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Episode #23 - Alicia Conlin: Building Recovery Capital & Community on Cape Cod with WellStrong, Inc

• American Gutter Monkeys, LLC • Season 1 • Episode 23

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WellStrong is a 501(c)(3) in East Falmouth using fitness, peer coaching, and community to support people in recovery from substance use disorder. Executive Director Alicia Conlin joins Chris Collins and Dennis “Bobby Downspout” Siggins to share how WellStrong pairs evidence-based WAM (Whole Health Action Management) with a full gym, peer wellness coaches, and “boots-on-the-ground” outreach. We talk recovery capital, accountability, employment pathways, events like the WellStrong Fun Run, and a big expansion: partnering as the sole wellness provider at The Bridge Center in Barnstable County.
If you think WellStrong is “just a gym,” this conversation shows the myriad of community services behind the doors—and why it works.

Chris Collins:

Periodically on this podcast, we'd like to hand the mic to a nonprofit in the community where we live and work, organizations making a real difference close to home. Today that's Wellstrong, our Cape Cod nonprofit, where wellness, peer support, and community help people recover from substance abuse disorder. Executive Director Alicia Conlin joins us to share her own journey in recovery, how Wellstrong's evidence-based coaching works, and why surrounding yourself with the right people matters. And Alicia points out there's much more to Wellstrong than just a fitness center. It's a myriad of community services that support recovery every day. We have a great show for you, so grab a cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and welcome to Monkey Business Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Chris Collins, and as always, I'm here with Dennis Siggins, the Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys, where those on the Cape might know him as Bobby Downspout. So hello, Bobby. How are we doing?

Dennis:

Doing good, Chris. How you been?

Chris Collins:

Good, good. Today we got an interesting episode. We're doing something a little off-track. Every once in a while we like to have a local community charity in, give them some airtime, allow them to tell their story. And today, uh, we're very fortunate to have with us Alicia Conlin of Wellstrong in Falmouth. So welcome.

Alicia:

Thank you for having me.

Chris Collins:

Oh, we're excited to hear about your journey and the business that you're now working for. You're a full-time employee with Wellstrong Executive Director. Is that correct?

Alicia:

I am. I'm the executive director of Wellstrong.

Chris Collins:

Great, great. Do you want to kind of dive in maybe and just give us some background on uh Wellstrong?

Alicia:

Yeah, absolutely. So um Wellstrong is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We are located at 180 T Ticket Highway in East Falmouth, right across the street from T Ticket Park. And there we have our wellness center. So our wellness center is a support system for people in recovery from substance use disorder. And we offer a variety of different programming that helps people find their community.

Chris Collins:

Okay. I think you're known for the gym itself. You have a gym for people to come in and work out and work with counselors.

Alicia:

We do. Yep. So we have a full gym. In that gym, we have Pelotons, we have cardio equipment, we have free weights. But a lot of our other programming that I feel like people aren't aware of are our peer support programming. We have a peer wellness coaching program, and that is a grant-funded opportunity for people of less than a year of sobriety to come in and get paired up with one of our peer wellness coaches, and they are certified to take our clients through the WAM program. So for those who don't know what the WAM program is, it's whole health action management, it's evidence-based. And what we do is we take your traditional recovery coaching and we pair it with wellness. So we don't believe recovery is a cookie-cutter process. So every individual gets an individualized plan with their coach. They meet weekly one-on-one and then they meet as a group, as a cohort to build relationships and work on goals together.

Chris Collins:

So your coaches themselves, are they ex uh clients of yours or how do they become a coach?

Alicia:

So they self-identify as being in recovery themselves.

Chris Collins:

Okay.

Alicia:

We believe that that peer aspect is crucial, especially for individuals who are new in recovery, to have somebody who can identify with. We get a lot of recommendations through the Cape Cod Community College. So the community college provides a recovery coaching certification, and we provide internships to those recovery coaches. And if it turns out to be a great fit and we have the funding for it and we can add an additional coach, that is how we've been able to maintain this program and find. That's interesting.

Chris Collins:

So it's in the community college.

Alicia:

Correct.

Chris Collins:

Oh wow. I wasn't aware of that.

Alicia:

Yeah.

