At the lowest point of my addiction, after losing custody of my children and living homeless, I checked myself into a behavioral health unit with severe withdrawal symptoms and suicidal ideation.

It was there that I was outreached by a person who was in recovery. He offered me resources and had a solution for every barrier and excuse to recovery that I presented. It was my first experience with a Peer Support Provider.He set me up with an appointment to an Intensive Outpatient Treatment Provider. From the behavioral health unit, I went straight to my appointment where I received Vivitrol and other therapies. I moved into Sober Living the day I left the hospital. While in sober living, I became attracted to the impact of peer support and worked to become certified to provide peer support. I began helping at the sober living house as a manager and got a job as a Certified Peer Specialist with the same medication assisted treatment provider that administered my Vivitrol. After about a year and a half, a position opened where I had received IOP treatment services. The position was for a Recovery Coach on the same outreach project that put a peer in front of me in the behavioral health unit a couple years prior. I applied for the position and got it!

I became a Certified Peer Specialist, got hired as a Recovery Coach and  married the mother of my children. We bought a house and regained full custody of our children.

I continue to share my story on all platforms to inspire hope regarding substance use disorders. I work passionately as an advocate for my peers and Peer Support Services as they’ve had such a great impact on my recovery. I currently sit on the Board for the National Peer Recovery Alliance – Missouri Chapter (an extension of The ARCHway Institute). It is my hope that with money raised through this Hope Fund, more peers will be brought together to advocate for long-term recovery for those we are serving and to unite and strengthen the peer workforce.

I continue to serve my peers because someone once helped me. It’s for that reason that I will always do what I can to help others.

~ Jake Dunavant, CPS