Working To Make Youth-Guided, Family-Centered Recovery a Reality!

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Connecticut Turning To Youth and Families (CTYF)
Working To Make Youth-Guided, Family-Centered
Recovery a Reality!
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CTYF INTRO VIDEO
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The Country Has Moved Towards a Recovery
Paradigm

• Think Sustained Recovery
• Think Natural Environment for Each Person and
  Family Supports
• Think About Linking Addiction Rx with Existing
  Communities of Recovery
• Think About Incorporating Strategies for Building
  Relationships Between Local Communities of
  Treatment and Local Recovery Support Groups

Are You on Board? Or still on the
Platform? Are You Closing The Gap By
Reconnecting the Treatment Experience to
Recovery?
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What We Do

1. Peer-Based Recovery Advocacy
2. Connecting With Communities
3. Peer-To-Peer Supports

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Peer-Based Recovery Advocacy

• Increasing awareness of the existence of the
  millions of youth and families in sustained
  recovery and promoting the positive impact they
  can have on our communities and healthcare
  delivery systems
• Methods Recovery Videos, Online Recovery
  Stories, Interactive Polling, etc. Putting A
  Positive Face On Recovery
• Promoting positive legislation at all levels to
  widen the door of entry to recovery with a focus
  more on what happens before and after primary
  treatment
• Recovery support across the lifespan and the
  State (i.e. CTYF CCAR Work Together, and CTYF
  Works To Unify The Grassroot Family Voices)

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Community Connections

• No single family, program or system has the
  capacity to solve the growing and complex problem
  of adolescent substance abuse alone.
  Collaboration at the home, schools,
  neighborhoods, towns, cities, and state levels
  must occur to create true systems change for
  better prevention, treatment and recovery access.
  We must nurture the supports in areas where they
  dont exist now!
• Donna Aligata on Environmental
  Strategies
• CTYF Methods Recovery Film Festivals, Online
  Community Creation, Mapping Of Existing Youth and
  Family Recovery Assets, Local Strategic Planning
  For Community Coalitions, and School-Based
  Prevention and Recovery Support

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Peer-to-Peer Supports

• Lived recovery experience connects peers using
  the power of lived recovery experience to drive
  open conversations and messages of hope for
  recovery
• Positive peer support fosters culture change and
  is contagious for tangible or virtual communities
• Sustained recovery is supported and enhanced by
  peers through social activities, work
  opportunities, and easier recovery re-engagement
  should a relapse occur
• Peers groups create the needed sense of belonging
  that is even more imperative for young people
  than adults

Community Example Families, students and
teachers see the results of Central High Schools
Leadership Group. Yale Consultation Center also
has concluded in an evaluation that the
peer-to-peer prevention and recovery support
program has demonstrated that this model is
effective in improving school performance,
attendance, and behavior.
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Peer-Based Recovery Support ModelsHarnessing
The Power Of Lived Experience
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PEER-TO-PEER RESULTS VIDEO
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Recovery Support Challenges As We Have
Experienced It

• Major Challenges We Have Experienced For Moving
  Peer Recovery Support Forward
• Under-Studied / Under-Funded / Under-Valued
• Fragmented Systems (Mental Health and Addictions)
  Between Children and Adult (Health Care and
  Enforcement)
• Critical Dilema
• How do we get the system to re-align itself so
  Recovery-Oriented Practices are feasible?
• How to integrate technology efficiencies into the
  system?

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Recovery Support Financing Questions

• How can fees for service happen to support the
  growth of peer-to-peer models and positive
  social media technology?
• What creative financing strategies can help
  support a very basic level of infrastructure
  for growing and implementing more recovery
  support services? 
• How can we support family involvement when our
  system bills and focuses on individuals?

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System Change Is Not For The Timid
The Economic Crisis A catalyst for integrating
into your strategies peer-to-peer
recovery-oriented transformational practices that
cost less and last longer

• We must create disequilibrium, abandon old ways
  to remove barriers and promote positive changes
• Look at technology and social media as an asset
  not a risk for enhancing service deliveries
• Think about ways to contaminate your projects
  with peer-driven recovery-oriented practices
• Communities have fostered recovery for years
  without system support, the potential for what
  could happen if the system truly supported
  recovery is incredible

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An Interactive Online Recovery Support
Experience! www.ctyouthandfamilies.org info_at_ctyout
handfamilies.org - 860-838-3553