Latest / Healthier Together: Larimer County's Public Health Podcast / National Overdose Awareness Month Spotlight: Yarrow Collective

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National Overdose Awareness Month Spotlight: Yarrow Collective · Healthier Together: Larimer County's Public Health Podcast

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  Welcome to Healthier Together, Larimer County's
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  public health podcast, where we come together
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  for healthier lives, connected communities, and
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  real conversations. From your local public health
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  team, I'm your host, Tom. And I'm Joanna. August
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  is National Overdose Awareness Month, a time
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  to remember those lost to overdose, provide space
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  for grief, connection, and healing, and highlight
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  the work happening in our communities to prevent
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  overdose and support recovery. Throughout the
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  month, we're featuring organizations across our
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  community that work to prevent overdose, support
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  recovery, reduce stigma, and connect people with
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  care. Today, we're learning more about the Yarrow
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  Collective with Ashley Jones, co -founder and
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  director of Community Care and Training, and
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  Matt Schwall, reentry and peer support advocate.
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  Ashley and Matt, thank you both for joining us.
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  Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us here.
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  To start, can you tell us a little bit about
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  the Yarrow Collective and the work that you do?
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  So the Yarrow Collective is a peer support organization.
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  We are completely peer run. So what that means
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  is everyone from our board of directors to our
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  group facilitators all have lived experience.
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  And what we mean by lived experience is not only
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  struggles with mental health, substance use,
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  but also like societal oppression, trauma, disability,
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  just a myriad of things. And how did the Yarrow
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  Collective get started? We started it through
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  a grant through CSU. It was a guiding council
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  and it was to think about peer support in northern
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  Colorado. And through that, me and the other
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  co -founders started really like imagining what
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  we could do and how we could do something different.
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  And Yarrow was born out of that. How did you
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  land on the name Yarrow Collective? We kind of
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  had this like idea of plants. And then we were
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  thinking about medicinal plants. And yarrow really
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  stood out to us. It grows on almost every continent.
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  And it's a pretty plucky little plant. But also
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  it has medicinal properties. It stops bleeding
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  internally and externally. And we kind of were
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  thinking about the work that we do. You know,
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  a lot of times services are putting a Band -Aid
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  on a bullet hole. And what we're trying to do
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  is actually like stop the bleeding. Can you tell
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  us a little bit more about the work that the
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  Yarrow Collective does around substance use in
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  particular? So we take a liberatory harm reduction
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  approach to kind of everything we do, including
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  both substance use and suicidality. Our approach
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  is non -coercive and we're focused on treating
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  people as the experts of their own experiences.
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  A big part of that is thinking about our work
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  through the lens of radical love, like really
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  radically loving people as they are without an
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  expectation that they need to be different. or
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  that they need to change a lot of places have
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  like an expectation list or like a criteria around
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  whether you get the services so if you get a
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  hot ua or something then you get kicked out or
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  you know whatever and with us it doesn't really
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  matter kind of what you got going on whether
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  it's like you know quote unquote you're doing
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  good or quote unquote you're doing bad we're
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  going to show up for you either way and support
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  you through whatever it is you're going through
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  like i have people that i support that are actively
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  using But that doesn't mean they deserve love
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  any less or care any less. When we're talking
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  about that radical love, I hear over and over
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  like, meet people where they're at. But the unspoken
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  piece to that is like, meet them where they're
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  at so we can move them to where we think they
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  should be or where it's more palatable for society.
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  And that's what we strive to do different is
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  meet them where they're at as they are and radically
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  loving them as is. People don't need to be fixed
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  or saved. They are whole as they are. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Good job, Ashley. I do have a question for both
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  of you. What drew you to this work? So when I
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  got into recovery, I didn't really know what
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  I was supposed to do with my life. I didn't even
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  know. I just had never lived normal, quote unquote,
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  really. So the first couple of years in recovery,
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  it was kind of a hard time. I just didn't know
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  what I was supposed to do with my life. I didn't
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  have much education. Not much job history or
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  like work history. So the first couple of years
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  was hard. Year one goes by. I just pretty much
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  hanging out at home and doing like my probation
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  stuff. Year two goes by. Like I start putting
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  on a lot of weight. My mental health kind of
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  started going downhill. I was always told like
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  you're going to get in recovery and everything's
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  going to be beautiful. You know, so many friends
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  and all this stuff. And I get into recovery and
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  I was kind of kind of sucked at the beginning,
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  you know. And I got to this point where I was
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  thinking about just leaving recovery and going
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  back to live how I used to live because there
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  I could take care of myself. You know, I was
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  30 years old at this time living with my dad.
