{"id":158247,"date":"2020-02-18T07:14:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T12:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=158247"},"modified":"2020-02-12T14:14:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T19:14:04","slug":"celebrating-seventh-year-uconn-community-offers-support-students-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/02\/celebrating-seventh-year-uconn-community-offers-support-students-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Seventh Year, UConn Community Offers Support for Students in Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gray-shuttered windows of the Cordial Storrs House look out over Route 195 and across the sprawling Great Lawn between the busy campus thoroughfare and the brick fa\u00e7ade of Gulley Hall.<\/p>\n

So inconspicuous is the historic, white house that you might walk right past it on its perch above a stone retaining wall, never noticing its brick chimney or the regular comings-and-goings from within. Built in 1757, the Cordial Storrs House is the physical home of the UConn Recovery Community, or URC \u2013 a supportive community where students who are in addiction recovery, or who are pursuing addiction recovery, can come together for resources as well as interactions with their peers in an open, welcoming, and substance-free environment.<\/p>\n

Celebrating its seventh anniversary this month, the URC offers recovery meetings and programs, community-building events, and potential residential living space at the Cordial Storrs House for UConn students in recovery from substance misuse or substance use disorders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission of the community is to provide support to students in recovery and those who are in hope of recovery so that they can achieve their academic goals,\u201d says Sandy Valentine, the URC\u2019s program coordinator. \u201cBut we also want them to have a genuine college experience \u2013 we want to be able to build them up so that they can participate in everything that UConn has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That genuine college experience includes encouraging URC members to engage in UConn academically and recreationally while also offering support options for students in addiction recovery. In long-term recovery herself, Valentine is a certified recovery coach professional who came to UConn to work with the URC in late 2018, and she\u2019s quick to stress that although most students are abstinence-based in their recovery, the URC supports multiple pathways of recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are supportive of whatever pathway is going to provide a healthy outcome for our students,\u201d Valentine says.<\/p>\n

For graduate student Evan Lentz \u201919 (CANHR), the openness he found at the URC wasn\u2019t what he initially expected, but it kept him involved in the community through his time as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in what you\u2019d call abstinence-based recovery,\u201d says Lentz, who had been in and out of various university settings before finding his sobriety and later coming to UConn to study horticulture. \u201cI guess they hadn\u2019t had a student there yet with that situation, but there was no pressure that abstinence-based is the only way to go. And I think that was the main reason I came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in recovery, or people still addicted \u2013 they actually are the best resource for their own recovery or wellness plan,\u201d Valentine says. \u201cIt\u2019s how we interact with them and how we bring that out of them. We walk alongside a student in recovery or needing recovery and help them identify the things that are working well for them. Where are you struggling right now? How can I help you? How can I advocate for you on campus, in whatever way that is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that help is through All Recovery Meetings, which are inclusive of any sort of recovery and don\u2019t follow a particular doctrine, every Monday, as well as breakfast and drop-in hours on Wednesdays. The URC also began offering 12-Step Recovery Yoga last fall, with those sessions now taking place on Friday evenings at the Cordial Storrs House.<\/p>\n

\"A
UConn Recovery Community program coordinator Sandy Valentine, center, with students at Cordial Storrs House. (UConn Photo\/Sean Flynn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wellness-focused,\u201d says Lentz of the URC\u2019s programs. \u201cIt\u2019s not all doom and gloom about addiction recovery. There\u2019s the capacity and the drive behind it to have it be a fun community of people who have this one thing in common, not only a place to come and talk about your problems all the time. It\u2019s a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Valentine launched UConn\u2019s Recovery Ally Training Program to expand awareness, sensitivity, and support to students currently in or seeking recovery from substance use disorders. While initially offered to students, the Recovery Ally program also provides training opportunities for faculty and staff who want to better understand the complex nature of addiction as a disease, and learn how to be a resource to UConn students who are struggling with substance use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to provide students with the peer support, understanding, connection, and services for them to be able to have good, healthy recovery,\u201d Valentine says. \u201cBut we want them to be able to join any activity \u2013 whether it\u2019s an athletic team, club, sports, whatever UConn has to offer. We can make it safer and more supportive by impacting the culture on campus, which is where Recovery Allies can play an important role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The URC also offers a scholarship for students participating in the community. Established in 2015 by the sister of John Carter Whitney<\/a>, who died of an overdose after becoming addicted to opioids while in college, the scholarship has been awarded twice since its inception, and Valentine is looking to grow its capacity to support additional URC students.<\/p>\n

While the prospect of coming to a recovery meeting for the first time can be intimidating, Lentz encourages students to give it a try \u2013 when they\u2019re ready for it \u2013 and to put aside concerns about what other people might think or say.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecovery \u2013 it\u2019s just like any other choice that you make,\u201d Lentz says. \u201cIt\u2019s something that someone else has chosen to do. And it\u2019s a pretty admirable thing that someone has chosen to do, and it\u2019s a pretty tough thing that someone has chosen to do. It can be a little bit daunting, but I think everyone\u2019s impression after their first meeting is that this is a great place, they feel very comfortable, even if they don\u2019t say anything during the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a meeting, or yoga, or just taking a flyer from a table in the Student Union, Valentine says she wants students who are struggling to know that the URC is available as a resource, no matter the path they might currently be walking.<\/p>\n

\u201cUConn has a place for students needing recovery support services \u2013 because students are getting into recovery now in middle school and high school \u2013 and they need higher education opportunities that are have recovery supports in place,\u201d says Valentine, \u201cand our University and the Recovery Community are ready to receive them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about, or to connect with, the UConn Recovery Community, or to sign up for a Recovery Ally training session, visit URC.uconn.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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