Archways' Threads

Narrator 00:02
Welcome to Archways' Threads, a show focusing on the threads of family and recovery support services, that help make up the tapestry of life in recovery. Join us as we share stories from peers and participants in the field and practice of peer recovery support and family support and strengthening And now your host, Archway's CEO, Michelle Lennon.

Michelle Lennon 00:28
Hi everyone. Michelle Lennon here, and I am just welcoming you to part two of our conversations with Cara, as we talk about collegiate recovery and her role in our recovery community. Thank you.

Michelle Lennon 00:40
One of the things that was pretty powerful experience for me was how our relationship development. I like, I always get teary when I think about it, because my impression of me was you were very sad. You know, finishing out your senior year at Plymouth State. Didn't know why, and I don't know if it was something that made me want to help you, or to help create opportunity for you in that conversation with your professor. But you know, it was, there was just something in that conversation that was like, oh, I want to see what I can do. And you know, we were in the coffee shop as she was saying, my husband was there, I'm like, "I don't mean to eavesdrop. I'm like, but now I can't help it." And I'm like, "I gotta say something." He's like, "You won't do it." I'm like, "I think I'm gonna." He's like, "you won't do it." I'm like, "I'm gonna," you know, but um, and then we did, we worked on those the workshops together. Your senior project was kind of like,

Cara LaPlante 01:40
Yeah

Michelle Lennon 01:41
I mean, you are very good at organizing things. Just gonna say, like, you don't realize how good you are. In fact, the prevention leader in our community was just astounded by what you had done for what we call the Panther Pitch, right? So, but backing up, you know, when we met, it was really just kind of rolling up our sleeves and sitting together over lunch and talking about, you know, what these workshops are going to look like, who you were going to engage, what you needed, you know, for me, for support, as far as the space and in any logistics and stuff, but they were totally your workshop. You know, it was, it was just kind of like our pleasure, you know, to kind of be part of that. But over the course of that time, as, as our relationship kind of got more trusting, I guess you shared some things,

Cara LaPlante 02:35
Yeah

Michelle Lennon 02:35
That was going on in your life. You want to talk a little bit about that?

Cara LaPlante 02:38
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It. Meeting Michelle was such an interesting time. For short, I really was not aware of the recovery space at all. The mental health field. This is a very new space for me in general, and getting to know Michelle in the process of working on the workshops, as well as learning more about Archways, and the work that, that you guys do here was, it was such a natural fit, because in February of 2024, I, can I say it?

Michelle Lennon 03:20
Yeah

Cara LaPlante 03:21
Okay. I totaled my car and was arrested for a DUI, and that's what initiated my recovery. And I definitely identified myself, that accident became a huge part of my identity, and I think that's why I came off as sad and kind of closed off, because I did feel a lot of like shame and guilt around it. I was able to, I was in school in my second to last semester of my program, and I was able to complete that semester by the support of my professors. But it wasn't, I, it wasn't because I was in recovery. I didn't identify as being in recovery. I just was like, this event really shook up my life, and I need to do something different, but learning about Archways and just realizing the supports that are available and learning what recovery actually means to people, it really lit me up inside, like it's hard to put words to it honestly. But talking to people here, and just like genuinely feeling understood, that being able to confide in people and learning that I'm so much more than that one adverse event. I, has really, has changed the trajectory of my life.

Michelle Lennon 04:56
Yeah, I think one of the cool things that came out of it was the Panther Pitch.

Cara LaPlante 05:00
Yeah.

Michelle Lennon 05:01
You know, we had these conversations, and then just out of the blue, you called and say, "Hey, I have an idea," you know, and so the Panther Pitch, for those of you familiar with the show Shark Tank, it's kind of like the Plymouth State version of Shark Tank. And students bring forward their ideas for money. Basically, they, they're looking for money for their projects. And they, they pitch the ideas to a couple of panels. And there were two, two panels. One was for kind of like, social benefit ideas, non, non profit world type ideas, I would say, or yeah, social benefit, I guess, because some of them were looking to make things that were, would bring a profit, potentially down the road to them, or the medical field or something, you know. And then there was kind of like business ideas, you know, similar to the pitch, right? The, the Shark Tank hosts. So Cara pitched the idea of collegiate recovery for, for Plymouth State University, which was kind of mind blowing. You want to talk about what led you to the idea, and then yeah, and what your thoughts were.

