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The MOAR You Know - Summer 2023
Newsletter from the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery
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In This Issue
- A Note from Maryanne Frangules, Executive Director
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives
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In Review: The MOAR Boston Public Policy Forum, Regional Townhall Meetings & MOAR Laughs
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MOAR and Friends' Recovery Month Celebration Day - September 26th!
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Staffing Update - Welcome Denise Pixley, MOAR Assistant Program Director
- International Overdose Awareness, Boston Common - August 31st
- The PAREnT Project
- A Ray of Sunshine: Good News from the Community
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MOAR attended the Faces and Voices Leadership Summit!
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A Note from Maryanne Frangules, MOAR Executive Director | | |
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Hello MOAR community,
I am pleased to be writing to you in this edition of The MOAR You Know Newsletter. The MOAR Community had an exciting time at The MOAR Boston Public Policy Forum, MOAR Laughs Comedy Show, and Regional Townhall Meetings.
The team is hard at work, and we are forever grateful for the continued support and engagement from our community. During the spring, we continued to move towards building relationships to increase our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion commitment.
We are currently working on policy initiatives that are receiving your guidance. Since lives continue to be lost at an alarming rate to overdoses, we have joined the voices supporting overdose prevention centers while remaining committed to a strong continuum of care from harm reduction to long term recovery homes, recovery centers, and recovery coaching. We cannot forget prevention.
We are very excited that the MA Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, Department of Public Health, has approved the start or continuance of close to 40 Peer Recovery Support Centers!
Thank you for your participation in RIZE MA Foundation/MOAR Survey that is guiding our policy priorities strategically. We are very grateful to partner with the RIZE Foundation. In addition, MOAR is very pleased to partner with BSAS to make sure the recovery community has a voice in The Opioid Abatement Funds being distributed across 351 cities and towns across the state of Massachusetts. (These funds were made possible by Governor Maura Healey’s actions in her role as Attorney General to address the harm done by certain pharmaceutical companies).
Please know our SAMHSA funded PAREnT Project is alive and well. The project is funded for Hampden and Worcester counties. The Project offers support from peer recovery coaches who have DCF life experience with training from Choice Recovery Coaching. DCF, BSAS, treatment providers, recovery coaches, and recoverees are involved!
Two MOAR Things!
1. With approximately 2,357 overdose deaths in 2022, please consider participating in International Overdose Day on August 31, 2023!
2. We want to celebrate the value of recovery! Join us by participating in The MOAR Recovery Month Celebration Day.
Remember you are all visible, vocal, and valuable, and of course, victorious!
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative | |
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MOAR is continuously committed to working alongside and listening to the voices of all communities. MOAR has been taking concrete measures to help eliminate racial disparities in accessing recovery from substance use disorders.
As an organization, MOAR staff completed a 6.5 hour Implicit Bias Training facilitated by the African Diaspora Mental Health Association. In this intensive training, an action-oriented discussion on racial and ethnic disparities which allowed our staff to take a deeper look at our implicit biases that we can own and address!
On May 9th 2023, we had John Cromwell, a Health Promotion Advocate with Project ASSERT at BMC's Grayken Center for Addiction, as our featured guest for MOAR's DEI Speaker Series. Then on June 6th 2023, we had the honor of hearing from Naomi Frye, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
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In Review: The Boston Public Policy Forum, MOAR Laughs & Regional Townhall Meetings | |
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The Spring was full of MOAR events, including: the Boston Public Policy Forum, MOAR Laughs Comedy Show, and Regional Townhall Meetings.
We welcomed over 300 individuals at The Boston Public Policy Forum at the IBEW Local 103 in Dorchester! The evening was full of rich discussion of important policy proposals currently before the legislature in Massachusetts. To see the policy proposals, click here! Get involved!
To see more pictures from the event, click here.
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Taylor Bryan Turner (Assistant Regional Director, SAMHSA), Julia Ojeda (Former BSAS Recovery Support Services Coordinator, Deirdre Calvert (Director, BSAS), and Maryanne Frangules (Executive Director, MOAR) | |
Anne Marie Kennedy (BHCHP OBAT Clinic, Clinical Operations Manager) | |
Julie Pike (MOAR Recovery Coach & Facilitator) and Tyshaun Perryman (Healthcare Consultant/ Community Engagement Liaison, BSAS) | |
Minister Randy Muhammad (Muhammad Mosque No.11) | |
Massachusetts State Senator John Keenan (Norfolk and Plymouth District) | |
The crowd, featuring Ruthzee Louijeune (Boston City Council, At-Large) | |
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Mother in Recovery
(Miracle Mama's Support Group member)
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Catrina Cooley (Community Affairs Manager, Boston Office of Recovery Services) | |
We were thrilled to able to bring back our 15th Annual MOAR Laughs Comedy Show this year! To see more photos from the night, click here. | |
Laughter is the best medicine! | |
The comedians with Maryanne Frangules (MOAR, Executive Director) | |
The crowd had a great time! | |
This year, instead of one statewide townhall meeting, we held multiple across Massachusetts. MOAR regional coordinators tailored issues according to our members’ requests! | |
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Boston MA
Julie Bunch hosted the Boston regional forum on May 10th with a neighborhood call for what to with the City of Boston’s Opioid Abatement Funds. This was done in conjunction with the Boston Public Health Commission, Office of Recovery Services. These are funds awarded to each one of the 351 cities and towns across the state.
