September 17, 2025 • 18 mins
On today’s episode, Counselor and Co-Occurring Program Coordinator Jeremy Smith joins me to discuss the upcoming Rally for Recovery at Brookside Park. If you or someone you love is affected by substance use, we invite you to join Appleseed Community Mental Health Center for the Light the Way Recovery Rally—a day of hope, healing, and connection. Tuesday, September 23rd, from 3:30 to 7:00 PM at the Pavilions at Brookside Park Main in Ashland. Meet local support resources, honor loved ones, enjoy free refreshments, fun and games for all ages, special giveaways, and inspiring testimonies every 45 minutes. Stand with our community and help light the way to recovery. For more information, contact the Board at www.ashlandmhrb.org/ or call 419.281.3139.
(Record Date: September 11, 2025)
(Record Date: September 11, 2025)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome. You're listening to the Keeping Ashland Healthy podcast, a
podcast production of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of
Ashland County, Ohio. Thanks for joining us, and welcome to
another episode of Keeping Ashland Healthy.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In Studio.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I have an important guest. I'm going to be talking
about an important subject and an event coming up here
in our community that I think you will want to
know about with me in studio is Jeremy Smith. Welcome, Jeremy,
thank you for having me absolutely. Jeremy is the co
occurring program coordinator and therapist with Applesea Community Mental Health Center.
(00:40):
That's a lot of words, Jeremy. I think the audience
would be interested in knowing just a little bit about you,
maybe how long you've been in at Applesea. But I know,
because I've known you for a few years now, you
weren't always in Ashton County and at Appleseed. So if
you're comfortable you're just telling folks a little bit about yourself. Sure.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah. So when I first got started, I was out
actually out Colorado, that's where I got my degree, then
for a seminary, and when I first got started, I
actually wanted to work with kids with developmental disabilities. I
was actually my approach, and then that didn't work out
because they said you need five years of counting experience. Unfortunately,
it didn't work out, but I got involved with community
mental health out there for doing cocurring counseling, which was
(01:19):
not on my radar, and started doing that work with
individuals coming in for any kind of services, but primarily
with domestic violence offenders, working with them with substance use.
And then by the tail end of it, I was
helping start up an opioid treatment center for residential treatment
services sixty ninety days. And when I left, I came
here to Appleseed, and originally apple Seed didn't have anything
(01:42):
substance use specific at the time I was there, and
so Jerry eventually came to me, and so I've been
there for over eight years now and we have a
co occurring program, which means mental health and substance use.
I know that there's services for just substance use, so
we're really just focusing on when someone's struggling with mental
illness and and they use substances to deal with that
(02:02):
or because of their substance use. We know with methamphetamines
or with cocaine or even with marijuana, it can create
some mental illness issues. So really that's kind of our
focus is whenever those two things come together and it
creates so much chaos, so much entanglement for themselves, that
we're trying to work through those issues for themselves.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, and I've told the audience before that's some of
my history when I was a therapist over in the
Mansfield areas. That co occurring model, the idea of treating
both the issues at the same time with an integrated
team and an integrated approach is kind of a best
practice has been for a while. But historically, maybe the
young listeners may not know this, but historically they were
(02:43):
very segmented and segregated. So you would go to one
agency for your drug alcohol, you go for another agency
to the mental health and they didn't always coordinate or communicate,
and they really took these two struggles that somebody was
having and separate them, and that was really not ideal
for most folks. So, you know, the idea of a
(03:04):
co occurring program, I'm glad that people now, I think
that is the industry standard. You don't see some of
those old what we used to call parallel our sequential
models around anymore. So yeah, it was very supportive of
when apple Seed wanted to really focus in on that
and when you said eight years oh, Jeremy, I feel
(03:25):
older and older whenever people say things like that, and
I remember when you first started, and I'm like, wow,
that was eight years ago, it's hard to believe. So
and welcome yeah to the community. I know you have
a family here, and I hopefully you find the community
as wonderful as I do. It's one of the reasons
again I say this all the time when I'm in
public or meetings. It's such a wonderful community. The size
(03:48):
of it is such that I feel like we can
respond well and really make a difference in a community
of this size.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So Ashland's very unique. I feel like we constantly hear
this like small town field, which if you're really thinking
about it, from the state level, they don't consider us rule,
but we still have that field to it. So there's
very strong community aspects to it. I think you lose
that when you get bigger and bigger and bigger. So
Ashland hasn't lost that. But in all reality, like we
(04:15):
have two dunkin Donuts, right, So if we're just basing
it off of that, this is a big tap.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Duncan metric would indicate we're far, you know, larger than
our fifty two thousand. Absolutely. All right, Well, we are
here to talk primarily about an upcoming event. It's going
to be on September twenty third, from three thirty to seven.
