Addiction led Rhonda Warren and Paul Moore to years of despair, including doing time in prison.
Recovery set them free – and put them on the road to helping others with their hard-won wisdom.
Peer counseling is frequently part of the journey of addiction recovery. Studies show its benefits include reducing the length of hospital stays and symptoms of depression and anxiety for patients, along with boosting the self-confidence and skills of the counselors themselves.
At Providence-based Project Weber/RENEW , more than 60% of the staff has “lived experience” with addiction, the criminal justice system or being unhoused – and most of those have experienced all three, said executive director Colleen Daley Ndoye. Some of those working at the harm-reduction and recovery nonprofit have relapsed and overdosed multiple times, but their lives have been saved.
“Telling somebody what to do is really sort of useless if the person doesn’t believe that it’s even possible,” said Ndoye. “So rather than telling people what to do, our staff are just living examples of what to do … and that as long as you keep trying, change is possible. It is a living testimony.”