Notice of Cybersecurity Incident

Restorative SMART Recovery Blog Banner

From Stu­dent to Leader: A SMART Recov­ery Journey

Caught: Now What

Jesus knows exact­ly what it’s like to be a young per­son caught with sub­stances. I got caught with a sub­stance in school. I had the option to pay a $200 tick­et, or to attend a group that addressed sub­stance use con­cerns,” he shares. As a stu­dent, the cost of the tick­et wasn’t some­thing that he could man­age. Many stu­dents and fam­i­lies are not able to take on such a steep unex­pect­ed expense. I didn’t care about it in the moment,” he recounts, but I signed up for the group.” Though he had no way of know­ing at the time, the group would prove to be far more valu­able than just avoid­ing the cost of the ticket.

Restora­tive SMART Recovery

Jesus Daryl

Jesus (left) and Daryl (right), KYC SMART Recovery leaders

Jesus was quick­ly con­nect­ed with KYC’s Restora­tive SMART (Self-Man­age­ment and Recov­ery Train­ing) Recov­ery group, a pro­gram designed for stu­dents deal­ing with sub­stance-mis­use, addic­tive behav­iors, or gang activity/​affiliation. Par­tic­i­pat­ing in this group gives stu­dents the oppor­tu­ni­ty to under­stand their behav­ior and thoughts, how to cope with urges, how to live a bal­anced lifestyle. Restora­tive SMART Recov­ery is a non-clin­i­cal, peer-led resource that helps stu­dents embrace a health­i­er way of think­ing and behav­ing, which cre­ates a thriv­ing exis­tence,” shares Daryl Pass, KYC’s Manger of Recov­ery Sup­port Ser­vices. Daryl con­tin­ues, if we avoid address­ing sub­stance use and addic­tive behav­ior with con­se­quences and instead address the core issues, that’s when we can actu­al­ly help kids do better.”

An Unex­pect­ed Turn­ing Point

Jesus Quote

I start­ed attend­ing the group,” Jesus shares, that’s when I met Daryl. He was talk­ing about the pro­gram and he said, I’m not here to pre­vent you from, I’m here to help you find out why you indulge in sub­stance and embrace unhealthy behav­iors,’ and that was real­ly moti­vat­ing for me. In the mes­sages I’d heard about sub­stance use before that point, the key word was always STOP’, but, you won’t stop because some­one else told you to, but this pro­gram was different.”

Jesus shares that his expe­ri­ence with sub­stances was relat­ed to feel­ing anx­ious. I had a tough fam­i­ly life that is bet­ter now, but I remem­ber one meet­ing where Daryl asked me to tell him five things I liked about myself. With that expe­ri­ence, I start­ed talk­ing and open­ing up, and that made a huge dif­fer­ence for me,” Jesus shares. Restora­tive SMART Recov­ery gives you moti­va­tion and time to care about your­self, think for your­self, and moti­vate your­self. This tru­ly helped me so much, and I knew that I want­ed to help peo­ple like Daryl was help­ing me, and that moti­vat­ed me even more.”

Help­ing Oth­ers through Direct Experience

Jesus Quote 2

Today, Jesus is KYC’s Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tion Project Asso­ciate, and he’s help­ing to lead the very pro­gram that he once attend­ed, expand­ing the pro­gram to offer a group in Span­ish. Many kids are reluc­tant to par­tic­i­pate in the group at first,” shares Daryl, but some kids choose to keep com­ing back after they’ve com­plet­ed their school-required pro­gram because it’s a safe space and they can share and appre­ci­ate the out­let. Jesus was one of the stu­dents who got real­ly involved, and now he’s just doing a phe­nom­e­nal job sup­port­ing fam­i­lies and stu­dents through their recovery.”

Jesus’s pas­sion for help­ing stu­dents and fam­i­lies con­nect with the sup­port they need to thrive is imme­di­ate­ly evi­dent the moment he starts talk­ing about the Restora­tive SMART Recov­ery pro­gram. He is tru­ly ener­gized by the oppor­tu­ni­ty to help stu­dents find their own mean­ing­ful path to recov­ery, and the kind­ness, knowl­edge, and wis­dom he so skill­ful­ly shares makes a big impact for group participants.

I was there as a stu­dent, and now I can help them. I know how youth think and I can relate,” shares Jesus. To me, com­mu­ni­ca­tion is KEY. My advice to stu­dents is that if your par­ents are offer­ing help, to take it! Don’t be stub­born – they are offer­ing help because they care for you. Even if you don’t want to open up, if you at least accept the help, you’ll real­ize they’re there for you because they love and care for you,” a les­son Jesus learned for him­self, and can now share with the stu­dents he so thought­ful­ly supports. 

Through care­ful reflec­tion of his family’s expe­ri­ence through­out his own recov­ery jour­ney, Jesus is also extreme­ly insight­ful for how to sup­port par­ents through this pro­gram. When par­ents first come in,” he shares, they’re scared and don’t quite know how to han­dle it. I high­ly rec­om­mend that par­ents get advice from some­one you trust who is a pro­fes­sion­al if you are strug­gling with how to help your stu­dent. Lis­ten to them, and try to be there as much as you can. Patience is one of the key words – your child might not open up right away, but if you’re there for them, it will hap­pen. Hear out your child. Don’t speak when they’re speak­ing – hear them out and don’t get angry. Talk with respect and love for them, and try to be open. Par­ents have the dif­fi­cult job of mak­ing that con­ver­sa­tion, and let­ting them know you want to help and that you’ll be there for them, rather than just telling them to stop,” Jesus advises.

Con­nect­ing with SMART Recov­ery and Sub­stance Use Recov­ery Support

KYC’s Restora­tive SMART Recov­ery pro­gram is avail­able for youth who are look­ing for sup­port to reach their recov­ery goals. While some stu­dents are intro­duced to the pro­gram as an alter­na­tive to puni­tive con­se­quences, this is not the only way to con­nect with this group. Youth can also begin, or choose to con­tin­ue, attend­ing this free group for as long as they like. SMART Recov­ery par­tic­i­pants learn more about how to make healthy deci­sions that are right for them. They’ll also con­nect with car­ing indi­vid­u­als, like Jesus, who under­stand what it’s like to be in their shoes and who are pas­sion­ate about help­ing them reach their per­son­al­ized recov­ery goals. The Restora­tive SMART Recov­ery group for youth meets for one hour every Tues­day evening. 

KYC also offers sup­ports for par­ents who are either look­ing to learn the best ways to help sup­port their stu­dent, or who may be look­ing to achieve their own goals in recov­ery, through addi­tion­al SMART Recov­ery groups tai­lored to adults. 

To learn more about KYC’s SMART Recov­ery groups, con­tact our recov­ery resource depart­ment at 2242297456 or recoveryresources@​kennethyoung.​org.


Previous Article Next Article
You're Not Alone

1 in 4
Amer­i­can fam­i­lies have a rel­a­tive who has a men­tal illness.

Get Involved

How You Can Help

Keep up to date with KYC!

Get the latest Kenneth Young Center news and insights emailed to you each month. Just complete the form below to subscribe.