look for the good – when you find it, say something and amplify it!

Eddie Greyfox Burgess delivers curbside wellness Nothing draws a crowd like a turquoise 1965 Ford Fairlane shining in the sun—and that’s exactly what Eddie Greyfox Burgess was looking for in a “wellness mobile.” “It was contemplating its life mission and its personal...

Recovery centers are formed by people in recovery for people in recovery Let me start with a confession. Not so many years ago, I didn’t even know what a recovery community center was. I’d been driving by the newly started Portland Recovery Community Center (PRCC) on...

At the intersection of a pandemic and an epidemic, telemedicine revolutionizes addiction treatment. When Dr. Ted Logan of Maine Behavioral Healthcare transitioned his substance use disorder practice to mostly telemedicine, COVID-19 was still at least three years in...

During his run for office, District Attorney Jonathan Sahrbeck met with various groups of people doing work around the addiction conversation here in Cumberland County. Once he was elected, he started a coalition—bringing these groups together to facilitate...

Penobscot Nation’s Healing to Wellness Court weaves cultural connections into drug court program Rhonda Decontie grew up tagging along with her father, Frank Decontie, an addiction recovery counselor, to 12-step meetings where she would recite The Serenity Prayer...

How does a girl from Lewiston get sexually trafficked? And then become a leader in the recovery movement? Tricia Grant grew up exposed to alcohol, drugs, and sexual abuse and, by the time she was 12, she was struggling with housing stability. At 14, she was pregnant....

A former convent in Lewiston is now a safe haven for a small community of women Women who have survived a trifecta of traumatic, adverse experiences—sex trafficking or exploitation, addiction, and incarceration. “We’re more than a sober house,” said Sophia House...

Community puzzle project now a ‘touchstone’ of hope in women’s prison. The first spark of positivity is often forged at rock bottom. Sheer desperation motivates us to move beyond the horrors of our current situation. Think about it this way: When a pendulum reaches...

Courageous men learning to be in compassion Six times a week, ten men walk into Stephen Andrew’s office on Middle Street in Portland, slip off their shoes, sit in a circle and do something that takes some courage at first—they talk about their feelings. Andrew, a...

Maine’s Director of Opioid Response steps in to help get a recovery community center for Millinocket Gordon Smith was breezing past his desk one day this past spring when the phone rang. “It was unusual,” says Maine’s Director of Opioid Response, for two reasons:...

Ninety-year-old Joan Giles has much to celebrate, having been part of Maine’s recovery community for 41 years. Journey’s Amy Paradysz talked with Joan at the Sarah Frye Home, an assisted living center in Auburn, about changing perceptions and how Joan, as a single...