Chris Collins:

Is that a unique program for the Cape or is it can you find that elsewhere?

Alicia:

It's pretty so you can find it online, but I mean, why do something online that you can do in person and be in a cohort with other people and meet people with, you know, that are like-minded and also in recovery?

Dennis:

Wow. Very interesting. Alicia, what is your mission statement? Do you have one?

Alicia:

We do have a mission statement.

Dennis:

Tell me about that.

Alicia:

So it's on our website, and I'm not going to recite it verbatim. But so we provide wellness opportunities for people in recovery from substance use disorder by providing peer support, fitness, and community support. So the way that we work with that mission is just not inside our brick and mortar at our wellness center. It's also by us doing like boots on the ground work, being out in the community, attending community events, having peer support navigators go out and find and meet people who are in recovery, but integrating that wellness aspect because that is definitely the missing gap. A lot of individuals who come out of treatment centers, they're pointed to go to go to AA meetings or go to NA meetings. And there isn't much else for people in recovery to do and find community outside of meetings. And we have found that wellness is a huge piece to that recovery.

Chris Collins:

Oh, yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. I always joke with Dennis and half serious half the time, but it's, you know, running. I still run and all the time, do a lot of hiking and stuff like that. And for me, it is mental health. I don't know how much I would have spent on psychology. I mean, without running, it it is my mental health break. I always feel so much better after exercising and no matter what I'm going through. So I can imagine that would be a huge part.

Alicia:

Yeah. And when you feel good, then you want to continue to do good things, right? And then fuel your body the right way. And, you know, maybe not listen to negative music or have those negative conversations. And so that's great. Yeah.

Chris Collins:

So how did this all get started? This is it's a nonprofit, it's a fairly large organization in terms of, you know, you have a brick and mortar place, you're out in the community. How did this all get started?

Alicia:

So our founder, Amy Doherty, started Well Shrong. We were our 501c3 status came in 2017. And so originally how it started is she had a brother who unfortunately passed away from a heart disease, um, not from substance use related, but he struggled with substance use. Her father also struggled with substance use. He is now in recovery. He's been in recovery for several decades. But when she was watching her brother struggle, she was researching different resources that could be available to him. And she knew for herself that when she was diagnosed with Lyme's disease, that wellness and mindfulness and meditation was super important to her journey. And um, that really helped her get through her Lyme, like through her Lyme's disease. And so when she was researching stuff for her brother, she couldn't find anything. There was like no sober gym, no recovery wellness opportunities. And so while Strong was born, she was like, well, what if I, you know, created an organization that had a wellness center or a fitness gym for people in recovery. So originally it started out with our fitness programming. That was like a main part of our programming was the fitness classes and the gym. All of the peer support has been added throughout the years as we've seen that that has been instrumental to people who come into our center being having access to another individual who is in recovery and can provide support to them.

Chris Collins:

So she did all that from that one thing off of Lyme disease and the combination of her background and her family. That's amazing.

Alicia:

And she's a runner too. She was always active, participated in triathlons. And when Well Strong first started, that's how a lot of our members got involved was she would sign them up for different races and triathlons. And the David Lewis 5K was merged from all of this.

Chris Collins:

Yeah. It's kind of interesting. Now that's the second charity that we've had in, both running based at some point, which is interesting because Dennis and I, our background is linked to running. Chris and I were running.

Dennis:

We were teammates in high school. Yeah, we were runners.

Alicia:

On the track team?

Dennis:

We were more we were good track runners too, but we're our real sport at our high school was cross-country. We were very good and um we had a really dedicated coach. It is funny though, because I think I often say that like you and me and Mark Bugdon and guys that we ran with in high school, we all still run and we're all part of this sort of early, maybe the first group of kids that didn't stop their athleticism right after high school or right after college. And, you know, Andy, my partner, he wasn't a runner, he was a soccer player, but he rides a bike now and he's very healthy. I still run, I still ride a bike, I do swim, I live on a lake, I like to do open water swims, but I still I have a gym at home. We have a gym here too in our company, but I still exercise pretty regularly. And didn't everybody tell us back in the day, Chris, running's bad for you, it's gonna ruin your knees. Lifting weights is bad for you, it's gonna ruin your joint. This is what we were all told back in the 70s. You gotta stop this stuff and you gotta act your age. But now look at the change. This is where people are turning to. And I it's true what Chris says. I think for me, exercise is my yardstick measure, it's my barometer, lets me know how I'm feeling and how I'm doing. And yeah, if I miss a day, I don't feel very good. If I miss two days in a row, other people know I don't feel good. So I I hardly ever miss a day. Yes, it it keeps everything balanced. Yeah. Yeah, it does.