Cara LaPlante 06:13
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. So collegiate recovery isn't like, you know, a new concept. It's been around since the late 70s, but in volunteering networks, I'll call it, and learning more about the work that they're doing, Collegiate Recovery did come up that, it was something that was brought up to Plymouth State, but it wasn't really an opportunity that was taken by the university, so one of my professors, I was telling her about my workshops, and she encouraged me to pitch my workshops at the competition. And I said, "Well, wait a second, if I can pitch these workshops, what if we pitch the whole idea of collegiate recovery?" You know, it wasn't, it wasn't ran with the first time, but maybe, if it's a student bringing it to, to light, then maybe we'll get some, we'll get some traction. So yeah, Michelle and I worked super hard on this pitch. It was really fantastic, honestly. It was an incredible experience, and so well received. You know, I think the coolest part about the pitch wasn't being on stage, but people coming up to me after the event. "Thank you so much for your encourage and saying, you know, telling us about your problem. I've been sober for 13 years." Or "my aunt, you know, has been in long term recovery" and, and the, just me bringing up my struggles with problematic substance use as a part of my pitch opened the door for so many people to open up about their experiences. And that was so powerful.

Michelle Lennon 07:54
Yeah, I think one of the things that is, was both sad and encouraging for me is how alone you felt on that campus, and how the end of your senior career could have ended with that accident defining the end of college for you. Like, and that sadness could have lived in you forever, you know. And then the Pitch happened, yeah, you know, and you met other people in recovery that hang around here and, and who are loud and proud about it. Because I, I do think one of the issues is, is, like you said, like all these people, start coming up to you, because everybody's still doing this,"Shh, don't tell," you know, and, and we see that sadly, like everywhere you know, I know our state legislature, a Senate Judiciary Committee, was just having hearings on mandatory centers, and, you know, for possession of anything, I think it was five, five. If you have five grams, which is like a teaspoon in a baggie, you know of a substance that has fentanyl in it. And if you're selling, you know, which I think of five grams, and I know from the work that we've done, that's personal use, you know. And for most people, you know, sadly, and yes, it kills people, but, but we know that people need recovery support, not continued, shame, blame, hide it, you know, which is what will happen. You know, when, when things like this go on, you know? And you know, seeing how it changed everything, right? Like it wasn't just that... It was a turn in mood. It was like this turn in almost like a life course trajectory for you, you know, is because you've, not only have you, you know, stopped drinking and find all those great things to do with your partner and, and you're exploring life in a different way, you're also recognizing things about your past that you didn't see before. You're looking at your future with, like, excitement, you know, like, it's just such a change, you know?

Cara LaPlante 10:05
Absolutely, yeah, and I think yes, I identify as being in recovery from substance use, but also that saying that we're all recovering from something like, you said, like there is so much to, to be looked at, and so much greatness ahead if you're willing to do, willing to do the work, and not just willing to do the work, but it really was the support system that I inadvertently was creating. Also in that, in that spring semester where I was arrested, I don't live on campus, not anywhere close to campus. I'm like, 20 minutes north of PSU, so it was either ask for some accommodation to finish school online or drop out. Like those were my two options and the way... So yes, I did have to do a little bit of leg work and putting myself out there asking for the help. But the way the Plymouth State community did wrap themselves around me, professor-wise, they were meeting with me weekly too, so that way I wasn't feeling isolated. And they accommodated, switching their in-person classes to online so I could finish that semester. It was, that is 1,000% why I came back for my last semester in the fall. It was really powerful. But being back on campus in the fall, I don't live it, near any of these students. I am a little older than the traditional college student, and even being in in-person class, it is, was an isolating feeling. You know, you're listening to kids talk about partying on the weekends and, oh, don't they know it's Thursday night. This class needs to end so we can go out, you know, like, it, it was hard to reassimilate into that, that traditional college culture for sure.