It's going to be out at Brookside and it is
(04:41):
called Light the Way Recovery Rally. And again I'm going
to assume most of our audience wants to know more. Yeah,
what is a recovery rally? And why is this important?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Jerry?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
What happens at one of these things? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So, first of all, September is recovery Awareness. Yes, right,
so we're there just a big push to talk about
what does recovery look like. We know August thirty first
was overdose awareness, Say Ashland does something every single year,
and so this month is just focused on what does
recovery look like if you are struggling with substance use,
if you're struggling with your mental health. The whole point
is to get to a place where you're working on
(05:18):
your recovery. Mental health, we know is not something you
just magically fix. And everything goes away and all it's wonderful. Right,
You get a cold, you take some medicine, and everything
hopefully will be good. But in all reality, you got
to change your life to not get that cold again.
You know, wash your hands more. But the same thing's
true for mental health that you don't just fix the
trauma and it all goes away. It's still part of
your story, the substance use that you have. There's still triggers,
(05:40):
there's still cravings, are still trying to find your purpose.
Just stopping substance use does not mean that everything is
fixed and resolved.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's part of the solution, but not the entire correct.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You have to add those positive supports back into your life.
You have to have those hobbies, You have to have
that purpose, that drive. I think about it the idea
of a puzzle. You have one hundred puzzle in your life,
and you identify how many of those pieces are substance
use related, and you say, I'm gonna stop using. And
I've had clients say anywhere from like ten percent all
the way to fifty percent of those pieces are substance
(06:12):
use related, and we're like, okay, well let's take those out.
You said, you don't want to use anymore, so we're
taking those pieces out, so you don't have a complete
puzzle anymore. You have to figure out who am I
without that substance, use my culture that people hang out with,
even just my own identity, job, I'm doing all these
other things and so you have to add that back
into your life. But that takes time to find. And
(06:32):
even when you're done with recovery or I'm sorry, done
with treatments, there's still more puzzle pieces you're putting back in.
We just give them the tools to get to that
place so they can keep going on. And so our
hope is with this recovery awareness is that the community
can help support them, whether it's the individuals in their
recovery that maybe they can start to find, oh, there's
a place for me, and maybe it's not treatment, maybe
(06:54):
it's AA meaning celebrate recovery. Maybe it's just getting involved
at the CROC center for themselves or going to church
whatever that thing is for themselves. But at the same time,
for the family members to know, for the community members
to maybe start to think about what does recovery look like.
Sober events are something that's fairly new to Ashland at
least within like training to intentionally focus on some of
(07:15):
those things. I've had this conversation with some of our
peer supporters of what is the one activity that they
would really want to do, and they've talked, let's play cornhole.
From some of the conversations I've had with people, we
don't know how to play cornhole sober, right, they love
to playing cornhole. They just tend to be intoxicated while
they're playing.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right, Well that historically maybe as they're you know now
that maybe they're clean and sober, but right their most
recent memories were again engaging in that activity under the
influence yep.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So this recovery rally, it's multipurpose. It's the whole idea
is bring awareness to the community of what recovery looks like.
