Turning Lived Experience Into a Rewarding Career Path

In the early days of his recovery from substance use disorder, Lonny Martin knew that he was gaining the skills, tools, and the support network he needed to build a whole new future for himself. What he didn’t expect, is that along the way, he was also building the foundation of a rewarding new career as a peer support specialist.

In this position, Lonny works one-on-one with individuals to help them access communitybased resources and provide an empathetic, supportive, and helpful hand when they need it.

“The toughest thing anybody could ever do is to choose recovery and stay in it. Sometimes, it’s taking it one minute at a time,” Lonny says. “But I know where they are, how sad and how scared they are.”

“Know that people out there need you.”

Being able to tap into his own firsthand experience to support others has provided a healing power of its own.

“It’s such a beautiful gift to know that I can potentially make a difference in someone’s life,” Lonny adds. “By giving back in this way, I can also help my own recovery.”

Lonny is part of the growing field of Direct Support, ensuring that Mainers with age-related, physical, behavioral, intellectual and cognitive health needs have the support they need to stay safe, independent and empowered to achieve their personal goals. Training is widely available.

The abundance of full-time, parttime, and per diem opportunities with employers around the state means that those who are interested can find positions that allow them to manage work with other life and school responsibilities, as well as their own personal recovery efforts.

A growing number of people are discovering fulfilling opportunities in peer support and recovery coaching, where their first-hand experience with recovery from substance use disorder is preferred and, in some cases, required. That includes recovery coach, Ryan Paige.

“Sobriety and helping people have been the biggest gifts of my life,” Ryan says.

Being able to connect with others who are in recovery and give them support has completely transformed the way he’s seen his own journey and struggles, with both addiction and recovery from substance use disorder.

“The opportunity to be a recovery coach has changed the whole trajectory of what my life has been, what I thought my life could be, and what I thought of myself,” Ryan says.

Like Ryan, Lonny would recommend the work to anyone. “Believe in yourself enough and know that people out there need you,” he says. “Once you see that people need you, it could become a passion, and it could be the best job you’ve ever had in your life. I know for me it is.”

To learn more about full-time, parttime, and per-diem opportunities in your community, go to Mainecareerswithpurpose.org.

Follow @mainecareerswithpurpose on Facebook and Instagram.