06/28/2023
We are so grateful for our amazing street outreach partnerships! Congrats Aisha Diss and her team!
2023 Peer Recovery Coach of the Year Acceptance Speech ♥️
First and foremost, I want to thank all of you who are out there doing the hard and lifesaving work of being peer recovery coaches. I’m so grateful to get to be here surrounded by so many of you likeminded and kindred spirits. The world is a much better place because you’re all in it!
I have to take time out to thank my loved ones. As many of you might know, coaching and street outreach can be hard and time-consuming and the work to form, establish and grow a nonprofit organization is all-consuming. It takes a special kind of patience, love, and grace to stand aside and support somebody’s dream wholeheartedly when they barely have time to spend with you. I am so grateful for my husband Jeff, who has been next to me since before my time in recovery and has always been my safe place, to my children, Kiersa, Cameron, and Caiden -who have not only forgiven all of my transgressions but now work alongside me, to my sisters Sondra and Amber, my niece Whitley-who never gave up on me no matter how ugly it got. And all of my cheerleaders, friends and confidants-who are too many to name.
A special thanks to Jennifer Hope and Vincent Q-who you saw speak so kindly of me in the video; to Heather Rodriguez and the Indiana Recovery Network team who believed in me when project.ME was just a page and to Justin Beattey, who awarded the tenacity in my pursuit to become a peer recovery coach with scholarship information rather than become annoyed by my multiple inquiries.
As a person in sustained recovery (almost 15 years!) whose pathway is a non-traditional one, I have adopted many ideologies and practices through my own healing recovery journey.
One of these that is most prevailing is my “get to” attitude. If you have had more than one conversation with me, you’ve probably heard about this (so I’m sorry to y’all). I know I’m also with my people today so hopefully many of you also have a “get to” way of seeing and being.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, my “get to” attitude is how I define the gratitude I feel just for waking up and being alive, each day. Therefore, everything else I get to do is bonus. I believe it keeps me grateful, humble, loving and kind. Because I’m still alive, I get to pay bills, I get to take my car in for repairs and I get to clean my apartment. I try to view everything this way. I don’t have to do these things, I “get to” because I have a second chance and what a blessing to have money to pay bills, a car to take in for repairs and an apartment to clean because I didn’t always get to have these things.
I encourage you all to place your focus on all of the amazing and rad things you get to do.
I believe that having this kind of mindset has attracted a lot of positive to my life including whatever led up to me getting to be here today, getting to share this space with all of you, and getting to receive the incredible recognition of Peer Recovery Coach of the Year.
Thank you so much!