But also for people in recovery or people trying and
secretly just in their home like white knuckling it and
trying to figure things out but they don't have any
sports resources that there is a community for this. And
then also for the family members, the mother, the spouse,
(08:06):
the children that they have someone that's in recovery to
become more aware of it for themselves, but also to
know that there are resources out there even for them,
the alan on, the friends and family, smart recovery, these
other things that they can still have support for themselves
as well. So really just trying to community with it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I think that's great. I mean, and let me pause
a bit when you when you said the white knuckling it,
that that that triggered me because that comes across in
a lot of different arenas, but specifically here to substance
use and recovery. I want folks to know it's the
(08:46):
idea of just not doing something anymore is only part
of the solution, and the other part is what are
you doing instead? So this idea of you know, white
knuckling it, and Jeremy's right, I there's various different contexts
I've seen this, but you know, they're just doing everything
they can not to do a certain thing. Well that
(09:09):
usually leads on my experience has been Jeremy to failure.
I don't know, different contexts, That's where I've seen it.
It's we have to be proactive involved in other things more,
you know, things that are different than the thing that
we're trying very hard not to do. And what makes
this rally and what you're trying to do so interesting
(09:30):
is okay. Let's take relationships and so that's a common one.
If my most recent experience with relationships always involve substances,
I can white knuckle it and just have no more relationships. Well,
I think most of the audience would know that's not good.
That's not healthy for the most people. We don't want
you to be isolated and not have a relationship. So
(09:51):
it's not just about not having a relationships with somebody
that we're use is involved. It's about how can I
have a relationship with somebody where use is not involved,
but still have the relationship. So I think as you're
using your puzzle analogy, that is, you're putting a puzzle
piece in, but it is different. I mean that picture,
that relationship piece, that picture in the puzzle is important,
(10:14):
but it's got to look different than it did before
in some aspects. So they're going to learn some of this, right.
The awareness at this event is for all those people
you mentioned, the persons, the families, the communities, which I
think is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, we want to make this a serious event where
we're talking about the education of It's for the adults,
for the youth. We're going to have psycho education through
all those different things. We're gonna have a lot of
different vendors there. At the same time, we're also going
to try and have a lot of fun too. We're
going to have some music and games. Some things here,
let me read from my list. I The event will
include tables from community partners sharing recovery resources, games for
(10:48):
adults like cornhole you mentioned, playground, kid friendly activities for families,
refreshments for attendees, educational material for people in recovery and
loved ones wanted to know more, a special vigil remembering
those who have overdosed. I think that could be an
impactful part. And I think you're gonna have some maybe
some testimonials from some individuals maybe recovery. Yeah, we're gonna
(11:10):
have people with lived experience. We're gonna have family members
who have had someone in recovery. We're going to work
The mayor is planning to be there to do the
proclamation of what recovery looks like in general. We're gonna
have it's going to be at Brookside Parks, so there's
going to be playgrounds there for the kids. We're gonna
have face paint someone that has that has some involvement
with recovery in some aspect of their h someone in
(11:32):
their life. They're going to be doing the face painting
because they want to give back to their community for this.
We're going to have a tree. We have an art
therapist at apple Seed and she's going to be there
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
She has been on the program, Jeremy. She she does
a wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We're gonna she's gonna be doing a tree where you
cut out a hand to write an inspirational quote on
the hand and put it up there. We're going to
make sure that goes back to apple Seed so people
can see what recovery looks like, the inspirational messages to
encourage people that are in recovery to continue on. We're
going to have the cornhole. We're going to have disc golf.
We're going to have just a lot of different activities
(12:06):
just to have fun with it, sp to learn, and
also to take it serious, especially for the people that
just need that connection and hear what's going on.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I love that, Jeremy, because whether people know it or not,
I want I want to say for the vast majority
of people, I'm sure there's an exception, but for the
vast majority of people, recovery, whether it's substance use or
other issues, doesn't happen in isolation. It actually happens in community.
And that's one of that you mentioned our mayor, we've
(12:35):
talked about that and he's mentioned it. He gets that. So,
you know, community, we can't we can't get into the
us and the m thing. You know, that's those people. No,
it's it's all of us. I mean we if the
community is going to retain and continue to be this
someplace special that it is. When any of us have
(12:55):
a difficult time, a challenging time, it really involves the person.