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  And it just, yeah, I just wasn't in a good spot.
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  And I was having a talk with my therapist at
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  the time about this. And he told me, well, before
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  you throw it all away, you know, Summitstone's
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  hiring for peer supporters. You're good at talking
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  to people. People like talking to you. So why
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  don't you give that a shot? And I applied for
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  the job and I got it. Ashley's the one who hired
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  me, actually. And I found like a purpose for
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  all this stuff that I went through. I found like
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  something I can I could use those experiences
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  for for like a positive thing, you know. So I
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  get to use like all the craziness I lived in
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  my past. I get to use that to like connect with
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  people and support people and walk with people
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  through similar situations and circumstances.
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  So, yeah, peer work, finding peer work, not only
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  do I get to support people, but it also changed
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  my life. It changed the way I do everything.
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  And I say this all the time, meeting Ashley,
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  it also changed my life. Like peer work and Ashley
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  being my mentor and stuff, it changed how I treat
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  people day to day, my family. It changed everything.
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  So, yeah, that's a little peer work. And how
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  about you, Ashley? Yeah, it's hard to top that.
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  I mean, similar to Matt, I have I have a pretty
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  long history of like I struggled with substance
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  use. I have a really long history of childhood
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  trauma, things that kind of culminated in involvement
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  with the criminal justice system. I was in the
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  halfway house and like kind of building my life
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  back. And, you know, I'll keep that part short.
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  But I remember I was in the halfway house and
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  I was getting my life back together. And I read
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  this article in the Denver Post. And it said,
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  like, we're hiring peer navigators at the Denver
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  Public Library. And the qualifications are like
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  lived experience with houselessness, criminal
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  justice involvement and substance abuse. And
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  I was like, check, check, check. And it was like
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  the first time that like the things that like
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  relegated to me to the sides or like were my
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  damnation were something that like uniquely qualified
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  me. And it was like, oh, I think I can do this.
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  And, you know, then I talked to my therapist
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  at the time and I was like, hey. look at this
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  article. I think I could do this. And she's like,
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  I think you can too. So I took a training and
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  then that's kind of when I got in connection
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  with, you know, the folks that later became Yarrow
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  and we took some other trainings and just like
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  really learned about the, you know, the history
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  and just like some other practices that I was
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  like, oh, this is for me. Ashley, can you just
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  kind of go into a little bit more about what
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  peer support actually means? What does that look
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  like day to day? Yeah. The cool thing is, is
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  like. My peer support is going to look a little
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  bit different than Matt's. So like each peer
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  brings their own flavor to things. And we do
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  group support and we do one -on -one support.
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  So sometimes it looks as simple as just like
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  meeting for coffee or going for a walk. Sometimes
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  it's like supporting someone who needs to learn
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  how to ride the buses. So we ride the bus routes
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  with them. Sometimes it looks like going to court
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  and advocating. Sometimes it looks like holding
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  space in group. Sometimes it looks like just
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  listening or sitting with folks. There's a lot
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  of different ways and like we each have our own
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  flavor with our lived experience and our strengths.
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  So it's like a really beautiful mix of a lot
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  of things, advocacy, just direct support. So
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  Matt, can you tell us a little bit more about
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  what it feels like to be a peer support for some
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  folks? Peer support to me is. It's just folks
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  with lived experience, like with either like
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  mental health, substance use, incarceration,
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  being unhoused. And you're in a place in your
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  life where maybe you've like evolved through
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  that or grown through that. And now you're going
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  back to support people who are still struggling
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  in that. So like for me personally, I struggled
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  with substance use addiction for, I mean, probably
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  like 15 years. And so like my main thing is I
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  want to go back and support the people that struggled
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  like me because I didn't have a lot of support.