Chris Collins:

So let's talk a little bit about too. You're reaching out into the community. You do, besides just having your brick and mortar, like you said, you do some things out in the community. There's a couple of different things you want to kind of, and I think you're expanding as well. You mentioned in the pre-show that you were expanding the business as well, at least.

Alicia:

Yeah, yeah. So we attend a lot of community events. So you'll probably see us at different opportunities where we can set up the table, meet people out in the community. We have a peer support navigator program where they are going out into the community, meeting people where they're at, directing them to resources. We provide community events. So two of our annual events that we put on one is the Well Strong Fun Run, and that takes place in the beginning of June. And that is sponsored by the Patrick Graham Foundation. And what that is, it's just like a fun event for people to come out and bring their family, bring their kids, bring their friends, and you do a half-mile run around Tea Ticket Park. And during that course, there are about 20 different obstacles that you have to overcome.

Chris Collins:

It's fun. Um it would be fun.

Alicia:

It's hilarious. It's actually very challenging. When we first created it over three years ago, we kept upping the ante. We'd be like, oh no, we can add five more to that challenge. That wouldn't be that hard. Oh, by the time you are halfway through, you are like, you're like, there's more. I have to do more. And you end the whole challenge with this huge bouncy house at the end, obstacle course. So we have food trucks there, we have arts and crafts for the kids. And it's just a good way to help reduce that stigma that recovery can be fun. There are things that you can do with your friends and family outside of that. And we, you know, invite everybody to come to that. The other one is our event that's actually happening this Saturday on the 27th, the Falmouth Gus Canti Center, the recreational center. And that is for recovery month. So September is recovery month, and that we partner with the Falmouth Recovery Center. And we put on a large event where a ton of different organizations and resources come in. They set up, we have multiple speakers, we have food, we have stuff for the kids and for the family, and just so that people are aware of what's going on and what's accessible to them.

Chris Collins:

How do you get your word out there about these certain events and things?

Alicia:

Social media. We also have a great relationship with Cox and Media with Cape Cod Radio. So they advertise us, and a lot of it is our doing our outreach and you know, reaching out to other organizations. And we have a member list of over 2,000 individuals that we send it to. We also have a donor list of about 3,000 individuals. So, you know, we're pushing out information to about 5,000 people monthly about upcoming events and ways that they can get involved and participate.

Chris Collins:

And oh, it's great. That's great because it's gotta be a huge community out there. If you think about all the people that are in recovery in the state, you know, on the Cape and whatnot, it must be a very large number.

Alicia:

Found that there's a huge recovery center hub. I think with all the local treatment centers that come out to the Cape, a lot of people, once they're here and they make friends and they they meet people, they don't want to leave.

Chris Collins:

Right. Yeah.

Alicia:

I'm one of them.

Chris Collins:

Yeah.

Barley:

Yeah.

Chris Collins:

Why don't we talk a little bit about your story too? Because you came to this, guess you were mentioned that you're one of just two employees, full-time employees for the fund. It's a pretty large organization in terms of fundraising. Touch on that too a little later. But so why don't we tell, you know, if you'd like to tell your story how you came to this job.

Alicia:

Yeah, absolutely. So um I am a person in recovery myself. I celebrated eight years back on June 25th.

Chris Collins:

Congratulations.

Alicia:

Thank you. I came to the Cape to get sober back in 2017. So I was in the retail and corporate world for most of my life. My last job before Wall Strong was at TJX. I was an allocation analyst. And my life was, I was struggling. And I don't think people really knew to the extent that I was struggling because I was masking a lot of it. I willingly went to treatment. I ended up at Recovering Champions out in Falmouth. And I, after treatment, I moved into a sober home and I wanted to stay on Cape because I felt like I found my home. Flash forward, Well Strong was just being started back when I had about six months of sobriety. I heard about it at an AA meeting, and I thought it was really cool. Wellness was always a part of my life. I've played sports my whole entire life, everything from softball to basketball to volleyball to gymnastics. I think my mom enrolled us in everything to keep us very busy and active.