Of course, the person that's struggling is involved, but the
community needs to be part of that recovery process. So
you're event here like the way Recovery Rally is a
wonderful example where I think you're going to raise awareness
to the community about why that's so critical to be
involved in someone's recovery, whether it's substance use or anything else.
(13:18):
Really yep. So the date again is September twenty third,
three thirty seven. I don't think, well, the sun's still
up about seven. I don't know if we yeah, this
still be And you know, I looked at the ten
day forecast. What has happened, Jeremy. The hot weather is
coming back. So I hope you're prepared for this. I
(13:41):
was lulled into an early October. I was starting to
break out flannel and next thing I know, I'm sweating.
I got shorts again. It's like eighty something.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Have you heard of the theory about the fake winter
or the fake fall that heppens in Ohio? So it
goes summer and then we get the fake fall, and
then we go back to summer, and then we go
to an initial fall, and then something else happens where
it's raining too cold for winter.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's just a whole cycle, right man. Well it's confusing.
I'll tell you that from my wardrobe. Luckily, I have
plenty of of space in my closet, you know, And
there's a running joke here at the office. My closet
is my basement. Task. We've repurposed that. Who else anybody
else that's going to be involved with this. I know
(14:26):
you're given an opportunity for folks to set up. So
if they want to do that, do they need to
get a hold of you or Is it too late, No,
it's not too late.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
So we do have a bunch of vendors already involved.
I know that Pathways is going to be there with
Catholic charities. App'll see, the Board's going to have a presence.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We're going to be inviting even some people out of
town because we don't have any which arare all residential
treatment services. So we've invited catalysts with new Life, Yes,
our new Beginnings, they'll be here. Action and health and
Wellness will be here. So we're trying to invite as
many community partners. But the recovery community is going to
be here, those that have already been doing their own recovery,
whatever that looks like, and they've wanted to be very
(15:02):
proactive to give back to the community and to make
it an available place for themselves. And we've also invited
juvenile courts, We've invited the library. So there's gonna be
a lot of fun stuff that happens with this, and
it's not just an apple Seed event. It's the whole
community coming together. I'll just to be able to share
what's happening and what resources people have for themselves.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's awesome and Jeremy. I'm just pleased you're doing this.
I don't recalls doing something quite like this before. Maybe
it'll there'll be more of a series of these in
the future, because again, the more and more people are
aware that recovery happens in community, that there are these
sober activities and events, and people say, wow, this looks like,
(15:43):
you know, a normal event, which is the whole idea.
It's just for so many folks they've associated using with
some of these normal activities, and we have to practice
doing the thing but in a different way. We don't
want our books to isolate and not do fun things
like corn are gathering and connecting and just doing it
in a different way. So I'm excited about this on
(16:06):
September twenty third, three thirty seven, Brookside Park. Anything else
that the audience needs to know about the Recovery Rally, I.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Think the biggest thing that I would say is the
whole purpose of this is to be able to bring
awareness so that people are struggling silently that maybe they
have a place for themselves. When we created, when we
finally realized we have the grants to be able to
do this, my first response was to send a message
to all the peer supporters and say what do we
do with this? And so they have been involved from
the very beginning. When we are like, hey, should we
do this, we look to the peer supporters and say
(16:35):
is this something we want to do. It's not just
Apples peer supporters. We've been talking with Akata, We've been
talking with Pathways because we want to hear their input
on what this looks like. It doesn't need to be
treatment providers being like, oh, let's reason awareness. This is
not for us. This is for the community.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, that's great, and that nothing about us without us
is a long term quote. One of our former board members,
Pat Risser, used to remind me of that all the time.
But what you're saying, Jeremy, is yeah, you don't plan
an event for a group of folks without also involving
that group intrically in the event, or else you're going
(17:10):
to miss the marks almost every time. So thank you again,
Jeremy for coming on the program talking about this rally
for Recovery on the twenty third, three thirty seven at Brookside,
and I'm sure we're going to have you back on
the program in the future. Thank you so much. Thank
you for listening to another episode of the Keeping Ashland
Healthy podcast. The podcast is a production of the Mental
(17:31):
Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County, Ohio. You can
reach the Board by calling four one nine two eight
one three one three nine. Please remember that the Board
funds a local twenty four to seven crisis line through
Applese Community Mental Health Center. It can be reached by
calling four one nine two eight nine sixty one one one.
