Hope and Recovery

What does Recovery mean to you?  I know what it means to me – it is why I have the job that I have with the agency that I love.  It means being a bearer of hope for the people we serve so that they believe that they can have a life of their choosing despite having a mental health or substance use disorder.  It means that the people we serve can have stable homes in the community.  It means that the people we serve can find, get, and keep jobs – jobs that they really want.  It means that the people we serve can meet people and make friends.  It means that they can do all of these things even while they might experience the symptoms and challenges of their diagnoses every day.  This is what Recovery means to me.

Recovery is going to be different for each person we serve.  It might mean living in a group home with 24 hour staff support or living independently in a 1 bedroom apartment with 3 – 6 visits a month from staff.  It might mean working 1 hour a day or 40 hours a week.  It might mean getting married and raising children or going to the movies with friends.

My first job was at Montgomery General Hospital in the inpatient psychiatric unit.  From there I went to work as a Residential Counselor at Threshold Services.  What I loved about working in both settings is that I could see the people we serve in the community when they were not experiencing a crisis.  I saw them on a daily basis and saw immediately that there was every reason to have hope and to see their potential to identify their recovery and live a life of their choosing as independently as possible.

Where do I see the hope?  I see hope every day in the success stories about the people we serve.  For every challenge, there is a victory.  I also see hope every day in the committed and dedicated staff who work at Cornerstone Montgomery.  They are here with the primary goal of helping the people we serve identify and achieve their success.  They care, they work really hard, and they want the best for the clients.  I see hope in the monthly board meetings.  I see dedicated board members who want Cornerstone Montgomery to grow and be successful.  I see hope in the actions of donors and supporters of Cornerstone.  The volunteers who help with landscaping, the donors who helped fund our Thanksgiving meals and all of our holiday gifts for clients, the County and State grants that got approved to help renovate seven of our homes and the Knoll Hub, and the SAMHSA grant that will help us get ready be a CCBHC.

What does Recovery mean to you?  How can you help Cornerstone Montgomery sustain that hope for all the people we serve?  I challenge you to find every day what motivates you to reach out and be a bearer of hope at Cornerstone Montgomery!