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  Like I had my dad, but outside of my dad, I didn't
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  really have a whole lot of people in my corner.
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  And I just want to be one of those people in
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  somebody's corner, you know, somebody that they
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  know is going to show up regardless of what they
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  got going on, somebody that they can count on
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  being in their corner. We say that's folks with
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  lived experience sitting there supporting each
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  other. But I also don't want to like discount.
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  The amount of work and the training, we teach
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  intentional peer support, but we also practice
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  it. And peer support comes from a long line of
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  social justice movements. It's from the consumer
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  survivor ex -patient movement. And it was really
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  folks who were psychiatrically incarcerated pushing
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  for patient alternatives or controlled alternatives
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  to that type of care. And it really was born
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  alongside the disability justice movement. So
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  not only is it this way of being with people,
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  but it is also like. a long history of a social
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  justice movement. So there's that component.
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  And there's a lot of work that we do to learn
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  how to be in relationship with folks. You know,
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  we all think like, oh, I'm here to help. I'm
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  a natural born helper. But we have to take that
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  hat off. Like oftentimes that's not what people
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  need. And so we're confronting some of our our
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  things. It's kind of uncomfortable to sit with
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  somebody, you know, in active use and watching
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  them in pain. Right. But we're not going to jump
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  in and take control. We're not going to jump
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  in and fix. We're going to be with you. and move
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  through this how it feels best for you. So I
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  also kind of wanted to say that because I think
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  a lot of times that part gets discounted and
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  we're always doing that work on ourselves so
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  that we can show up in a way that feels supportive.
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  That's got to be difficult to kind of take off
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  that advice hat at times. I know I've struggled
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  with it for sure to not just jump in and say,
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  oh, well, here's how I would do it. And that's
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  not how it works for them. Right. And to add
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  a little bit to what Ashley said, with peer work
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  for me, so People are like, oh, it must feel
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  really great helping people or whatever. And
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  it's like, well, a lot of the times when I meet
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  with people, I'm learning and growing probably
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  as much as they are. You know what I mean? So
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  that's a beautiful thing about peer work is it's
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  like a relationship between two people and it's
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  not one person telling somebody how to live.
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  It's both of us growing and like learning and
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  evolving together. I meet with guys all the time
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  and I walk away feeling like, wow, I really learned
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  a lot from that meeting or whatever. And I'm
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  assuming this is kind of with that by, for, with
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  mentality that you guys are trying to embrace
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  in that radical love. So can you tell us a little
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  bit more about maybe the different types of peer
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  support? It sounds like there's group support,
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  one -on -ones. Is there, you know, I guess, individuals
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  that you guys meet with more regularly? When
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  you say peer support, I'm sure it's a wide gambit.
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  Yeah. Yeah, it really is. So we have a referral
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  form on our website where folks can. ask for
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  one -on -one peer support and we have one -on
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  -one peer supporters. Then we have drop -in groups.
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  Some of them are affinity spaces like Alternatives
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  to Suicide. We have a drop -in group for active
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  drug users. We have a lot of different groups,
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  but we also have a drop -in space where people
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  can come and there's peers there that they can
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  get support with. And then we have what Matt
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  does in the jail. He goes into the jail and supports
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  people. And I'll let him talk about that. Yeah,
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  so I go into the jail probably four days a week.
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  I meet with men and women in the jail. I do like
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  one -on -one meetings, I guess. I'll go on to
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  a unit, tell the deputy who I want to talk to,
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  and then they pull them out of their cell and
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  I meet with them in a conference room, which
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  is crazy because this is the jail that I've been
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  in. I think I've been there 12 or 13 times or
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  something like that. So now going back on this
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  side of things, it's pretty wild. Yeah, so I'll
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  meet with people one -on -one in there. Like,
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  we'll talk about grief and family dynamics and
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  just stuff like that. I got two dudes that I
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  support in that are in the halfway house right
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  now. I met them both in the county jail. And
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  both of these dudes have done, one did about
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  a decade in prison. The other guy did almost
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  two decades or a little over two decades. These
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  are like street dudes, you know, they went through
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  a lot. Now they're both in the halfway house.