That's four one nine two eight nine sixty one one one.
(17:53):
Until next time. Please join us in keeping Ashland Healthy.
Welcome. You're listening to the Keeping Ashland Healthy podcast, a
podcast production of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of
Ashland County, Ohio. Thanks for joining us, and welcome to
another episode of Keeping Ashland Healthy.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In Studio.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I have an important guest. I'm going to be talking
about an important subject and an event coming up here
in our community that I think you will want to
know about with me in studio is Jeremy Smith. Welcome, Jeremy,
thank you for having me absolutely. Jeremy is the co
occurring program coordinator and therapist with Applesea Community Mental Health Center.
(00:40):
That's a lot of words, Jeremy. I think the audience
would be interested in knowing just a little bit about you,
maybe how long you've been in at Applesea. But I know,
because I've known you for a few years now, you
weren't always in Ashton County and at Appleseed. So if
you're comfortable you're just telling folks a little bit about yourself. Sure.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah. So when I first got started, I was out
actually out Colorado, that's where I got my degree, then
for a seminary, and when I first got started, I
actually wanted to work with kids with developmental disabilities. I
was actually my approach, and then that didn't work out
because they said you need five years of counting experience. Unfortunately,
it didn't work out, but I got involved with community
mental health out there for doing cocurring counseling, which was
(01:19):
not on my radar, and started doing that work with
individuals coming in for any kind of services, but primarily
with domestic violence offenders, working with them with substance use.
And then by the tail end of it, I was
helping start up an opioid treatment center for residential treatment
services sixty ninety days. And when I left, I came
here to Appleseed, and originally apple Seed didn't have anything
(01:42):
substance use specific at the time I was there, and
so Jerry eventually came to me, and so I've been
there for over eight years now and we have a
co occurring program, which means mental health and substance use.
I know that there's services for just substance use, so
we're really just focusing on when someone's struggling with mental
illness and and they use substances to deal with that
(02:02):
or because of their substance use. We know with methamphetamines
or with cocaine or even with marijuana, it can create
some mental illness issues. So really that's kind of our
focus is whenever those two things come together and it
creates so much chaos, so much entanglement for themselves, that
we're trying to work through those issues for themselves.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, and I've told the audience before that's some of
my history when I was a therapist over in the
Mansfield areas. That co occurring model, the idea of treating
both the issues at the same time with an integrated
team and an integrated approach is kind of a best
practice has been for a while. But historically, maybe the
young listeners may not know this, but historically they were
(02:43):
very segmented and segregated. So you would go to one
agency for your drug alcohol, you go for another agency
to the mental health and they didn't always coordinate or communicate,
and they really took these two struggles that somebody was
having and separate them, and that was really not ideal
for most folks. So, you know, the idea of a
(03:04):
co occurring program, I'm glad that people now, I think
that is the industry standard. You don't see some of
those old what we used to call parallel our sequential
models around anymore. So yeah, it was very supportive of
when apple Seed wanted to really focus in on that
and when you said eight years oh, Jeremy, I feel
(03:25):
older and older whenever people say things like that, and
I remember when you first started, and I'm like, wow,
that was eight years ago, it's hard to believe. So
and welcome yeah to the community. I know you have
a family here, and I hopefully you find the community
as wonderful as I do. It's one of the reasons
again I say this all the time when I'm in
public or meetings. It's such a wonderful community. The size
(03:48):
of it is such that I feel like we can
respond well and really make a difference in a community
of this size.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So Ashland's very unique. I feel like we constantly hear
this like small town field, which if you're really thinking
about it, from the state level, they don't consider us rule,
but we still have that field to it. So there's
very strong community aspects to it. I think you lose
that when you get bigger and bigger and bigger. So
Ashland hasn't lost that. But in all reality, like we
(04:15):
have two dunkin Donuts, right, So if we're just basing
it off of that, this is a big tap.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Duncan metric would indicate we're far, you know, larger than
our fifty two thousand. Absolutely. All right, Well, we are
here to talk primarily about an upcoming event. It's going
to be on September twenty third, from three thirty to seven.