Chris Collins:

You were busy.

Alicia:

Yeah. With two younger sisters also enrolled in everything. So I knew that wellness was always something I could go back to. Back in 2021, it was presented to me that there was an opportunity for a full-time position as a program director. I was in the middle of getting my yoga certification, my 200 hours, and it felt like a perfect fit. Yeah. So I started at Well Strong as the program director, and I was voted into the executive director position back in the last March. So March of 2024.

Chris Collins:

Wow. So yeah, you've been there for a while now, at least a year almost going on.

Alicia:

For the ED position, yeah.

Chris Collins:

Yeah, great. So how do you find the job?

Alicia:

Your interest, is it everything you thought it was going to be, or is it uh is it a lot more of a lot of podcasts and uh Yeah, I loved my role as the program director because I got to be in it with the members. Like I was part of the day-to-day and as the ED, you know, the the founder is the one who really pushed that I could do this job. She worked very closely with me as the program director, and she's someone who really believed in me that I could do this. And I love my job. I don't wake up in the morning and think, why do I have to do this? I'm like, I get to do this. I get to be a voice for people in recovery and I get to help them find what makes them feel whole.

Chris Collins:

Yeah. So what exactly does the executive director do?

Alicia:

Everything.

Chris Collins:

It's only two employees. Everything, two full-time employees. It must be making the coffee and uh yes.

Alicia:

I have a wonder, I have to say, my staff is truly wonderful. Like I don't have to be at the wellness center every day for it to open and close and function and for things to get done. Our peer mentors that are there are phenomenal. Our fitness instructors are phenomenal. Everyone shows up, they do their job, they play their role. As far as for me and my development director, we are the only full-time staff. So it means we are wearing a lot of hats. So I am HR, I am marketing, I am payroll, I am IT, I am you think of it and name it. I have about 25 employees that report directly to me. Wow. So days are very, very busy, but it's extremely worth it. And I wouldn't, you know, the only thing I would change is we are going to be uh promoting that we are hiring a new program director, which will make things a lot easier.

Chris Collins:

Easier on the fundraising, I'm always curious the fundraising. I'm involved in a charity out in uh Helena, Montana for a school in Uganda. And the fundraising is always the part that's so cringy to me because I have such a hard time with it. Why? It's fundraising. I'll always tell a story when we get on this topic. But when I was a kid growing up, we went to St. Bridget's in Framingham. Oh yeah. And we were always raising money. And I had seven brothers and sisters, and four of us were at St. Bridget's at the same time. So they all send us home with seed catalogs, and you had to sell seeds or candy bars or uh Christmas wrapping, you know. So I'll hear I can just see my neighbors on the street, you know, saying, Oh, here come the Collins kids with the wrapping again this year. It's fucking him, you know. So it was just awful. I just dreaded it, dreaded it. And it's carried on all my life now, even to this point. And so now I'm getting involved in fundraising there, and uh it's part of the more difficult part for me. But yeah, so you must be involved because it's a fairly large budget. What is your budget there?

Alicia:

It's uh around a half a million.

Chris Collins:

Wow, wow, that's big. It is quite large. Yeah, that's right. How do you raise that money?

Alicia:

So what's what is the So the breakdown is currently about half of our income is from our fundraising events that we participate in. So we have an annual gala called Celebrate Well Strong that takes place in April every year. We participate in EJ Jax Timer's Charter Cup fishing tournament in July. It's very fun. And then we participate in the Falmouth Road Race every year.

Chris Collins:

Okay. All right. So for the fishing tournament, what do you sponsor a team or something like that?

Alicia:

So we have our own team. Bruce Kelly is our captain. He's been our captain, him and Bill Gibson for the last ever since we've done it. And they are at the forefront. So they're actually actively out fundraising on behalf of Well Strong.

Chris Collins:

Oh, cool.

Alicia:

And then they go out and they fish.

Chris Collins:

Oh, cool. Yeah, great. Oh, wow. That sounds like a lot of fun. It is. It's a cool event. Yeah, I guess fundraising can be fun if you do it right.

