Graciously written and shared by Noel DeLeon, Community Engagement Specialist.
May 31, 2024
In my last article, I spoke about the importance of connection, about how it plays a key role in all of our lives, and how the Community Engagement Team (CET) offers connection to the individuals we engage with. That connection has many facets. Among them is the ability to help people foster a sense of hope.
In conversations with our clients, feelings of hopelessness come up frequently. A lifetime of trauma – combined with the vicious cycle of substance use – often leaves the individuals we serve feeling lost and makes their future seem bleak at best.
However, this is when our connection with these individuals allows us to share and foster hope. Meeting them where they’re at in every sense, we help them to see pathways they may have discounted or help guide them to ones they may have never considered.
Once a client feels like there’s a pathway that might help them reach their intended goal, they begin to feel optimistic. That optimism is then combined with a plan of approach to the selected pathway. This amalgam of pathways, optimism, and planning ultimately leads to the rekindling of hope and, as we all know, hope can light the way forward.
This important step of reviving or spotlighting the hope in their lives is just the beginning. Recovery is a process and return to use can potentially be a part of that. When the process begins to feel daunting or return to use occurs, the light of hope can start to flicker and falter.
In those moments, connection plays a vital role. Our ongoing dedication to zero judgment and a trauma-informed approach leads our clients to reach out to us in challenging times. Bolstered by their history with us, they reach out because they have hope that they won’t be criticized or shunned. They have hope and trust that we will do everything we can to help them find their path once again.
I can comfortably say that our team has never betrayed that trust and never will. For as long as the CET exists with the support of the Litchfield County Opiate Task Force, we will keep our bonfire of hope lit, always ready to reignite that light of hope within our community.