It's going to be out at Brookside and it is
(04:41):
called Light the Way Recovery Rally. And again I'm going
to assume most of our audience wants to know more. Yeah,
what is a recovery rally? And why is this important?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Jerry?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
What happens at one of these things? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So, first of all, September is recovery Awareness. Yes, right,
so we're there just a big push to talk about
what does recovery look like. We know August thirty first
was overdose awareness, Say Ashland does something every single year,
and so this month is just focused on what does
recovery look like if you are struggling with substance use,
if you're struggling with your mental health. The whole point
is to get to a place where you're working on
(05:18):
your recovery. Mental health, we know is not something you
just magically fix. And everything goes away and all it's wonderful. Right,
You get a cold, you take some medicine, and everything
hopefully will be good. But in all reality, you got
to change your life to not get that cold again.
You know, wash your hands more. But the same thing's
true for mental health that you don't just fix the
trauma and it all goes away. It's still part of
your story, the substance use that you have. There's still triggers,
(05:40):
there's still cravings, are still trying to find your purpose.
Just stopping substance use does not mean that everything is
fixed and resolved.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's part of the solution, but not the entire correct.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You have to add those positive supports back into your life.
You have to have those hobbies, You have to have
that purpose, that drive. I think about it the idea
of a puzzle. You have one hundred puzzle in your life,
and you identify how many of those pieces are substance
use related, and you say, I'm gonna stop using. And
I've had clients say anywhere from like ten percent all
the way to fifty percent of those pieces are substance
(06:12):
use related, and we're like, okay, well let's take those out.
You said, you don't want to use anymore, so we're
taking those pieces out, so you don't have a complete
puzzle anymore. You have to figure out who am I
without that substance, use my culture that people hang out with,
even just my own identity, job, I'm doing all these
other things and so you have to add that back
into your life. But that takes time to find. And
(06:32):
even when you're done with recovery or I'm sorry, done
with treatments, there's still more puzzle pieces you're putting back in.
We just give them the tools to get to that
place so they can keep going on. And so our
hope is with this recovery awareness is that the community
can help support them, whether it's the individuals in their
recovery that maybe they can start to find, oh, there's
a place for me, and maybe it's not treatment, maybe
(06:54):
it's AA meaning celebrate recovery. Maybe it's just getting involved
at the CROC center for themselves or going to church
whatever that thing is for themselves. But at the same time,
for the family members to know, for the community members
to maybe start to think about what does recovery look like.
Sober events are something that's fairly new to Ashland at
least within like training to intentionally focus on some of
(07:15):
those things. I've had this conversation with some of our
peer supporters of what is the one activity that they
would really want to do, and they've talked, let's play cornhole.
From some of the conversations I've had with people, we
don't know how to play cornhole sober, right, they love
to playing cornhole. They just tend to be intoxicated while
they're playing.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right, Well that historically maybe as they're you know now
that maybe they're clean and sober, but right their most
recent memories were again engaging in that activity under the
influence yep.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So this recovery rally, it's multipurpose. It's the whole idea
is bring awareness to the community of what recovery looks like.
But also for people in recovery or people trying and
secretly just in their home like white knuckling it and
trying to figure things out but they don't have any
sports resources that there is a community for this. And
then also for the family members, the mother, the spouse,
(08:06):
the children that they have someone that's in recovery to
become more aware of it for themselves, but also to
know that there are resources out there even for them,
the alan on, the friends and family, smart recovery, these
other things that they can still have support for themselves
as well. So really just trying to community with it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
I think that's great. I mean, and let me pause
a bit when you when you said the white knuckling it,
that that that triggered me because that comes across in
a lot of different arenas, but specifically here to substance
use and recovery. I want folks to know it's the
(08:46):
idea of just not doing something anymore is only part
of the solution, and the other part is what are
you doing instead? So this idea of you know, white
knuckling it, and Jeremy's right, I there's various different contexts
I've seen this, but you know, they're just doing everything
they can not to do a certain thing. Well that
(09:09):
usually leads on my experience has been Jeremy to failure.