Alicia:

It definitely can. Everyone is a fundraiser.

Dennis:

Yeah. All right. I don't know anything about recovery, but I do know that there's certain concepts that work in business and in life. And one of them that just sort of came back to me as I was listening to you is in business, we always say, you know, sevens and eights hire nines and tens. And threes and fours hire ones and twos. And we've all seen examples of each of these. And in life, we say that, you know, sevens and eights surround themselves with nines and tens. And threes and fours surround themselves with ones and twos, and they don't know why. And I could see the importance of somebody who's in recovery choosing to surround himself or herself with the proper people. I would I would guess, I don't know for sure, but I would guess that one possible reason for that recovery wouldn't work is that a person may not surround himself with the right people before, during, and after recovery. Sometimes before recovery, that's why you would probably end up with poor habits. But I would say during recovery and post-recovery that it would be essential to surround yourself with the right types of people. If you're a three or a four and you keep surrounding yourself with ones and twos, you're probably not going to have a successful recovery. But if you're a three and a four and you begin to surround yourselves with sevens and eights, pretty soon you become a seven and an eight. I think it's true in everything. I think it's true in business and in life. And I suspect it's probably true when it comes to recovery. Is that probably accurate?

Alicia:

You summed it up perfectly. We see that all the time. And what our community does, it helps people get to a next level. There's an accountability factor that happens when you come to Wall Strong. People start to notice that you're there. Our peer mentors get to know you, our instructors get to know you. You miss a week or two, you're getting a phone call from one of us checking in. How are you doing? What's going on? We haven't seen you in a while. You know, because we want you to succeed. We want you to be in recovery long term.

Chris Collins:

Yeah, I think it's amazing too, that one program where you can come for a whole year with no cost, have a one-on-one peer trainer or peer mentor and be able to work with him for a solid year. I mean, if you make it through that year, I'm I gotta think your success rate is pretty high. Oh, yeah.

Alicia:

We talk about recovery capital. It's a way to kind of scale the person's potential of staying in long-term recovery. And there's a lot of factors that go into it. But yeah, the consistency and showing up with a community that are like nines and tens that you're surrounding yourself with boost your recovery capital and it brings the relapse rate down tremendously.

Chris Collins:

Yeah, I can't.

Alicia:

So our pure wellness coaching program has a 90% success rate because when people are involved and they're in it and they're held accountable to having to show up and participate and work on specific goals, we don't see them relapsing out there.

Chris Collins:

I could think that if you get this message out there enough across the Cape and across these areas, you can see a huge influx of people.

Alicia:

Oh, yeah.

Chris Collins:

Because there's just got to be so many people in recovery. It's just like you said, it's one of those things you kind of can hide and you know cover. And a lot of people, there is a shame factor to it, you don't want to admit it.

Alicia:

Absolutely.

Chris Collins:

But to get in a program like this is amazing. And I love the fact that you guys bring in, you know, the your own clients, people who were once your clients and now they're peer mentors. And it's just incredible. Yeah. Turn people's lives around.

Dennis:

It's very impressive. Especially with the high level of recovery. I've heard estimates as low as three to five percent. I've heard these, you know, and again, I don't it's hard to believe today's mainstream media because everything is slanted, everything is biased one way or the other. But I've heard estimates as low as three to five percent. Like, I don't know if it's true or not, and I don't know what the basis is.

Alicia:

It used to be 10%, so it could have dropped, you know, with COVID happening. We saw a huge influx in substance use after COVID. After COVID, oh yeah. A lot of people resorted to drinking and using drugs to cope with everything that was happening. So I can imagine the statistics probably have dropped with the number of people who are now you know actively using.

Chris Collins:

Yeah, I'm amazed with this program because it's such seems like such a natural thing because of our running background and our experience just with running, it just seems like such a natural thing that it would just fit in so nicely with a recovery program of any type, I guess. You know, anything from substance abuse, even you know, weight issues or any sort of thing like that. It would just be amazing. Oh, PSTD, like we're talking our last podcast, uh, the program that they had there for sort of a wellness program for treating PSTD. So it's a PTSD. PTSD. What did I say? Close. PSTD. I do that all the time. It's due to dyslexia. And it is, it is.

