What does Financial Wellness mean to you?

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1 VOLUME 6, ISSUE 12 HOPE - CHOICE - EMPOWERMENT - RECOVERY CULTURE - SPIRITUALITY January 2015 Quotes of Inspiration Do you want to know one-word secret to happiness? It s growth mental, financial, you name it. ~Harold S. Geneen Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. ~Benjamin Disraeli Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. ~Napoleon Hill The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible. ~Richard M. DeVos Recovery is a journey between two train stations. One station represents unhappiness and the other represents serenity. What is important is not where we are, but who is driving (us or God) and what direction we are heading. ~Anonymous Community Connections What does Financial Wellness mean to you? During the month of January, Financial Wellness is recognized. With the holidays and all the associated costs for the holidays over, January is prime time to think about financial wellness and what it means to us. Many people link being rich or at least financially well off to being financial well. But is that what it really means? After all, if that s all we needed to be financially well than you d never hear of people that win the lottery with no money left or those who have been wealthy for generations now going bankrupt. You can start your own path to Financial Wellness by thinking of it like this: Financial competence is the key building block to financial wellness. So what is financial competence. This includes having a working knowledge in the areas of resources, expenses, savings credit and budgeting, and using this knowledge to achieve financial stability and growth. Each person can determine for themselves what financial wellness means to them. It could be having a home rather its by renting or by buying or balancing a budget so that all bills can be paid without stressing over it every month. Recovery Innovations suggests these may be indicators of financial wellness: Having the skills to manage my finances Having priorities for how to spend my money Developing and keeping a monthly budget Saving a specific amount of money each month Monitoring credit with by attaining a copy of a credit report Avoiding or reducing large debts Being able to buy gifts for others when I want Knowing how to control urges to spend money that I don t have Being able to have a satisfying life within the budget Whatever your goal is for attaining financial wellness, the starting point can be develop a budget and a plan for how to attain that goal. In order to get started, you can speak to one of our local Peer Support Specialists and attending a Wellness Class such as What s in Your Wallet?, Money Habitudes, or WELL. For details, call Recovery Innovations at Recovery Innovations extends heartfelt THANKS and APPRECIATION to the organizations that provide class locations, presentations, services and referrals. Our connections with others, provide opportunities and environments that empower people to recover, to succeed in accomplishing their goals, and to reconnect with themselves, others and meaning and purpose in life.

2 2 It s Fun Friday Here at Wellness City Greenville And the Holidays are Here! During our monthly Fun Friday event in December, we celebrated the Christmas season and the upcoming New Year. Citizens received a Christmas card and a goodie gift bag. They made stockings using glitter and glue, too. We all played games such as Guess That Christmas Song!, flashcards with Christmas movies and a Christmas version of Win, Lose or Draw. The Community Church of Greenville got in on the Fun Friday festivities, too! They donated our Fun Friday meal and we all say, Thank You! A good time was had by all and from all of us to you, we say Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

3 3 Community Building Team Hello! My name is Joseph Ganey. When the people from ECBH came and talked to me about moving into my own apartment, I was so excited! When I met with April, my Peer Recovery Coach, the possibility became surreal. To be able to live on my own was a dream I forgot about 3 1/2 years ago when I ended up in an Adult Care Home. I was living alright there and had many friends, but I wanted to go to LifeQuest and live in my own apartment! April spent a lot of time with me, working on my WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan), and I now know what some of my triggers are and some wellness tools I can and do use when I don t feel well. The day I moved, I told April, my apartment is so beautiful. I meant that! I m so grateful for Kevin Chancey (ECBH TCL Transition Coordinator) and April coming into my life and helping me change it for the better! I am now in my own apartment, attending LifeQuest 5 days a week and loving my new life! Thank you all for supporting me and making this dream of mine a reality! ` Joseph Ganey When I met Joseph, I knew right away that Mr. Ganey would be a perfect fit for the TCL/CB program! He is an intelligent and caring man! I feel very humble and blessed to be working with Joseph in the Community Building program. Throughout our journey to get Joseph into his own apartment, we came up against many obstacles and we conquered each one. I watched Joseph begin to advocate and speak up for himself. He embraced WRAP and learned about wellness tools and how he can help himself continue to recovery and be all he is meant to be! Joseph is on a journey of self discovery and independence and I couldn t be more grateful to be a part of it! ~ April Wynkoop