I don't know, different contexts, That's where I've seen it.
It's we have to be proactive involved in other things more,
you know, things that are different than the thing that
we're trying very hard not to do. And what makes
this rally and what you're trying to do so interesting
(09:30):
is okay. Let's take relationships and so that's a common one.
If my most recent experience with relationships always involve substances,
I can white knuckle it and just have no more relationships. Well,
I think most of the audience would know that's not good.
That's not healthy for the most people. We don't want
you to be isolated and not have a relationship. So
(09:51):
it's not just about not having a relationships with somebody
that we're use is involved. It's about how can I
have a relationship with somebody where use is not involved,
but still have the relationship. So I think as you're
using your puzzle analogy, that is, you're putting a puzzle
piece in, but it is different. I mean that picture,
that relationship piece, that picture in the puzzle is important,
(10:14):
but it's got to look different than it did before
in some aspects. So they're going to learn some of this, right.
The awareness at this event is for all those people
you mentioned, the persons, the families, the communities, which I
think is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, we want to make this a serious event where
we're talking about the education of It's for the adults,
for the youth. We're going to have psycho education through
all those different things. We're gonna have a lot of
different vendors there. At the same time, we're also going
to try and have a lot of fun too. We're
going to have some music and games. Some things here,
let me read from my list. I The event will
include tables from community partners sharing recovery resources, games for
(10:48):
adults like cornhole you mentioned, playground, kid friendly activities for families,
refreshments for attendees, educational material for people in recovery and
loved ones wanted to know more, a special vigil remembering
those who have overdosed. I think that could be an
impactful part. And I think you're gonna have some maybe
some testimonials from some individuals maybe recovery. Yeah, we're gonna
(11:10):
have people with lived experience. We're gonna have family members
who have had someone in recovery. We're going to work
The mayor is planning to be there to do the
proclamation of what recovery looks like in general. We're gonna
have it's going to be at Brookside Parks, so there's
going to be playgrounds there for the kids. We're gonna
have face paint someone that has that has some involvement
with recovery in some aspect of their h someone in
(11:32):
their life. They're going to be doing the face painting
because they want to give back to their community for this.
We're going to have a tree. We have an art
therapist at apple Seed and she's going to be there
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
She has been on the program, Jeremy. She she does
a wonderful.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We're gonna she's gonna be doing a tree where you
cut out a hand to write an inspirational quote on
the hand and put it up there. We're going to
make sure that goes back to apple Seed so people
can see what recovery looks like, the inspirational messages to
encourage people that are in recovery to continue on. We're
going to have the cornhole. We're going to have disc golf.
We're going to have just a lot of different activities
(12:06):
just to have fun with it, sp to learn, and
also to take it serious, especially for the people that
just need that connection and hear what's going on.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I love that, Jeremy, because whether people know it or not,
I want I want to say for the vast majority
of people, I'm sure there's an exception, but for the
vast majority of people, recovery, whether it's substance use or
other issues, doesn't happen in isolation. It actually happens in community.
And that's one of that you mentioned our mayor, we've
(12:35):
talked about that and he's mentioned it. He gets that. So,
you know, community, we can't we can't get into the
us and the m thing. You know, that's those people. No,
it's it's all of us. I mean we if the
community is going to retain and continue to be this
someplace special that it is. When any of us have
(12:55):
a difficult time, a challenging time, it really involves the person.
Of course, the person that's struggling is involved, but the
community needs to be part of that recovery process. So
you're event here like the way Recovery Rally is a
wonderful example where I think you're going to raise awareness
to the community about why that's so critical to be
involved in someone's recovery, whether it's substance use or anything else.
