Recovery at UD
Collegiate Recovery Community offers support to UD students
8:41 a.m., April 13, 2015--Among college campuses, there has been an increased demand for communal support for those students recovering from substance abuse and associated disorders.
Last spring two University of Delaware students and a student wellness counselor, Jessica Estok, began discussions about forming such a collegiate recovery community on campus through Student Wellness and Health Promotion.
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The need was apparent for a place where recovering students and those who support the recovery process could fellowship and discuss important changes on campus that needed to take place, Estok said.
From this idea, the official Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC) on the UD campus was born.
The CRC currently has five active members who meet every Friday at 12:20 p.m. at Student Wellness and Health Promotion.
They are planning to hold a co-hosted recovery weekend event featuring a screening of the film The Anonymous People at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 16, in the Rodney Room of the Perkins Student Center and a presentation by guest speaker Chris Herren, a former NBA player who will share his story of recovery, at 8 p.m., Friday, April 17, in the Multipurpose Rooms of the Trabant University Center. For details, see the article.
The CRC has also recently been provided a grant from Transforming Youth Recovery, which will be utilized to further develop the organization and enrich the UD community’s understanding of students in recovery, Estok said. The CRC has also been actively seeking guidance from other college recovery associations nationwide.
UD students Ethan Kirk and Rebecca Leisher, two of the co-founders of the campus CRC, traveled to the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock on Feb. 19 for the annual CRC convention.
Texas Tech founded its collegiate recovery community in the early 1980s. It offers a variety of recovery support services to its students each semester and there is no requirement as to the type of treatment a recovering student must have received before entering the program, or even that a student received formal treatment at all.
Estok said the focus of Texas Tech’s collegiate recovery community, as well that at UD, is to bring all types of recovering students together. Whether it be from substance abuse, eating disorders or co-dependency, both Texas Tech and UD emphasize the absolute inclusiveness of all manifestations of the recovery process.
Texas Tech’s collegiate recovery community also offers a registered student organization, Association of Students About Service, where recovering students volunteer their time together to improve the Lubbock community.
Leisher and Kirk said they learned much from their time in Lubbock. Upon their return, Leisher said, “Attending the convention at Texas Tech was one of the most peaceful and fun experiences I have ever had. It was such an amazing opportunity to spend time with recovering, young students and it really inspired me to help build up our recovery community here so that one day our group can have an impact as powerful as theirs has been.”
Kirk added, “My experience at Texas Tech was profound, to say the least. The sense of community and fellowship I felt by their students was absolutely overwhelming. It was also wonderful to see the sense of community involvement with their CRC. Addiction is reaching epidemic proportions all across the United States. College campuses are not exempted. We need to continue to foster positive attitudes toward those identifying as being in long-term recovery. We need to stand for the decreased stigmatization of those suffering with this debilitating disease. Through love and respect we, as students, can bring about positive and affective change.”
Estok said she appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Texas Tech’s recovery community by seeing it firsthand. “They have a comprehensive website to help other schools replicate what they have been able to create however to witness it in person was inspiring.”
To learn more about the Collegiate Recovery Community at UD, contact Jessica Estok at jestok@udel.edu or call 302-831-3457.