Subject: SMART Recovery News & Views

The Way Back, Hike For Recovery, Conference Registration Open!

Podcast

Everyone Can Find Their Way Back

Nick Padlo only went to the college recruiting event for the promise of free food at his favorite restaurant. It turned out that no food was served, but a 3 minute video that was shown ended up changing the course of his life. It was a US Army recruitment video and Nick went on to attend West Point, serve in combat overseas, and launch a business career from there.

Nick succeeded in business but other aspects of his life fell apart. He ended up divorced and despondent, his accelerating substance and alcohol misuse part of the downward spiral. Eventually he decided he needed help and found a path that combined SMART Recovery and 12-Step programs. It transformed his view of his life's purpose and he decided to use his entrepreneurial skills to start Sophros Recovery a treatment center in his hometown of Jacksonville Florida.

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Blog

Keep Your Heart Up

[Guest blog by SMART Facilitator Rick Kuplinski]

Things happened relatively fast, at least as compared to how long it took me to get there, when my substance use disorder became too costly to ignore any longer. I sought treatment. Confronted my ambivalence (simultaneously loving & hating drinking). Found SMART Recovery. There I learned about VACIs.

In case you aren’t familiar with this unwieldy acronym, VACI stands for Vital Absorbing Creative Interests...

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SMART Recovery USA’s National Conference will be held April 3-4, 2025 at the Hilton Charlotte Airport Hotel in Charlotte, NC.

Registration Information Here!

This year's theme is Building Communities of Empowerment. Building on last year's conference, we intend to highlight how SMART can be at the forefront of building communities of empowerment at the local level. We have an unprecedented opportunity to make the promise of multiple pathways a reality today in more and more diverse communities.

There is still time to submit a proposal! All submissions will be considered. However, we will prioritize presentations that relate to:

Successful partnerships that have helped bring SMART to broader communities
Strategies and techniques that strengthen SMART Recovery USA's values: Empowerment | Equity | Inclusion | Integrity | Accountability
Adopting a harm reduction mindset to better include participants regardless of their chosen goal
Growing and strengthening SMART’s Family & Friends program

Proposals are due by November 15, 2024. Notification of decisions will occur by December 14, 2024. Click below to learn more and submit!

Proposal Submission Form

Podcast

A Revolution in Recovery

Angelo Lagares is the Founder and Director of Latino Recovery Advocates (LARA), a nonprofit organization that works to make policy changes that will increase culturally appropriate recovery services. LARA's vision is of a world where no one suffers from language disparities when it comes to getting help.

Angelo's story includes lived experience and many attempts to change his addictive behavior. His journey convinced him that too often there is a lack of access to relevant treatment and support systems for individuals who want help. That is why he works all over the world, sharing the message of multiple pathways to recovery for all cultures.

In this podcast, Angelo talks about his personal recovery journey, deciding to embrace advocacy, the importance of cultural competency, and his belief that recovery is possible for all.

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Blog

Spirituality and SMART

[Guest blog by SMART Facilitator Michael Werner]

One of the criticisms of SMART recovery has been the fact that we are not a religiously/spirituality-based program. In giving presentations to alcohol and drug counselors, I have had one even yell at me that I was going to kill people without religion in the program and ask, “Where is God in the program?” I answered, “Anywhere you want to put him/her...”

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