The Bold Question
When an employee asked Fors Marsh what it did to support its own people through substance use and recovery, CEO Ben Garthwaite didn’t have a good answer. Here is what the company changed.
Topic
Neighbors
Recovery does not take heroes. It takes neighbors.
A pastor who mentions recovery from the pulpit. An employer whose policies make it easier to be open. A photographer who shows recovery as part of everyday life.
They know recovery is possible, and they don't flinch when it comes up. Their stories show how recovery gets easier to find, one conversation at a time.
Learn the basics in 40 minutes
48 stories
Recovery in Plain Sight
Most people picture recovery as something that happens behind closed doors. But research on social recovery keeps finding the same pattern: connection is not a side benefit of recovery—it is part of h…
Kennebunk Savings: Shifting Culture, Reducing Stigma
When Brad walks through Kennebunk Savings, he sees employees who've become "lighthouses" for colleagues struggling with substance use. The bank shifted from treating addiction as a performance problem…
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…
Nonantum Resort – Building a Recovery-Friendly Culture
At Nonantum Resort, a staffer mentions an upcoming sobriety anniversary at the team meeting, and colleagues applaud. This moment captures what happens when a workplace decides recovery belongs there.…
Building a Career Supporting Individuals in Recovery
Mackenzie Kelley spent years searching for work that mattered. Then she discovered recovery coaching, where her own experience with substance use disorder became her greatest strength. Now she spends…
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…
Overcoming Stigma: Community Roles in Recovery
Andrew from Massachusetts had one word for what held him back: stigma, stigma, stigma. When communities shift how they talk about and treat people in recovery, they remove invisible walls. This piece…
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…
Faith Organizations: Champions Against Stigma
A pastor stands before her congregation on Sunday morning and names addiction aloud, speaking of it not as moral failure but as illness worthy of compassion. Her church becomes one of hundreds nationw…
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…
Somerset County New Options Liaison Spotlight
Keith Bellefleur arrived at a call that started as a mental health crisis and turned into an overdose response. The officer revived the person, and Keith connected him to treatment that same day. Now…
Considering an Employer?
You're sitting across from a hiring manager, resume in hand. But here's what many people overlook: this interview cuts both ways. Before you say yes to any job, especially in the trades, you need to k…
Employment: A Cornerstone of Recovery
Marcus walked into his new job on Monday morning, clocking in for the first time in five years. By lunch, he realized something had shifted: he belonged somewhere again. Employment does more than pay…
OPTIONS Liaison Spotlight: Dave Bilodeau
Dave Bilodeau met a man who hadn't seen his grandchildren in five years. After helping him into recovery for one month, they reunited at Christmas. Two years later, the man passed, but his family stil…
The Writing of Recovery Allies
Alison Jones Webb trained young people in recovery to share their stories in church basements and school halls. When community members asked "What can we do to help?" she realized the answer: people n…
OPTIONS Liaison Spotlight: Lacey Bailey
Lacey Bailey sits at the Sanford Police Department, radio in hand, waiting for the next call. As an OPTIONS Liaison in long-term recovery herself, she answers when people most need someone who underst…
OPTIONS Liaison Spotlight: Dawn Kearns
Dawn Kearns starts her day at 7 am checking overnight reports with Augusta police, then moves through libraries, shelters, and soup kitchens searching for people on her caseload. Years into her own re…
Up-Level Your Professional Life In Recovery
Someone scrolling through Coursera during their lunch break discovers a web design course that sparks something. Work isn't a luxury during recovery, it's a foundation. This piece explores three affor…
The Ahab Inside Me
A playwright learns his brother died from opiate addiction and reaches for what he knows: theater. Instead of seeking revenge against the disease, he stages plays that bring people with lived experien…
OPTIONS Liaison Meets People Where They Are
Tom MacElhaney started his job as a resource guide during lockdown, when isolation hit hardest for people struggling with substances. As someone in long-term recovery himself, he saw the urgent need.…
Oliver Bradeen Born to be … a Responder!
Oliver Bradeen rides along with police officers to calls involving substance use, riding in an unmarked car to meet people in crisis. Now he coaches others doing the same work across Maine. He teaches…
Law Enforcement Officers: Allies in Uniforms
Kennebunk Police Chief Bob MacKenzie watched the same people cycle through jail repeatedly until he realized the pattern pointed to one root cause: substance use disorder. That recognition shifted eve…
Small-town Filmmakers Provide a Way to Open Hearts, Change Perceptions
Small-town Filmmakers Provide a Way to Open Hearts, Change Perceptions
Generational Noor
When Amran Osman's brother died from an overdose, she realized her Somali community stayed silent about substance use disorder. Fear kept people from seeking help. Now the 24-year-old is breaking that…
The Power of Prevention-focused Coalitions
A student at South Portland High School used a substance and faced suspension, a punishment that left them adrift. Now, when students struggle with substance use, they meet with a counselor instead. T…
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…
Eastern Maine Development Corporation (EMDC)
Lee Umphrey walks through Eastern Maine Development Corporation's Bangor office, where one in six employees is in recovery. For Umphrey, hiring people rebuilding their lives isn't a special program. I…
Employers Play a Vital Role
Doug Dunbar sat in jail wondering who would help the young, poor, sick people around him find the resources they desperately needed. Now a recovery specialist himself, he knows the answer: employers w…
Seabreeze Property Services
When someone notices a perfectly manicured lawn in Maine, they might be looking at work done by a person in recovery. Seabreeze Property Services, the state's largest landscaping company, has built so…
Be A Positive Influencer
A teen takes the keys from a friend at a party. Another says no to a drink and means it. These moments matter more than you might think. This piece explores how young people become positive influencer…
Recovery Friendly Workplaces
Keith Hornberger needed one chance to turn his life around. As a business owner in recovery, he understood that hiring others facing the same struggle meant offering something invaluable: purpose and…
What is Prevention?
A second-grader learns why medication belongs in a locked cabinet. A fourth-grader understands how drugs affect the brain. Prevention education starts early and builds year by year. This column explor…
Accessing Recovery Supports
Bruce Noddin sat in a prison ministry meeting when he noticed the same faces returning to the system again and again. That observation sparked a statewide network connecting corrections staff, nonprof…
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…
Becoming a Recovery Ally : No special skills required
Amy walked into the Bangor Area Recovery Network expecting to offer little. She wasn't a counselor or doctor, had never known anyone in recovery until her own family's crisis hit. But sitting in a roo…
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…
Mission Driven
Eddie Greyfox Burgess parks his turquoise 1965 Ford Fairlane at festivals and car shows, spreading health pamphlets and conversation. A former social worker and counselor in recovery since 1994, he tr…
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…
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…
MaineWorks works
On a dark Portland morning, Margo Walsh stands by a fire pit asking her workers if they have a place to sleep tonight. MaineWorks isn't just a construction company. It's a community built on the belie…
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…
Recovery off the mainland’s a little different
Keith Ivers watches the sun rise from his boat, headed toward mainland meetings, then watches city lights fade as he returns to Peaks Island. On Maine's smallest islands, people in recovery navigate i…
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…
The Holy Donut
When Jen Horton walked into The Holy Donut for her job interview, she heard laughter and singing from behind the counter. The CEO smiled and said, "That's our culture. I love knowing people are happy…
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…
Employers Open The Doors for Those in Recovery
Charlie Bickford runs Maine Paint's four locations and regularly hires people newly sober. When someone from a recovery meeting asks about work, he considers giving them a chance. His reasoning is sim…