Recovery Comes Full Circle

AmeriCorps members are passionate about giving back to their communities. For Chad, a Recovery Project Coordinator in Dublin, Virginia, he’s serving people who are in the same shoes he was not too long ago – right in his own hometown. 

On Campus 

Chad is a Recovery Project Coordinator at New River Community College. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended New River for a few semesters before finishing his bachelor’s in sociology at a different school. After graduating, he intended to become a mental health professional but shifted his focus after going into recovery himself. After that, Chad realized he wanted to make recovery possible for others and found the perfect outlet for his passion in Recovery Corps!  

As a Project Coordinator, Chad builds New River’s capacity to reach more people and complete more recovery projects. The top priority at the college is always the wellbeing of their students. While Recovery Project Coordinators do not need to have any personal experience with recovery, Chad’s background gives him useful insight on what students may need on their journeys. Collaborating with another nearby community college, they started a recovery support group where students can come to him for resources and guidance. 

“I based the group off past experiences and what I lacked or what could have benefited me in any way,” he says. “I can't help but think how different my life would have been if I would have been involved in something like this earlier on.” 

Chad also promotes recovery in other ways on campus, like emphasizing wellness during stress awareness month, providing education about harm reduction, and working with the school’s food pantry. Most notably, he has given several trainings on the administration of naloxone, better known as Narcan. The lifesaving medicine reverses opioid overdoses in a matter of minutes, and Chad has given away over 180 boxes. With overdoses becoming increasingly common, it’s critical for immediate treatment to be available anywhere they might happen, including in Chad’s community. 

“One was actually used to save somebody's life,” Chad says. “It was [given by] a student that I had actually just done a training with.” 

Ensuring people have access to resources like naloxone and the knowledge to use it is a vital way to promote recovery. Hoping to give the New River and greater Dublin community even more tools for wellbeing, Chad is also working on creating a “playbook” of guidance and protocols for faculty and staff to use when supporting their students. The playbook will cover much more than just recovery, but also other issues like food insecurity and domestic violence.  

In the Community 

In addition to offering support to the college, Chad also ventures off campus as part of his service. He has spoken at a local high school, visited a nearby rehabilitation center, and attended a sober tailgating party. Being from the area, Chad has a special connection to the people he reaches out to and has really seen how recovery awareness has grown. 

“At first, I was a little timid, but I think that's probably more because of stigma than anything else,” he says. “I'm trying to reduce it, so whenever there's anything recovery oriented, I want to be there. I want them to see my face. I want to be the recovery guy.” 

Having faced the very same issues his students starting their recovery journeys face today, Chad’s service with Recovery Corps has brought him full circle. 

“I'm from here. I went to this community college at one point in time,” he explains. “This population of people are my population of people, who were born and raised here. This is the field I want to be in, specifically higher education. That’s where I could do the most help.” 

Next Year 

Chad is gearing up to start a second year of service at New River this September! He’ll continue to foster support groups on campus, connect with people in the community, and make recovery possible for more people in Dublin. 

“I’m looking forward to continuing to build on that and continue to try to make this a recovery friendly space, not just the college but the community,” he says. “I do a lot with my students, but I want the rest of the community to meet us where we are. We meet people in recovery where they are, so now we’re trying to bring recovery where everybody else is.” 

We are so excited to see how Chad continues to make an impact. Interested in making a difference like Chad? Join Recovery Corps! Visit recoverycorps.us to learn more and apply.