Barley:

Yeah.

Alicia:

I'm right there with BL.

Chris Collins:

B NFL and the NL NLF. NFF. MBL used to drive my kids crazy. It took me like two years to say Tesla correctly. I was calling it Tesla or something like that. Yeah, it is stuck in my brain. It would drive my kids absolutely insane. So after a while, I just gave up and just kept doing it just to kind of drive them crazy anyway. Yeah, but I do that all the time.

Dennis:

I was talking with some people in the last week or so, and we were talking about the sevens and eights and the threes and fours, and it's so applicable. And we talked about it in its regards to business. It's a basic principle that people in business, if they don't, if they've never heard it put that way, they get it right away. They know exactly. And that's how we grow businesses, and that's how we build successful teams at work, is by hiring the best people. And sometimes you can see at work, you bring in one guy that shows up late, he misses days. We can't put up with that. We we can't, because then the crew chief says, he's on my crew, and now I'm I'm short one man today. And it just works its way into the fabric of the organization and the culture of the organizations. You can't have it. Everybody has to be on the same page. And that's why I personally continue to try to find the best people available. I'm not saying that I'm not a 10, I consider myself maybe an eight and a half, but I but I like to surround myself with nines and tens. You are the average of the five people that you most closely relate to. Absolutely. And so who are those five people? You know, and are they your attorney, your banker, your financial planner, your best friends? I mean, who are those five people that you most closely relate to? Hopefully they're not the guys that you drink with at the bar. Right. Hopefully they're not the people that you party with and that you do drugs with. Because if they are, you have surrounded yourself with the lowest common denominator, and that's where the problems not only start. And again, I don't I don't know about recovery, but I know about life in general.

Alicia:

Yeah, I think we talk about this in the programs like in AA and NA with sponsorship. And we talk about this at Wall Strong a lot. I know I'll speak for myself. When I was looking for a sponsor when I was newly sober, I, you know, they always say, like, go into the halls and hear other women speak and, you know, find someone that you want what they have. Well, when you're in active addiction, a lot of what we want is material items, right? Like we want the cars or the houses or, you know, whatever it may be to make us feel good because we think if we have all that stuff, it's gonna make us feel better. But what I slowly learned is that I wanted more of the peace aspect. And so when I went out and I looked for a woman to sponsor me, I ended up finding a woman who was 70 years old who had my future life that I wanted. Like she was at peace with her life, like nothing ruffled her, like she was unshakable. And I think when you're looking for those types of people, you got to kind of look a little bit forward, right? Because you don't want to be surrounding yourself with a ton of people that are already living in your circumstance. Yeah, right. You want to be looking for individuals and mentors that are maybe a couple of chapters ahead of you where you're like, my ideal life would actually look like that, and they're living it, right?

Chris Collins:

And plus you did something you mentioned that you moved to the Cape, so you separated yourself completely from your world.

Alicia:

I mean, that's I changed people, places, and things. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Collins:

I mean, it's one thing to kind of you know stop seeing your friends or stop hanging around doing your usual routines and things like that, but you made a complete change. You left a job. Uh it sounded like it was a very good job at uh TJX to come to the CAPE. And well, you're here today, so it worked out, but that's a that's a that was a big leap.

Alicia:

Big leap of faith. Yeah, but I wanted it. And I think that that is something that you know a lot of people are like, I don't understand why this person can't grasp recovery. I they can't grasp it. And to me, it's like they need this much willingness, like the smallest, smallest amount of willingness that their life can be completely different. And every day they have to take another step forward. It doesn't have to be a full step, but it can be a smaller step. And your whole life, your whole trajectory can change.

Chris Collins:

Yeah, yeah. And you really change your direction direction.

Dennis:

I mean, geez. Well, you are committed. Very you you had to be committed to make that kind of a step. That's huge. So we've flirted with alcohol addiction, drug addiction. Do you ever get people that come to your program that have no substance abuse issues, but they're addicted to spending? They've spent themselves into bankruptcy. Do you ever is like that's an addiction?

Alicia:

Right.

Dennis:

So our mission do people ever come to you with that or and only that?