Michelle Lennon 12:03
Yeah.

Cara LaPlante 12:04
Yeah.

Michelle Lennon 12:05
So one of the things that we've talked about is where competent culture doesn't exist for recovery. Whose job is it to create it, you know? And really, you know, we see it as ours. You know that, that, you know it's, it's like this idea that we blame people for carrying this health condition, and we blame people for not accessing the resources, but on the, you don't know the resources exist, or we have trained our culture to hide these things, that there's so much shame and blame attached to things, you know, we can do all the prevention work, and the prevention work is necessary, because that can help us not make bad decisions, but once the decisions have been made, it's like, and then you suffer some consequences, and you still don't know where to go. You know, what do you do? And that is something Jim Wolfing, who, he was, a trainer, that kind of went through New Hampshire, while we were rolling out all the recovery communities. Just, it stuck with me that he and this other gentleman in our world did a lot of work around racism of well intended people, that don't necessarily see their privilege. And definitely, I was one of those people, you know, I have to say, and, and, you know, the training that they did, it was just sort of eye opening. But one of the things that they talk about that is where culture, competent, culture doesn't exist. We need to create it. You know, we need to create it. And, you know, I work for a recovery community organization and Family Resource Center. So, so I have some privilege there, you know. So, so seeing that, you know, the college community doesn't have those kind of opportunities, you know, was one of the reasons why I was lit up by your Panther Pitch, you know, that UNH had offered some funding, and PSU kind of said, we don't have the capacity right now. And, and I understand, you know, everybody's kind of circling the wagons with funding issues right now. And, you know, we just kind of looked at this and said, "how can we help," you know, and you know, was able to work with UNH to get some training, you know, to advance kind of these alternative care groups for youth, which we were already doing with some of the high schools. But looking at, how can we kind of broaden that out though, for the college community, because we do have a Senate right now that's like, right on campus, pretty much, you know, and it's right in that strip of restaurants and bars and, you know, places where people go for entertainment. And we had talked about, you know, what about having, you know, events, you know, for college students that don't include alcohol. And you had a lot of good ideas, I thought. You want to share some of your ideas of what you would like to bring to the Plymouth community?

Cara LaPlante 15:02
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I'm really excited about the chem-free social events. I think it's so necessary, because I honestly think that's part of the reason why I choose to spend so much time outside, besides the fact that I enjoy it.But also, there's not a lot of places to hang out and not be surrounded by drinking, substance use, and so having substance free social events at the Plymouth Center is such a unique opportunity. It's a beautiful space, and we talked about karaoke night, which I think would be so fun. Sip and paint night with mocktails, which is so, so fun, because it's nice to have, like, a little something special, you know? It's a tree and the learning a new skill, you have social time. Yeah, we talked about, like, New Year's Eve soirees, like, fancy, you know, themed parties with mocktails. Um, yeah.

Michelle Lennon 16:06
Yeah. It's interesting because I talked to one person who's like, "Mocktails. Oh, that could be activating of, you know, some type of feeling," and, and all that. And I said, "You know what?" I said, "you can walk through the grocery store and there's alcohol. You can go into every convenience store and there's alcohol. You can drive by, you know, you can't go down 93 without seeing a liquor store in New Hampshire. You can't enter New Hampshire without seeing a liquor store in New Hampshire, you know?" That people still, you know, we drive a person centered program, right? So we can be trauma informed, and you can still choose not to go to those events. You know, if being around, you know, the fancy drinks, you know, that, that are, have no alcohol in them, but are fancy. But one of the things my daughter said is, like, "I just want to be able to be dressed up and go out and have a fancy little glass in my hand with, with garnishes on it, and feel like I'm part of that still, without putting myself at risk , you know, without, without having the alcohol marriage." She was here for open house, and she had the little mocktail bars.

Cara LaPlante 17:09
Yeah, so yeah.