The room was full of individuals from DPH/BSAS, Boston Office of Recovery Services, Nubian Square Task Force, and many MOAR. A special thank you to Jen Tracey, Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Christian Arthur, Catrina Cooley, Danielle O'Brien, Tyshaun Perryman, Sarah Ruiz, and Jim Cremer for their support and guidance.
Boston is having more opportunities for you to provide your feedback from forums to surveys.
Fill out the survey
Learn more about the settlement here.
MOAR is part of a team assisting BSAS/DPH with statewide efforts. For more information on the statewide efforts, click here.
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Southeast MA
Noel Sierra hosted the Southeast regional forum at RISE Recovery Support Center in New Bedford on April 25th 2023. Discussions included: building recovery support services, treatment and incarceration, parenting challenges and 51A’s. There were nearly 60 people in attendance and 20 individuals joined the discussion via Zoom!
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Central MA
The peoples' voices were heard on April 27th, when Matt Gear hosted the Central MA regional forum. It is so important to have community involvement and the voices of the people impacted by the pharmaceutical companies heard. The regional forum focused on the spending of the opioid abatement funds. Thank you to all who joined us!
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Metrowest MA
On April 11th, Scott Francis, in conjunction with the Department of Public Health's Mike Bryant, facilitated a presentation and discussion about the Opioid Abatement funds that shared important information and generated wonderful ideas on how to use the funds. Workers from the four different municipalities attended (Medway, Foxboro, Cambridge, and Acton) along with 21 MOAR members and two Peer Recovery Support Centers (Turning Point in Walpole and The Recovery Connection in Marlboro). Recovery is Real!
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MOAR and Friends' 33rd Annual Statewide Recovery Month Celebration Day is just around the corner!
MOAR is grateful for the support of Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services; Boston Public Health Commission, Office of Recovery Services, fiscal sponsor - Bay State Community Services, Greater Boston Council of Alcoholism, grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts and the RIZE Foundation of MA.
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Help us welcome Denise Pixley to MOAR! Denise is our new Assistant Program Director and is eager to connect with the recovery community and get to work making a difference!
"Greetings, I am a woman of color in long term recovery. I have been working in the field of addiction services since 2013 and have worked with marginalized communities since 1998. I am a master’s level Mental Health Clinician and a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. I am in the process of taking my exam in the fall of 2023 for LMHC licensure. Throughout my life, I have faced many challenges directly related to my own addiction with multiple years of recovery, experiencing a reoccurrence in my process and making it back to sustain 12+ years of recovery. I am a firm believer in putting the work in to get to where you want to be. My passion is continuing to work with communities of color and those stigmatized by stereotypes to reach their full potential, while empowering women to have a voice. I am a motivator and a mother of two boys who have mental health challenges. I believe my passion to do this work comes from an internal place of seeing and knowing that we all have the potential to be great in whatever we choose to do or be. I got to where I am professionally and mentally from role models in my life, strong women who never gave up on me. I am here to give back and watch the miracle of recovery happen in the lives of the recovery communities we serve."
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International Overdose Awareness on Boston Common
International Overdose Awareness Day is observed on August 31, 2023. Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS), in coordination with the Boston Public Health Commission, Office of Recovery Services and BMC Grayken Foundation, is planning planting ~22,000 flags to remember and honor individuals lost to overdose in Massachusetts over the past decade.
More details to come.
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The PAREnT Project
The Parents in Addiction Recovery Engaging Together Project, or PAREnT Project, is a MOAR project that supports low-income families in early recovery who, because of addition, have mandated child welfare and/or justice engagement. The Project offers group support in four locations throughout Worcester and Hampden County.
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A Ray of Sunshine: Good News from the Community! | |
Congratulations to Efrain Baez on becoming the Senior Director for Gandara Center’s Peer Recovery Support Centers across the state. He has over 27 years in recovery and has been working in the field for the last 24 years. Previously, he was Stairway to Recovery Peer Recovery Support Center Director via Gandara for the last 15 years. Efrain is deeply knowledgeable of addiction services and re-entry programs across Massachusetts. | |
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MOAR's Sunshine Scotty and his wife Magnificent Maria celebrated 10 years of being very happily married on June 13th 2023. Recovery is Real! | |
Congratulations to Julia Ojeda on her retirement! Julia retired at the end of June from her position as the Recovery Support Services Coordinator for the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS). Julia has been a pillar of strength and perseverance in the recovery community for decades. We wish her all the best in her next endeavors! | |
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Rob Bohler, MOAR member, just received his PhD from the Heller School at Brandeis University in behavioral health policy. He hopes that this education and training, along with his lived experience of addiction and recovery, will help to make a difference in the current addiction crisis in the United States. Rob’s Heller School experience led to his involvement in creation of The Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector, an online tool informing a community response to the Opioid Crisis. For more information – go to Brandeis Opioid Resource Connector. | |
Congratulations to Jules, from Turning Point Peer Recovery Center in Walpole, who is expecting a beautiful baby in a few months and whom will be an absolutely incredible mom! Everyone is overjoyed and so happy for you! | |
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Faces and Voices of Recovery Leadership Summit | |
MOAR had the honor of attending the Faces and Voices Recovery Leadership Summit in June in Washington DC. The Recovery Leadership Summit unites recovery advocates from across the nation for networking and a variety of exciting learning opportunities. The 3-day conference culminated with Hill Day, which provides an opportunity for grassroots advocates to meet with elected officials and their staffers and to speak candidly about the challenges those in recovery from substance use are facing. In sharing our stories and lived experiences, we help policymakers recognize the critical importance of recovery support services and influence legislation and policy that support these efforts. | | | | |