4 Wellness City of New Bern 4 QUOTE OF THE MONTH: If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up! ~ J.D. Power DIRECTORS CORNER ~ Wellness City of New Bern is a learning community and, as a community, we have always been focused on providing wellness education. Recovery Innovations has identified nine dimensions of wellness that correspond to the essential areas of impact in a person s life. We are very serious about people s wellness and growth across ALL of these dimensions. We try each month to offer fresh classes that represent each dimension of a person s wellness. Our classes are symbol coded on our calendars to show which dimensions we will be focusing on for each class. For example, our Anger Management class focuses on the Emotional and Intellectual domains while our class, An Organized Life, covers virtually all nine dimensions of wellness. We also have classes on Spirituality, 12 Steps of Recovery, Writing for Wellness, Art for Recovery, Physical Wellness, Overcoming Addictions, Band Together with Music, Guided Imagery and Meditation, Weigh Healthy and Healthy Eating, Computer Basics, Healthy Boundaries, Healing from Depression, Recovery Pathways, Grief and Bereavement, Employment,.Basically, a class for every situation or need! We will even design a class if we do not have one in an area you are interested in if we think it will benefit the community at Wellness City! We are very proud of our broad offering of classes, and we know that diversity has provided great benefit and a platform for real growth for all of our citizens and guests. Come try out one of our classes soon and you will see for yourself the magic of Wellness and Recovery at work! ~Bill Barrow, RSA WELLNESS CLASS SPOTLIGHT: An Organized Life I volunteered to facilitate An Organized Life because I felt I could be an organized person. The problem is, sometimes there is no where to put things! When that happens, it becomes easy for things to become cluttered and chaotic! I ve had ups and downs with clutter and I like the saying, cluttered space=cluttered mind. An Organized Life explains how that statement holds true. Disorganization can affect many areas of your life. There can be situational disorganization at one point or another caused by a major life event, but this usually only lasts a few months. If things don t go back to normal after that, it becomes Chronic disorganization. This disorganization becomes an issue when it interferes with daily life - You can t find things, nowhere to eat dinner at your table or room to sit on your couch. The bills are piling up and who knows WHERE the checkbook is!! This growing clutter can cause problems in your personal life and relationships as well as becoming a fire hazard. Chronic disorganization can contribute to depression because you just can t seem to get a handle on things and become frustrated. This can also be a common issue for those already struggling with challenges due to a lack of interest in things, including keeping things organized. Finding a way to An Organized Life isn t just about buying storage containers, organizing items, planners and/or financial planners. It is a way of thinking and clearing your mind of clutter, thus, removing clutter from your life! ~ Kristen Deans, NCCPSS Retraction from last month s newsletter: We previously wrote that Robert Johnson attended 4 schools to obtain his trucking license. He actually attended 4 training programs with different trucking companies.

5 5 Where in the World is Recovery Joe? Recovery Joe joined the East Carolina Outreach Team in Januaryof He was brought on board to travel with the Outreach Team Members throughout our 19- County Catchment area, and then tell about his experiences in his monthly column in the newsletter. Happy Holidays to my Friends in NC!!!! I decided to take a different spin on my column this month. I saw how the Community Building Team shared about themselves in the last few editions of The Voice, and thought, What a good idea! No better time than now for Y All to meet the Outreach Team too! I told the Outreach Team what my plans were and asked for a volunteer to be interviewed. Laura Harden, Certified Peer Support Specialist & Recovery Education Facilitator, stepped up to the plate! Laura told me that she first found Recovery Innovations because she was trying to start a Support Group for people that struggle with depression in Greenville, but couldn t find a place to hold it. Someone in the administration office at Covenant Church directed her to the HOPE Station (now known as Wellness City of Greenville). She had never heard of Recovery Innovations, or HOPE Station, but she drove over to find out what they were all about. The Peers at HOPE Station told her all about the classes they offer and specifically told her about the WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) workshop. Someone from the Outreach Team was working out of the HOPE Station Office that day and was available to chat with Laura and told her about the Outreach program. Laura discovered there was going to be a WRAP workshop close to her home in Bertie County and decided to take the class. This was in September of During the WRAP class Laura said she realized that even though she had her Bachelor s Degree in Human Services, and had worked for 3 separate mental health providers, she had never seen a Recovery Environment like Recovery Innovations has! Laura went on to take the PET (Peer Employment Training) to become a NC Certified Peer Support Specialist and in December of that same year 2010, she interviewed, was hired, and began working as a CPSS/Facilitator for the Outreach Program! She s been with us ever since! I asked Laura, What do you like most about the work you are doing now? Laura said, I like working with people, most of who did not know that Recovery was Possible- especially people that have mental health struggles! I love to see the spark in their eyes when they have that moment when they know they can recover too. The last thing I asked Laura was, How does working in a Recovery Environment, such as the ones we create at RI, impact your personal wellness? Laura thought about it for a second and she said, Well, I still see my therapist and my doctors and I have a living WRAP that I ve shared with them and use every day but working with the people we serve helps to remind me to do what I need to do to stay well so I can be a good example of what recovery looks like in action. Kind Regards, Recovery Joe