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  Both of them are doing peer trainings right now.
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  They've been helping us at our events and like
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  helping us set up and tear down and hand out
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  flyers and stuff like that. I just think it's
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  beautiful to see these dudes with some really
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  rough past and like rough history. And now they
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  want to use that to help support people also.
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  You know, I am curious, what is your your caseload
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  look like? I know that's probably not the right
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  term for it, but, you know. people have finite
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  capacity. How many people are you guys meeting
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  with for peer support one -on -one or I guess
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  one person meeting with groups? Well, for my
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  waitlist or caseload or whatever in the jail,
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  I think I have 50 people on it right now. So
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  my caseload is 50 people and the waitlist has
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  like 60 or 70. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. For community
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  -based peers, it's a little bit less, anywhere
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  between five to 10 people on that. And then groups.
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  We haven't really had to cap out groups. One
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  of our larger groups has 20 plus. You know, something
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  really cool about our online spaces is we have
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  people attending from all around the world. Really?
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  Yeah. That always blows my mind. There's people
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  coming from like Europe, New Zealand, all kinds
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  of places. We have a chronic illness and disability
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  group. And then we have an alternatives to suicide
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  group that's online and people come from all
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  over the world. What support is available for
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  the peer supporters? That's awesome that you
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  say that. It takes a lot. And I think like we
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  have an incredible team and we really support
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  each other. We also have another group called
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  Peer Support for Peer Supporters. So that runs
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  twice a month and it's a virtual group. So anybody
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  can attend and just like kind of supporting each
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  other because, yeah, it can be difficult. And
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  I just want to give Ashley some more kudos here
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  because. Like, you know, my job at the jail,
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  it can be like really heavy, actually. A lot
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  of sad stories, a lot of really tough situations
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  these people are in. And when I'm having a hard
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  day, I call Ashley and I lean on Ashley. Yeah,
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  she's always had my back through this stuff.
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  I have, you know, several people in my life that
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  I can, you know, lean on, but Ashley's a big
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  one for sure. We saw that Yarrow Collective provides
• 14:49
  some harm reduction services and support. What
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  does that look like? Yeah, I would actually say
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  a lot of our support is based in liberatory harm
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  reduction. That boils down to is like really
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  radically loving folks as they are and really
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  supporting folks. So we have groups for active
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  drug users and our alternatives to suicide groups
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  are harm reduction groups for folks who are struggling
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  with thoughts of suicide. So, yeah, it kind of
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  is like a running theme through everything that
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  we do. We do risk reduction as well, which is
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  handing out Narcan and testing strips and things
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  like that. We also have a liberatory harm reduction
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  training that we offer to community partners
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  as well as community members. Can you talk a
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  little bit more about that liberatory practice
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  of harm reduction and what that means for Yarrow
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  Collective? Yeah, there's a really cool book
• 15:38
  called Saving Our Own Lives by Shira Hassan.
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  And it really talks about harm reduction and
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  liberatory harm reduction at its roots. It talks
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  about the history. It really was started with
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  Black. trans women supporting each other. And
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  it was coming out alongside these social justice
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  movements. And so really digging into the roots
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  of how communities were keeping each other safe.
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  I think a lot of times it gets focused on drug
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  use or substance use, but it's really like a
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  myriad of things and really thinking about how
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  do we keep each other safe and how do we keep
• 16:12
  our community safe and how do we support each
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  other? The way that harm reduction is kind of
• 16:16
  seen now is more like risk reduction. saves so
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  many lives. It's also pushing back against these
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  things and really showing folks and giving folks
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  a space to be themselves and be loved as they
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  are. In a previous episode, Colorado Health Network
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  talked about little h, little r harm reduction
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  being things like Narcan, syringe access programs,
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  things like that, and capital H, capital R harm
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  reduction being things like making sure that
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  nothing is done about us without us. Yeah. Just
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  thinking about who's at the table and how those
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  decisions are made. It's like policies, laws,
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  city ordinances, things like that that are like,
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  you know, also causing harm. You mentioned working
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  with the Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Are
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  there other community partners that you work
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  with in order to provide some of those harm reduction
• 17:05
  services? There's organizations who are doing
• 17:08
  things incredibly well, and we just want to partner
• 17:10
  and uplift them. We support Outreach Fort Collins.
