This week Venessa Vitolo shares her story of once living as a cheerleader in a wholesome neighborhood and family to being homeless and addicted to heroin. After finding her pathway or recovery, she quickly moved into state and national levels advocacy through participating in speaking engagements and panel discussions for a variety of organizations, such as TEDx, HLN, The Hill, and ReachNJ. Recently she shared her views on addiction and recovery with the President and his cabinet at the White House.

Links:

www.victorybayrecovery.com


http://reachnj.gov/

Mara, an award-winning writer, mental health awareness activist, baker, and comedian joins the show this week to talk about the many chapters of her life from growing up in Boston, checking into rehab and moving into with Carrie Fisher to becoming a national advocate and comedian.

Link:

http://www.marashapshay.com/

Our first episode of 2018 welcomes Tracy Abbott from The ARK in Houston to share her experience in developing "stealth recovery advocacy" events and helping create a high-end, alcohol/drug free alternative concert and game watch party for Americas largest event, the Super Bowl.

More info at: https://www.soberbowl.us/

This week we were on site in Minneapolis for the first site visit for our RCO Mentorship program. Nate Hurse, founder of the Sankofa Group, Vice President and Board Member of the National Acupuncture Detox Association and a consultant with the Minnesota DHS ADAD chemical health division as a Peer Reviewer. We will be back in 2 weeks with some big news for Faces & Voices of Recovery!

This weeks episode we welcome the founder behind the You Rock Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to spreading awareness about mental health by using interviews with popular musicians as catalysts for conversation. He shares his story from struggling as a teen with suicide attempts, substance use and mental health issues to finding his pathway of Recovery and making his idea for You Rock a reality.

Nadine Machkovech is a person in long-term recovery, recovery coach and educator on addiction recovery. She joins us live in the studio this week to talk about her new vlog "Sunlit Warrior" and speaking to more then 130k youth as a Co-Owner and Program Manager of RISE TOGETHER.

You can find her vlog at www.facebook.com/sunlitwarrior and more about RISE TOGETHER at www.weallrisetogether.org

For our first holiday episode, Bertrand Brown from the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse joins us to talk about being a Youth Advocate and thoughts on navigating the Holiday season. He shares how he was part of a group that spoke with 200 youth in order to create Georgia's first youth symposium and the importance of having them represented at the decision making tables. We also get a few tips on how to be self aware at holiday events and connecting with Recovery Communities.

Rich Jones, Executive Director of Faces & Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) Greenville talks about moving from the health care field to becoming a leader in advocating for Recovery Support Services in South Carolina. We also get a glimpse into the "Recovery Cartel" and what methods we might apply in the recovery movement.

This week, Brooke Feldman joined the podcast to share the impact her mother's struggle with a substance use disorder had in her life, her own pathway to recovery and her current work as a Social Justice Advocate, blogger, and full time student. We take a deep dive into the blind spots and disparities in the current recovery movement and actionable things we can do today to make a change. Check out all of her Huff Post blogs here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/brooke-m-feldman