Recovery Coaching a Harm Reduction Pathway©

"I was able to shift my conception of recovery and viable pathways to include and celebrate harm reduction." Participant, August 2019 training, Kalamazoo, MI

Authors: Jim Wuelfing & Dean LeMire
Owners: The LeMire Group LLC & Jim Wuelfing
Length: 18 training hours incl. 3 hrs asynchronous
CEU approved in: NC, TN, WV, NH, NY, TX, MD, PA, NV, MN
Info & Pricing Packet : download here
Support 3.5; Ethics 4.5; Advocacy 5.5; Mentoring 4.5
Contact: training@rchrp.com

Training of Trainers, Austin, TX
August, 2019

About This Training
Tens of thousands of people are trained as peer recovery coaches; many now work in a rapidly growing and changing Peer Recovery Support Services field across a wide variety of service settings. Several of the key tenets in peer recovery coaching are: ‘Meet people where they are at’; ‘You are in recovery when you say you are’; and ‘There are many pathways to recovery’. Still, harm reduction as a pathway to and of recovery from addiction remains widely misunderstood. Abstinence-based pathways have for decades dominated the helping services of addiction recovery. Recovery coaches may struggle with coaching a harm reduction pathway for many reasons, including: Lack of understanding about harm reduction; personal, institutional, and cultural bias; and/or lack of exposure to people achieving recovery outcomes through harm-reduction-based means.
Recovery Coaching a Harm Reduction Pathway© comes just in time for a new phase in recovery coaching development alongside a swelling harm reduction movement across North America. A handful of leaders in both the peer recovery supports and harm reduction movements collaborated to bring this curriculum to its current form. RCHRP utilizes adult learning theory concepts and modalities to address knowledge, attitudes, practices, access to resources, and coaching skills. As this training explores sensitive topics, its design and delivery are highly trauma-informed. Each class becomes a safe place for self-examination and practice from the outset.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will be able to...
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Define harm reduction as a practice and as a social movement
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Examine one’s beliefs and values around a harm reduction pathway of recovery
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Compare and contrast principles of harm reduction and recovery coaching
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Define and locate opportunities for improving a Recovery-Oriented System of Care that serves People Who Use Drugs
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Discuss advocacy and practices around social justice issues as part of harm reduction
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Practice newly acquired knowledge and skills supporting a harm reduction pathway of recovery
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Develop a personal action plan for further development of harm reduction recovery coaching skills
PREREQUISITES
Completion of a recognized 30-46-hour recovery coaching fundamentals training, such as CCAR Recovery Coach Academy, is strongly suggested.
WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS TRAINING?
Active or prospective peer specialists; Recovery Community Organization personnel; recovery housing service providers; substance use disorder treatment providers; medical and psychiatric services providers; people with lived experience of chaotic substance use, and family members in recovery.
ABOUT THE CORE TRAINERS
Jim Wuelfing is owner and principle associate of the New England Center, dedicated to exceptional training, facilitation and consulting services for nearly 40 years. In the recovery supports arena he has been a major contributor in the design and delivery of several curricula including the CCAR Recovery Coach Academy and CCAR Ethical Considerations for Recovery Coaches, as well as SOS Developing Excellence in Recovery Coaching and Recovery Coaching a Harm Reduction Pathway. He has aided in the formation of several statewide recovery community organizations and has served on the board of the Massachusetts Organization of Addiction Recovery. Jim also has a decades long experience working on social justice issues focusing on racial inequities and understanding the dynamics of power and privilege. He co-wrote with Arthur Woodard, Jr. the nationally well-received training Racism of the Well-Intended.
Dean LeMire is owner and principal associate of The LeMire Group LLC, a recovery services consulting and training agency based in Dover, NH. In his various roles across the substance use disorder continuum of care, Dean has facilitated expansion of improved, person-centered, and community-based service delivery. In New Hampshire Dean was instrumental in forming a statewide network of Recovery Community Organizations, as well as a statewide network of harm reduction service programs as a founding board member of the New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition and as co-founder of Hand Up Health Services, a county-wide syringe services program. While living in Texas recently Dean served as President of RecoveryATX, a Recovery Community Organization, as co-founder of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, and Operations of THRA's direct services program Austin Overdose Prevention Services (Austin-OPS). He is now Recovery Services Director at RecoveryLink. Dean has trained peer recovery support specialists since 2016 and co-developed Recovery Coaching a Harm Reduction Pathway© with Jim Wuelfing in 2019.
CURRICULUM CONTENT COLLABORATORS
William White, Tom Hill, Jenna Neasbitt, Kevin Irwin, Hannah Rose, Joseph Hogan-Sanchez, Devin Reaves, Kevin McLaughlin, Christie Mokry, Michael Galipeau, Michelle Reilly
Upcoming Trainings

RCHRP Course w/ authors
June 2, 3 & 9 of 2022
9a - 4p EST via Zoom
Facilitators: Jim Wuelfing, Dean LeMire
Hosted by Recovery Coach University
Register here

at which we remembered to take pictures

some past trainings

Zoom
October, 2020
RCHRP graduates



Rochester, NH
June, 2019
RCHRP graduates
Austin, TX
August, 2019
RCHRP graduates
Nashua, NH
June, 2019
RCHRP graduates