Vanessa Moreno of the CRCC talks about creating safe spaces
Vanessa Moreno is the assistant director of programs at the Chicago Recovery Communities Coalition. The CRCC is dedicated to fighting addiction in Chicago and after overcoming her own struggles, Vanessa is now helping others break free from addiction, as well.
What inspired you to get involved in creating and facilitating safe spaces for others?
Well, it started with my own personal journey. I’m a Mexican American gay woman in long term recovery. What that means for me is that I have been free of any minor mutual altering substances for eight years and some change now. And that means to me that every day I get an opportunity to work on being my best self and showing up in my life every day. And with that in my journey, through my journey because I didn’t do this alone, I [needed] help along the way in my recovery journey. I’ve had a lot of people, a lot of organizations, family, friends, community that have helped me along the way. In that journey I found my way to Chicago Recovery Communities Coalition. At CRCC, I’ve been given the opportunity to be able to take what I have in my own experience and what I have in my own life and be able to find a way to be able to use that and help provide safe spaces for other people who are in their journey in recovery.
How do you define a safe space and what makes it effective for people in recovery?
Providing a safe space means to me that it’s a place where somebody can go where they know that they do not have, they’re not going to be met with judgment. They’re not going to be met with shame and guilt. They’re not going to be met with already the obstacles that they’re already facing every day in their life. They’re going to come to a place where they know that, they’re going to find somebody who is willing to hear them, meet them where they are.
How do you ensure that individuals feel truly safe and supported when they enter your program?
So for all of our programs, we have peer support specialists that are assigned to each individual. So we make sure that we have somebody who is checking in, helping create goals, helping create a recovery plan, helping to support that individual and checking in with them as they go through. So it’s not like they come in, they sign up for a program, you go and you check some boxes and you get a certificate saying you completed a program and then you’re out the door. You know and then you got to try to figure it out all on your own. No. We have peer support specialists that are assigned and they are there to help support the individual as they’re going through whatever classes that they’re going through. And even after they leave, we still have the ability to still support them and still do recovery check-ins with them and still make sure that we check in on their goals and see how they’re doing. So you know, it’s about that support. It’s about making sure that they get that individualized person-centered support in their journey and as they’re even going through our programs.