Alicia:

Well, so our mission is specifically substance. Oh, it's substance use. So to attend in our programming, you have to identify with substance use. But a lot of our people who suffer from substance use, there's many arms and life to your addiction. So when they get in recovery, they then they turn to shopping, right? And they start spending all their money that they have because they no longer have the drugs and alcohol. The drugs and the alcohol are just a symptom to recovery, right? Like it's it's deeper than that. It's it's a spiritual malady, is what we like to talk about it of it's a big gaping hole. So when you put down the drugs and the alcohol, a lot of times people think, oh, my life is instantly gonna get better. Yeah. But no, your addiction, it's gonna find something else, right? It's gonna find food, codependency, gambling, shopping.

Chris Collins:

I remember my dad had experience with uh alcohol. You know, he had got it under control eventually. He had some health issues that scared him, so he got it under control. But he remembers he always used to talk about, and to this day, I still my mom's house, he's gone now, but still my mom's house, there's a cookie drawer there. That was his cookie drawer. Yeah. Because once he gave up alcohol, you still have that need for the carbs and whatever that he had to replace, the cravings and like that. And so that's what he started doing. He started eating it. He never I never saw him eat sweets until then. But then he started and he developed this thing, and it became a kind of a joke having his cookie jar. It was in the cookie drawer. That's what we used to go. To this day, I'll go in my house and what kind of cookies were in there? Oh, it was all kinds of things. He liked the uh marshmallow, those chocolate marshmallow things and all that. Oh, yeah.

Alicia:

I would think Oreos. Yeah, I was actually thinking Oreos myself.

Chris Collins:

Yeah, he was a keebler. He liked a lot of the Keebler ones, you know, things like that. But and to this day, I go in the house. I joke with my mom all the time. I see your mom all the time to go in there. And uh I always joke I can't go through the kitchen without opening up the see what's in there, seeing what's in there. But uh yeah, it's kind of interesting. Yeah, where you say what it pops out in some other direction, you know, some other piece of your life becomes unstable from that.

Alicia:

Yeah. And that's where we try to fit in those coping tools, right? Like instead of maybe going to the cookie jar, like maybe you lace up your sneakers and you go for a run. Right, yeah. Right. Or you sit down and you do a 15 meditation. Yeah, you know, there's so many different tools that we can use when we're feeling some type of way because what we know is life doesn't stop. Just because you get sober doesn't mean I mean, some of my most difficult moments happened in my eight years of sobriety. Yeah, sure. And I'm grateful today, like I have a six year old son, he has never seen me pick up drugs or alcohol.

Chris Collins:

And that's wonderful.

Alicia:

But, you know, that's not the case for some people. And I think the more tools that you have in that tool belt that you can access, the less likely you are to turn back.

Chris Collins:

There's one other question I wanted to ask you about. So, besides just, you know, providing uh wellness. resources and things like that and working in the community. Do you have sort of uh programs for the people in their in your like uh referral programs and all that sort of things referral for either mental health or other sort of medical issues or one of the ones I was just going to touch on, Dennis just mentioned it is employment. Like uh so I know there's a lot of employment issues with people in substance recovery.

Alicia:

Yeah. So all of our staff is equipped, we have a whole resource table at our brick and mortar, but all of our staff's equipped to answer a lot of those questions and refer people out for, you know, say that they come in and they're like, I need a PCP. I can't find one. We have a lot of information regarding that. As far as employment opportunities, I mean we provide opportunities for people for employment. Like I mentioned our staff is in recovery themselves. You have to have six months of sobriety to start as a peer mentor. And then our goal is to kind of get you on a career path where it could open up to other opportunities depending on your skill set. Do you help them with job search and things like that? Are they resources to do that? We, because we have a lot of connections in the community. People will reach out all the time from other organizations, hey, we're hiring for this position if you know of anyone. So on our resource board we're always posting different job opportunities that are available in the community. Our peer wellness coaches are specifically equipped for that. So if they get a client who comes in and they don't have a current job, they do help them. They'll help them with their resume, they'll help them apply, they'll help them with interview questions. So yeah, we find that you know that's a piece too of the recovery capital is like how can you get your life back together if you don't have an income?

Dennis:

Right. Yeah.

Chris Collins:

Yeah that makes it really it's huge. So before the show you mentioned you have a new initiative that you might want to discuss and let people know about.

