey like? That conversation, that listening, is where allyship begins. This guide offers fi…
Recovery Allies – Photographers
Joanne Arnold stands at dawn with men gathering around a fire circle at MaineWorks, camera in hand. She photographs people in early recovery, capturing moments of dignity and determination. Later, her…
Family Matters
Kaitlin MacKenzie asked her parents for one thing in early recovery: connection instead of judgment. Her father, a police chief, learned to lead with love. Her mother, a teacher, created space for hon…
Yoga Instructors
Elise Boyson came to yoga and felt something unexpected: she was coming home to herself. Now, as Executive Director of Sea Change Yoga in Portland, she brings trauma-informed classes to people in jail…
The Clergy
Rev. Allen Ewing Merrill stands before his congregation and speaks plainly: every person has sacred worth, no exceptions. At HopeGateWay in Portland, faith communities are moving beyond hosting meetin…
Recovery Allies (Issue 8)
At a brewery in Kennebunk, Police Chief Bob MacKenzie describes something radical: officers treating people in recovery with dignity. He's not alone. Across Maine, law enforcement are becoming recover…
Rotarians can make a big impact on addiction crisis
Lisa Hallee sat in a Portland Rotary Club meeting when she heard about the opioid epidemic ravaging Maine. The words landed hard: her nephew had died from an overdose months earlier. That moment spark…
Recovery Allies: Business Owners
A yoga teacher in Portland opens her studio doors free to people in recovery. A credit union helps someone rebuild their credit score. A gym owner reserves one night weekly for members seeking wellnes…