奎因 Forss was looking for a new opportunity to refocus his career when he learned about 明尼苏达恢复队.
As a person in active recovery, 奎因 liked the idea of serving and helping others. He’d graduated from college several years earlier with a double major in Creative Writing and Women’s Studies, but college had been difficult because of substance use issues — and the years after college were challenging as he began recovery.
“我治疗慢性疼痛，在2013年，它偏离了轨道. I’ve had chronic health issues most of my life but the physical pain became very difficult to manage, 我正努力完成大学学业, 所以事态发展得很快,奎因说. “我没有得到个性化的护理. 我离我的医生很远. 他看到我很痛苦，想帮助我, 他眼中的解决办法就是阿片类药物, 我真的需要更多的支持. My mental health was also not super good, and those two things collided. 我成了阿片类药物危机的典型代表.”
By 2017, 奎因 had also started drinking excessively and reached a point that he realized, “如果你继续这样做，你会死的,他说, and he sought support to begin recovery from substance use disorder.
“不是每个人都需要跌入谷底才能复苏, 但我找不到出路,奎因解释道. “It was what needed to happen to me in order to recognize that I needed to make some big changes.”
他所做的, 在2019年秋天, 奎因 signed up to serve as an AmeriCorps member in 明尼苏达恢复队 and was placed at P.E.A.S.E. 学院, 明尼阿波利斯的一所康复高中, where he has spent the past school year helping students and staff.
在康复高中的美国服务队服务
At first, 奎因, who is 26, was not sure about working with teens.
“但这真的很棒. It doesn’t take me 太 long to remember what it was like to be in high school. The neat thing is to be able to connect on a peer-to-peer level because I think a lot of teenagers get told, ‘I’m an authority figure and you’re a teenager – you’re going to listen to me.’ But just the way Recovery Navigators are set up as peer support specialists, 它只是把那种权威关系去掉了.”
而不是, 奎因说, a Recovery Navigator can relate to the students 通过 their shared experience with addiction. “所以就像, “我自己也在康复中, 我知道年轻人要对付毒瘾是什么感觉, 这里没有评判. 我们每天都在一起挣扎.’ It has been neat to have that opportunity to show the kids that they’re way more equipped to deal with the world than they think because they have dealt with so much at such a young age.”
帮助学生设定个性化目标
他和学生们分享了多少自己的经历? 奎因说他是个坦率的人, 如果一个学生愿意听他的故事, he will share in order to help them recognize that nobody is perfect and that stability is achievable.
“Being able to think there’s something after that when you are in the thick of experiencing bad things is super helpful: ‘I dealt with that. 糟透了，但我现在来了，好多了.’ I talk very openly about the way that disability informs my recovery and addiction as well as my general mental health stuff.”
Helping students develop goals and find resources to support those goals is a part of 奎因’s service 在复原队, and the goals are different for everyone – “one student may work on improving their academics, while another tries out some new types of sobriety support meetings,他说.
奎因, 谁认为自己是酷儿变性男性, 他说他也希望学生们能像他一样看到这一点, they have unique experiences and will require individualized care and resources in their recovery.
“I try to be very open about who I am and where I’ve been because it helps people to recognize that they can get 通过 it and you should think about yourself as a whole person as you try to find the right resources for you,奎因说. “我经常说恢复, 对我来说, 重新学习如何做人，有很多方面吗, 而且很难知道如何将这些碎片重新组合在一起. The least I can do is help find the corner pieces to frame the puzzle, and it’s up to participants to build the picture they want their life to be.”
转向虚拟业务
With schools in Minnesota moving suddenly to distance learning in March in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, 奎因的服务发生了变化, 太. 和其他的教职员工一起.E.A.S.E., 奎因 continued to engage with students online 通过 virtual meetings and check-ins and said he was incredibly impressed with the dedication of the P.E.A.S.E. staff, who assured all students could access the internet from home.
“这是他们在孤立时期保持社区意识的纽带, 确保每个人都有这种联系一直是一个主要焦点,他说. “在这段时间里，我为自己对学生们所做的一切感到非常自豪, especially the chance to learn together and discuss interesting topics that expand our perspectives but still give us a break from the stress of our daily lives.”
同侪支持的未来
奎因, who is spending the summer as the 明尼苏达恢复队 community outreach coordinator, 决定明年在复原队服第二个任期. 恢复队的美国服务队成员可以使用 康复教练学院 通过 明尼苏达恢复连接, which is a thorough curriculum on how to be a peer recovery specialist. 奎因计划完成这个项目, become certified and work in peer support after finishing a second term 在复原队.
“我太喜欢美国志愿队了, and I have really loved the trainings we’ve received as part of AmeriCorps,他说. “加, 在复原队, you’re able to do so much of what is already happening within the industry right out of the gate, 要做到这一点，你需要接受大量的培训和支持.”
在P服务.E.A.S.E. Academy this past year has been a perfect first step into that world, he said.
“这太棒了. It’s an honor to be trusted with these students’ stories and their experiences – even just sharing that space with them when we don’t talk,奎因说. “这对我来说是一种荣誉，我希望这能帮助他们.”
