RecoveryCorps Seeks Peer Counselors

A first-of-its-kind AmeriCorps program in Rio Arriba County will train 15 people who are in recovery from substance abuse disorder to become certified peer support workers and use their lived experience to help others dealing with the disease.

The program is named RecoveryCorps and it is a partnership between the County, the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, AmeriCorps New Mexico and local organizations like Hoy Recovery, Barrios Unidos and Las Cumbres Community Services.

Program Coordinator Michelle Peixinho said RecoveryCorps is for self-selected individuals who feel a strong desire to help others in recovery.

“It is very hard work,” she said. “It is working with individuals who are really struggling. It demands a lot of the peer because of the very value that we find in their lived experience can also be their vulnerability, because we are asking them to use their lived experience to serve their community.”

AmeriCorps members are expected to be selected by Sept. 1.

People selected for the program will have to commit to a full-year of AmeriCorps service and work about 35 to 40 hours a week, she said. They will receive a monthly stipend of about $1,000 and at the end of the service year will receive an education grant equal to that year’s Pell Grant, which can be used to pay for higher education costs.

Half-time membership will also be considered, Peixinho said.

They will also receive multiple types of training throughout the year, such as community reinforcement training, emotional interviewing training and harm reduction training, she said. At the end of the service year, they will take an exam to become a certified peer support worker.

This will allow people to find jobs, which is one of the main goals of the RecoveryCorps Program, Samuel Sokolove, executive director of the New Mexico Commission for Community Volunteerism, said.

“Number one is community impact,” he said. “We want to make a dent in this epidemic, but we also want to see members succeed professionally.”

County Health and Human Services Director Lauren Reichelt said the goal is to create a recovery community and change the way people think about substance abuse disorder.

“For too long, it has been treated as a criminal issue when in fact it is a chronic disease,” she said. “People who are in recovery, it’s a tremendous amount of effort to maintain recovery. We need to recognize that and to really give them kudos for it and to create the supports that make it possible.”

One way of doing this is by giving people meaningful work, she said.

“If you are going to maintain a full recovery, you need to be excited about what you are doing,” she said.

Joshua Trujillo, of Española, has been a certified peer support worker since October 2012.

He said he had been speaking to substance abuse counselors since he was 14 years old, but when he would ask them if they had ever dealt with similar problems, the answer was always no.

At the time, he said, he thought if a person had not gone through what he had been through, they could not help him. While he does not believe this anymore, he said working with a certified peer support worker who has that lived experience was amazing.

“I knew as soon as I talked to them that (recovery) was going to be possible for me, too,” he said.

Trujillo went through the certified peer support worker training at Inside Out Recovery Center. He worked there until 2017, when he moved to another organization in Pecos.

He said he had to have two years of demonstrated recovery, a General Education Development certificate or high school diploma, go through a 40-hour training course and pass an exam to become a certified peer support worker.

Trujillo said the work can be really hard at times.

“There’s this secondary kind of trauma that can happen,” he said. “But it also can be the most rewarding work when you see people have those little successes. Like they get their kids back or get into housing or they become substance free.”

Department of Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley said if the program works here in the County, it could be brought to other parts of the state.

He said the Children, Youth and Families Department Secretary Brian Blalock will move forward with a certified peer support worker program if it works.

Barrios Unidos President and Founder Lupe Salazar asked if people who are on medically-assisted treatment are eligible to apply to become RecoveryCorps members.

Peixinho said yes, as long as they are using the medically-assisted treatment as prescribed.

Sokolove said the AmeriCorps standard does not allow anyone to serve that has been convicted of murder or a sex crime, but partner organizations are allowed to set their own standards.

A number of the members are “justice-involved,” he said, and this is not unique when working with people who are in recovery from substance abuse disorder.

Accommodations can be made, Sokolove said.

Peixinho also said accommodations may also be made in terms of the amount of time in recovery needed to be part of the program.

They want to see one year in recovery, but they will go on a case-by-case basis. For example, someone might be ready to be part of RecoveryCorps with nine months in recovery versus one year.

Funding

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions administers the state’s AmeriCorps program.

County Health and Human Services will receive $227,743 to start the program from the Department, which are federal dollars, Sokolove said.

This money will be matched by the County with $89,000 in public funding, which is mostly in the form of in-kind services, like portions of people’s salaries, Peixinho said. The program will receive an additional $10,682 in non-governmental private funds.

New Mexico Commission for Community Volunteerism Program Officer Logan Rice said it will have to meet benchmarks for recruitment and retention of members, as well as the number of people served in the community.

A RecoveryCorps press release states the 15 members are expected to serve about 140 people in the County, provide 5,000 units of peer coaching and make 100 referrals to other community recovery services.

The 15 members will be placed at sites across the County, including Hoy Recovery, The Mountain Center, HELP New Mexico, Las Cumbres Community Services, Barrios Unidos and Española Hospital.

Peixinho said they will also be placed at the Española Police Department and the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s Office as part of the Law Enforcement Diversion Program.

In future program years, they want to expand the program to include agriculture and construction jobs, she said.