Michelle Lennon 17:10
Yeah. And, and I think, you know, people gotta know thyself. You know, it's like I, you know, went out with my husband. And, you know, he doesn't have an issue with drinking. You know, don't put him around opiates, you know what I mean. But so, so, like, going out for us in his recovery is, is not an issue, you know, for somebody else it might be. And I do think, like, we want to have options, you know, and, and I, and I think about this stuff, because when we were first opening, you know, as a Recovery Center, we were doing recovery supports. We weren't technically a recovery center. We, you know, we started as a grassroots effort in the basement of a church. So it was kind of like a bunch of volunteers getting together trying to do something about this, you know. And somebody had offered us a free pool table, and somebody that I was working with was absolutely against it, because it immediately it brought her back then, and I was like, okay, you know? And at the time, it's like, I definitely feel like we can often err on the side of "okay, we don't have to do that," you know. But, um, but looking at this community and how the gathering places is such a part of college life here, that it wouldn't be nice to have one venue on the stripthat is another alternative, you know. And so while so, you know, as we're thinking about this, our nine to five operations, we're not going to be having mocktails around, you know, but, but thinking about what we could do in the evenings, you know? You know, we were talking about that.And I do think, like for sustainability of recovery programming, where there is so much question about what's going to be funded, what's not going to be funded with, like the change in administration, and, you know, the change in our governor, like this, there's a lot of questions that we all have, and just thinking, like, is somebody that's not going to go to a two way sip and paint night anywhere else, because, you know, I'm not going to drink, you know. So it's like a waste of money. It's not that I wouldn't go and not drink, it's that I can't see wasting my money

Michelle Lennon 19:13
If I'm not going to drink, you know. So to do, do the same offerings, and then have the mocktails that are those healthy drinks, you know, I know there was, you know, superstar antioxidant one, there was like, a greens one, I guess the tea one didn't go over well.

Cara LaPlante 19:13
Absolutely

Cara LaPlante 19:20
And I tried the tea one, but there was one that's like, strawberry aloe juice. Oh, that was so good.

Michelle Lennon 19:40
Yeah, so, so it's like you're getting, at least you're getting you're paying for a fancy drink, but it is a fancy drink

Cara LaPlante 19:45
Totally

Michelle Lennon 19:45
You know, that can help with the sustainability of that long term programming for the college programming. It's kind of what we were thinking. But, you know, I think just having that innovation, you know, the opportunity to innovate and to partner.

Cara LaPlante 19:59
Yeah.

Michelle Lennon 20:00
As you said, like, the post State community has been awesome. You know, it's, and when we look at those constraints. This is something I've learned from my coach too. It's like, when you look at your constraints of where you are and where you want to be, what are they? If it was mindset, we'd have a whole lot of work to do. You know, if they were just like, "Oh no, we don't believe in in having recovery stuff on campus." But it wasn't that, you know, we talked about what the constraints were. A lot of it was funding.

Cara LaPlante 20:25
Yeah

Michelle Lennon 20:26
Some of it was space, you know, some of it was workforce, you know, and I know you've teamed up with with another... Is he a professor or...?

Cara LaPlante 20:36
He's an executive director of, like, a student advocacy, well being and crisis intervention.

Michelle Lennon 20:44
Yeah, and he's training peers up, you know, for mental health support and things like that. And, you know, thinking about the infrastructure that our choice can bring to the table, you know, it's just, it's just a great, you know, community collaboration, which, again, goes to that peer based, community based work.

Cara LaPlante 21:03
Exactly, yeah, I think there's such a unique opportunity with the work that Matthew Toms is doing with his peer mental health support workers. They're getting trained to offer peer mental health support. So what a beautiful synergy to offer peer recovery support as well in an infrastructure that's already, it's new. They're watching it this semester too, so we made it just in time. Like the way everything is, has just fallen together it's hard to deny, honestly. But it's really incredible. And the opportunity for this to be student run is, is really the goal here, like, really let these students take the lead and serve each other. I think that is so powerful, and we'll build the community that personally, I felt like I was missing.

Michelle Lennon 21:55
Yeah, and we've actually structured what we're doing with the alternative peer groups to include that, right? Because we intend to pay stipends for student volunteers.

Cara LaPlante 22:05
Exactly.

