Alaina Knox
Alaina Knox, 36, is five years sober and Director of Recovery Services at Sweetser. She lives in Portland with her husband, Dylan, and works alongside others who have lived experience.
Topic
Purpose and Work
Finding work that fits, and the meaning that recovery makes possible. Career pivots, identity rebuilds, and naming your strengths.
20 stories
Identify Your Super Powers
A man preparing for a job interview after incarceration had to translate skills from his past into language an employer would value. His challenge points to something bigger: most of us struggle to na…
Finding Purpose Through Work
A teacher stays late after dismissal, helping a struggling student finally understand fractions. That moment of connection, of being needed, of mattering to someone else, is what transforms work from…
Stories Restoring Hope: Jim Mello
Jim Mello's Sunday sermons reach three Methodist churches, his poetry fills handwritten notebooks by the thousands, and his voice once hosted a college radio show. But it's his work as a substance use…
Wendy Ayres – Night Shift filled with Light
Wendy works nights at a residential treatment facility, staying awake when residents need someone who understands. Nearly eighteen years in recovery, she listens with the wisdom of someone who survive…
Freddy Petrone
Freddy Petrone founded I Got Bridged, a nonprofit that serves people in need on the Seacoast. Helping others is the center of his life today. He found his recovery path after losing his sight.
Anthony Brown
Anthony Brown is a registered nurse and licensed psychiatric technician. He has written two books about his recovery.
Finding Purpose in Recovery
A parent works a full shift, then volunteers through the evening. An employee balances job and community service. Purpose isn't about saving the world in one dramatic act. In recovery, it lives in sma…
A Common Co-Existence
Bertha Pappenheim spent years institutionalized after Freud declared her "cured." What actually healed her wasn't therapy but purpose: working in soup kitchens, running an orphanage, fighting sex traf…
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…
Belonging & Purpose
Jordan answered the phone at the recovery community center's front desk, greeting someone calling for the first time. Later, as a volunteer recovery coach, he'd sit across from people sharing their da…
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…
Millions of Cups of Coffee and Not a Drop to Drink
Helen Thorgalsen stands behind the counter at H.B. Provisions, the general store she built with her partner 20 years ago in Kennebunk. She's been sober for 34 years. This is her story of recovery, of…
How Can I Follow My Bliss If I Don’t Know What It Is?
After a year or two in recovery, a question emerges: What do I want to do now that I have a chance? This practical guide walks you through a job inventory exercise, showing how to identify patterns in…
Veronica Ingrao
Veronica Ingrao finished college and grad school and now works as a therapist, a job she loves. Her education and her recovery grew side by side.
Finding Meaningful Work and Helping Others Find Theirs
Zachary Walker turns 30 this summer, settling into a cottage with his girlfriend while helping other Mainers find jobs and stability. Seven years into his recovery, he works as a Peer Connector for Go…
A Life Second To None
When she first stopped drinking, she imagined a gray future: survival, not joy. She assumed life without alcohol meant a small, dull existence. Instead, recovery opened doors she never knew existed. T…
Ashley Reny
Ashley Reny sits in her office fielding calls from people desperate for a shot at recovery. Ten years ago, she was one of them, overdosing and waking in withdrawal at a recovery house in Portland. Now…
Mike Ouellette
Mike Ouellette is the Food Pantry Coordinator at York County Shelter Programs, the place he once came to for help. He loves his job and gets to pay forward the hope he was given.
H.O.P.E.: Finding meaning, value and purpose
A young Maine surgeon noticed something powerful: when he stopped talking and listened to his patients' stories, they healed better. Decades later, Dr. Ken Hamilton developed H.O.P.E. Groups around th…