6 6 Durham Wellness City My Journey By James A. Lewis, Jr. My name is James, nick name June. I spent many years in The Federal Bureau of Prisons and The State Prison of Maryland. While I was in both systems, I was sentenced to the custody of the Attorney General for both mental and drug treatment. Approximately twenty three years, I was under the system of supervision for treatment. None of my time was wasted, except that I did not learn what recovery was until I arrived in Durham, NC. Now at Durham Wellness City, I m learning what recovery is verses clean time. I ve had many goals in life that I built myself up on from inside incarceration such as martial arts, 5K runner, artist, yoga, songwriter, singer, poet, and poetry writer but somehow they ve all been short lived. With the martial arts, 5K running, and truck driving, my doctors have put me on restrictions from doing these job skills because of physical disabilities in my back and knees, and the rest of the story is identity theft of my song and poetry writings. But, here s the CATCH, I still find HOPE. Thank God for Wellness City. I have hope with my Peer Support Specialist Certification, to reach out with Hope to someone else. As I struggle with my addiction and mental illness, with my awesome support from Wellness City, my recovery journey continues. THANKS WELLNESS CITY!

7 7 COMING TO WELLNESS CITY OF NEW BERN IN JANUARY WELLNESS RECOVERY ACTION PLAN CLASS JANUARY 12-16TH FROM 10AM 2PM A course to help you to know yourself better and to develop a plan to maintain your wellness. This class is a prerequisite for the Peer Employment Training class. PEER EMPLOYMENT TRAINING (PET) JANUARY 26TH ~ FEBRUARY 6TH 830 AM PM A course designed to prepare students for their North Carolina Peer Support Specialist Certification and/or employment with Recovery Innovations, Inc in North Carolina Applications accepted until Jan 10th but space is limited! Call for more info

8 Our Mission To create opportunities and environments that empower people to recover, to succeed in accomplishing their goals, and to reconnect with themselves, others and meaning and purpose in life. Recovery Innovations Is a nonprofit organization offering recovery-based services in Arizona, California, Delaware, North Carolina, Texas, Washington state and New Zealand. Recovery Response Center - RI NC Five County 300 Parkview Drive West Henderson, NC Phone: Joy Brunson-Nsubuga, Clinical Director: Durham Wellness City 401 E. Lakewood Avenue, Suite E1-A Durham, NC Phone: Kim Chansen, Recovery Services Administrator: Wellness City HOPE Station 2407 S. Memorial Drive Greenville, NC Phone: Sonia Tucker, Recovery Services Administrator: Wellness City of New Bern 1311 Health Drive New Bern, NC Phone: Bill Barrow, Recovery Services Administrator: Community Building Team Bill Barrow, Recovery Services Administrator: Jim Harrison, Team Lead: Outreach Wellness City Sonia Tucker, Recovery Services Administrator: Susan Hall, Team Lead: AND Ann Emmerich, Outreach Coordinator: Beaufort, Bertie, Craven, Hyde, Jones, Martin, Pamlico, Pitt, & Washington Counties Ron Lowe, Outreach Coordinator: Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans & Tyrrell Counties Recovery Innovations has earned the Joint Commission s Gold Seal of Approval Find our Newsletters, as well as our monthly class Calendars online at