Alicia:

Absolutely. So it's going to be in a press release in the next couple of weeks but Walsh is going to be the sole partner of the Bridge Center, which is Sheriff Donna Buckley's initiative in Barnstable County to provide a centralized resource hub for people to come in and get assessed of what their needs are and meet them where they're at.

Chris Collins:

Oh wow okay so how does that work you'd come into their shop and what would happen?

Alicia:

Yeah so the Bridge Center is located at what was the original Sheriff's home. I think it was built in like 1950 and it's about three floors and we're partnering with a bunch of other organizations to provide a variety of different resources for these individuals. And ideally when the initiative first started Sheriff Donna Buckley was interested in providing resources to those who were re-entering back into society after being incarcerated because the goal is to make our community safer. And to do that we need to equip these individuals so they don't go back out and commit the crimes that they committed before. But a lot of these individuals also suffer from substance use disorder. As we spoke more we've want it open to allies too so anybody can just walk in you don't need an appointment you'll be greeted by either a bridge center staff or a Wellstrong staff. And the programming we're going to bring there are our peer wellness coaching program, our peer support navigators and then we will have a variety of fitness programming and hopefully a gym downstairs in the case in there. Okay. So you have a new building correct oh wow so this is a big expansion for you a big big expansion and we are beyond excited and you know grateful that we were selected to be a partner with the Bridge Center.

Chris Collins:

Oh wow okay so I'm not familiar with the Cape that much I'm not a CAPE person.

Alicia:

I wasn't you're a wash ashore?

Chris Collins:

I'm a wash ashore no you don't even live here I don't even live here I don't you don't get the title ranked a wash ashore I'm a I'm a blow through or whatever. But it sounds interesting.

Alicia:

So this woman what was her name so sheriff Donna Buckley she is the sheriff of Barnstable County and she's done a tremendous job in our jail system providing them access to different programming that they didn't have before. Okay. And so this is her initiative to provide resources in a centralized area because it's right in if you know where the probate court is the district court is it's right in that plaza. So it's right on 6A so it's accessible by the bus, easy to get to and just a way to bring kind of you might not know this because you're not from the Cape, but we have over a thousand nonprofits on Cape. And if you are a nonprofit that may you might not have access to social media or a website people might not know that you exist. And so the bridge center is really to equip people to know that there are more out there, right? And a lot of these nonprofits offer these services for little to no cost. A lot of them are free. So the more that we can equip people they can be better community members right they can then be employable and give back and participate in our communities.

Chris Collins:

That's impressive that you got selected to be one of their people that actually in their building working with them.

Alicia:

I agree.

Chris Collins:

Wow that's what we're very good feather in your cap I'm sure as an executive director to help set that up it was our founder's dream for us to have a second location.

Alicia:

And so I'm happy that we're we're able to do that. Is Amy still around is she still working she is yeah she's still active she resigned off our board back in June so that she could live her life as a grandmother now she has a grandson and but she's still very active and Wallstrong her and I meet regularly and I love her still being a part of you know what she created.

Chris Collins:

Yeah yeah nice to still have a hand in running the business. Okay. All right well we're getting towards the end of our show thoughts Dennis I'm all done you're all done I'm all tapped out I'm tapped out well this is great we I mean we love having local charities on I think this is going to become a regular thing for us. It's just a nice sort of thing to have your community represented on the show every once in a while and it's we would appreciate yeah with all these a thousand out there there's so many good ones and this sounds great. I just to me just sounds like such a no-brainer I'm surprised there's just not more of it out there. I just I'm surprised with wellness and recovery aren't linked you know to hip practically it just seems like such an obvious thing but it's great that you guys bring it out. Thank you. So I hope this helps a little bit hope this show gets out there a little bit and people hear it. They know someone or struggling themselves that then maybe they'd give you guys a call. Just walk right in. Walk right in that's what I do two locations now. Yeah. Arnstable and Falmouth.

Alicia:

Yes.

Chris Collins:

All right well thank you for being with us Alicia we've really enjoyed your time here.

Dennis:

Thank you very much. No monkeys were harmed in the making of this podcast. That's right thanks for having me. See you later.

Chris Collins:

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