(13:18):
Really yep. So the date again is September twenty third,
three thirty seven. I don't think, well, the sun's still
up about seven. I don't know if we yeah, this
still be And you know, I looked at the ten
day forecast. What has happened, Jeremy. The hot weather is
coming back. So I hope you're prepared for this. I
(13:41):
was lulled into an early October. I was starting to
break out flannel and next thing I know, I'm sweating.
I got shorts again. It's like eighty something.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Have you heard of the theory about the fake winter
or the fake fall that heppens in Ohio? So it
goes summer and then we get the fake fall, and
then we go back to summer, and then we go
to an initial fall, and then something else happens where
it's raining too cold for winter.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's just a whole cycle, right man. Well it's confusing.
I'll tell you that from my wardrobe. Luckily, I have
plenty of of space in my closet, you know, And
there's a running joke here at the office. My closet
is my basement. Task. We've repurposed that. Who else anybody
else that's going to be involved with this. I know
(14:26):
you're given an opportunity for folks to set up. So
if they want to do that, do they need to
get a hold of you or Is it too late, No,
it's not too late.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
So we do have a bunch of vendors already involved.
I know that Pathways is going to be there with
Catholic charities. App'll see, the Board's going to have a presence.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We're going to be inviting even some people out of
town because we don't have any which arare all residential
treatment services. So we've invited catalysts with new Life, Yes,
our new Beginnings, they'll be here. Action and health and
Wellness will be here. So we're trying to invite as
many community partners. But the recovery community is going to
be here, those that have already been doing their own recovery,
whatever that looks like, and they've wanted to be very
(15:02):
proactive to give back to the community and to make
it an available place for themselves. And we've also invited
juvenile courts, We've invited the library. So there's gonna be
a lot of fun stuff that happens with this, and
it's not just an apple Seed event. It's the whole
community coming together. I'll just to be able to share
what's happening and what resources people have for themselves.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
That's awesome and Jeremy. I'm just pleased you're doing this.
I don't recalls doing something quite like this before. Maybe
it'll there'll be more of a series of these in
the future, because again, the more and more people are
aware that recovery happens in community, that there are these
sober activities and events, and people say, wow, this looks like,
(15:43):
you know, a normal event, which is the whole idea.
It's just for so many folks they've associated using with
some of these normal activities, and we have to practice
doing the thing but in a different way. We don't
want our books to isolate and not do fun things
like corn are gathering and connecting and just doing it
in a different way. So I'm excited about this on
(16:06):
September twenty third, three thirty seven, Brookside Park. Anything else
that the audience needs to know about the Recovery Rally, I.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Think the biggest thing that I would say is the
whole purpose of this is to be able to bring
awareness so that people are struggling silently that maybe they
have a place for themselves. When we created, when we
finally realized we have the grants to be able to
do this, my first response was to send a message
to all the peer supporters and say what do we
do with this? And so they have been involved from
the very beginning. When we are like, hey, should we
do this, we look to the peer supporters and say
(16:35):
is this something we want to do. It's not just
Apples peer supporters. We've been talking with Akata, We've been
talking with Pathways because we want to hear their input
on what this looks like. It doesn't need to be
treatment providers being like, oh, let's reason awareness. This is
not for us. This is for the community.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, that's great, and that nothing about us without us
is a long term quote. One of our former board members,
Pat Risser, used to remind me of that all the time.
But what you're saying, Jeremy, is yeah, you don't plan
an event for a group of folks without also involving
that group intrically in the event, or else you're going
(17:10):
to miss the marks almost every time. So thank you again,
Jeremy for coming on the program talking about this rally
for Recovery on the twenty third, three thirty seven at Brookside,
and I'm sure we're going to have you back on
the program in the future. Thank you so much. Thank
you for listening to another episode of the Keeping Ashland
Healthy podcast. The podcast is a production of the Mental
(17:31):
Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County, Ohio. You can
reach the Board by calling four one nine two eight
one three one three nine. Please remember that the Board
funds a local twenty four to seven crisis line through
Applese Community Mental Health Center. It can be reached by
calling four one nine two eight nine sixty one one one.
That's four one nine two eight nine sixty one one one.
(17:53):
Until next time. Please join us in keeping Ashland Healthy.
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