Michelle Lennon 22:06
You know, who are going to help facilitate, you know, those groups, and we've talked about, you know, if we run these, like karaoke night and we have the mocktails, you know, like having the different students be able to keep the tips, you know, if we sell, sell drinks or, and, you know, just thinking ahead of how we don't want to exploit students, you know. But you know, I think it goes back to, you know, the AIDS movement, the harm reduction movement, nothing for us, without us, you know. And really keeping, you know, the students at the forefront of this.

Cara LaPlante 22:41
Yeah

Michelle Lennon 22:42
Which is one of the reasons why we have you taken the lead, you know, as a former state, soon to be alumni, right? Because you'll be graduating and walking. And...

Cara LaPlante 22:50
Yeah.

Michelle Lennon 22:50
finish all your coursework now. And,...

Cara LaPlante 22:52
Exactly

Michelle Lennon 22:53
When are you walking?

Cara LaPlante 22:54
Walking, May 15th, I believe. No, yeah, middle of May.

Cara LaPlante 22:59
Very exciting, yeah, but yeah, I think the opportunities that we got with the students and really bring them up is so crucial, but also that almost, like that advocacy portion of like, teaching, sharing with students, young people, like, what, what is recovery? What does that really mean? You know that it's not this one specific box that you have to put yourself in and follow these roles. Like, no, you can't do that. And that it's, it's so much more than that. A) recovery is so much more than that. And B) you can be so much more than your recovery.

Michelle Lennon 22:59
Exciting.

Michelle Lennon 23:34
Yeah

Cara LaPlante 23:34
Yeah, I'm down.

Michelle Lennon 23:36
Because that, you know, it goes back, but, you know, a little bit to identity. For some people, they are loud and proud about their identity and recovery. For some people, it's just part of their story, you know, it's like you said, like, you don't even think about recovery as any type of identity at all. It was just like, "No, this happened, and I'm just gonna stop doing it."

Cara LaPlante 23:52
Yeah

Michelle Lennon 23:53
You know, because of the impact it had on my life. And I think for a lot of people, that's how it is. When we look at, like the Youth Behavioral Risk survey data, you know, we know that there are issues. We know there are, you know, and I just hope that being here, that we are able to create that competent culture, so the next student that feels isolated or feels like there's no place for them anymore at the university is able to find, hey, you know, you are more than what happened.

Cara LaPlante 24:25
Absolutely. Yeah, there's this really great quote by Patrice Salmeri from Augsburg University. She's one of the leaders, thought leaders, innovators at collegiate recovery, and she said, "no one should have to choose between recovery and acollege education," and that resonated so deeply with me.

Michelle Lennon 24:47
Yeah.

Cara LaPlante 24:47
Yeah.

Michelle Lennon 24:48
Awesome. Any, any last thoughts?

Cara LaPlante 24:53
No last thoughts. We'll be launching collegiate recovery at Plymouth State for the spring semester, and I'm really excited to, to meet all these students and get the word out.

Michelle Lennon 25:04
Awesome.

Cara LaPlante 25:04
Yeah.

Michelle Lennon 25:04
Well, thank you so much for being with us, and look forward to probably having you back to see how things are going. Just want to mention that you know that the Panther Pitch, not only did she win her category, she won the entire event, and she won the People's Choice Award. So when I talk about constraints and mindset, you know, the Plymouth community is behind you, and making, you know, Plymouth, you know, a little bit, you know, more culturally competent for students who seek to have a lifestyle that you know, it's recovery focused.

Cara LaPlante 25:42
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, I think that's the, the umbrella here is that, in my mind, collegiate recovery is just an opportunity in space for students to honestly reflect on their choices, period.

Michelle Lennon 25:57
All right. All right. Thank you so much, Cara, and hopefully you'll join us next time. Bye bye.

Narrator 26:04
Thank you for listening to Archways' Threads. If there is a topic you'd like to see us cover, email us at podcast@archwaysnh.org or call us at 603-960-2128. Visit our website at archwaysnh.org to learn more about the Archways family of recovery and family resource centers.