Youth in Recovery Speak Out
On September 17th, in honor of the twentieth anniversary of National Recovery Month, Hope For Youth hosted a recovery night for its youth. The night included pizza, raffles, and a great speaker who spoke about his path of recovery from drugs and alcohol. This speaker was an inspiration not only because of how he managed to change his life around for the good, but also because he came to Hope for Youth when he was struggling with addiction and benefited tremendously from the programs here. In answering a question about how his friends and family treat him nowadays he said “People don’t run from me anymore. If they hit me up it’s for help.” Instead of being known for his destructive behavior, he is now known as the person to go to when someone needs help.
The kids responded well to the speaker. One participant in recovery night said to the speaker “your story relates to me – in a different way – not with drugs or alcohol but with something else that tries to control me.” All in all it was a great night. A big thanks to Jen, an MDFT supervisor and therapist for organizing it!
Part of the month-long reflection by kids in recovery or substance abuse therapy
was the creation of a “Recovery Tree” featuring each youth’s sentiment on “Recovery.” The completed tree now hangs sentimentally in the administrative office’s waiting room.