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  We have an amazing, beautiful relationship with
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  them. NCHA, NCHM, all the orgs around Northern
• 17:19
  Colorado and organizations in Denver like Colorado
• 17:22
  Village Collaborative. A lot of folks like that.
• 17:24
  It feels like same team, right? Like we're all
• 17:26
  same team. If we can't do it, hopefully we have
• 17:30
  a community partner that can. Yeah. Your mission
• 17:34
  talks about providing non -carceral consent -based
• 17:37
  alternatives to mental health services. Can you
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  explain what those two terms, noncarceral and
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  consent -based, mean and why they're important,
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  especially in this work? So when we say noncarceral,
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  we mean providing support that doesn't rely on
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  punishment, coercion, surveillance. I think folks
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  are moving away from that now, but there's a
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  lot of consequence -based support out there,
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  you know, for a long time. Even like certain
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  mental health organizations, if you used, you
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  would get kicked out of group, right? Or like,
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  you know, all the things that happen to folks
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  who are trying to navigate substances and then
• 18:15
  like being required to like meet these certain
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  standards. And then consent -based really means
• 18:19
  that people have autonomy and choice over what
• 18:22
  they do. That's one of the tenets of peer support
• 18:25
  is it's completely voluntary. So you can't be
• 18:29
  mandated for true peer support. You cannot be
• 18:31
  mandated to do peer support. So it's completely
• 18:34
  consent based. And I think that that is one of
• 18:37
  the biggest things is like a lot of times and
• 18:40
  especially in my story, I lost a lot of my autonomy
• 18:43
  throughout childhood and into my adult life.
• 18:45
  And so being able to have control over my life
• 18:49
  has meant so much. And that's one of the things
• 18:52
  that draws me to peer support is that it's completely
• 18:54
  voluntary and consent based. Can you share a
• 18:58
  bit about the community education and training
• 19:01
  that your collective provides? Yeah. So we we
• 19:04
  offer a lot of trainings. We offer an intentional
• 19:06
  peer support training. We've gotten to do three
• 19:09
  intentional peer support trainings in Larimer
• 19:11
  County Jail. So we were able to bring these trainings
• 19:14
  into the jail to the folks in there. And not
• 19:17
  only is it like a career pathway, but, you know,
• 19:20
  some of the stuff that we talk about, like our
• 19:21
  first cohort was on the on the men's side. And
• 19:24
  a lot of folks who had been like incarcerated
• 19:26
  for long periods of their life. Some of the ways
• 19:29
  that we were talking, it was just so beautiful
• 19:31
  to watch the light bulbs go off and the understandings.
• 19:35
  And like, you know, one thing I thought that
• 19:37
  was super poignant was like, we have this part
• 19:40
  that we talk about when people ask, are you feeling
• 19:42
  safe? So like if you go to the doctor or are
• 19:45
  going through these like things and they're like,
• 19:47
  are you feeling safe? All of those men in that
• 19:49
  room, nobody had ever asked them. If they were
• 19:53
  feeling safe. And that like just hit me in a
• 19:55
  way that I can't even explain. It was just like
• 19:57
  so heartbreaking. Because when you look at it,
• 20:00
  so many folks who are incarcerated have dealt
• 20:02
  with so much pain and trauma growing up and,
• 20:04
  you know, the ACEs and all of those things. And
• 20:07
  it's just heartbreaking to think how different
• 20:10
  society treats different people. So we have trainers
• 20:13
  who are certified through Intentional Peer Support
• 20:16
  Central. I mean, it's a 40 -hour peer training
• 20:19
  that really focuses on the history and then the
• 20:21
  relationship building. It is recognized by COPA,
• 20:24
  which is the Colorado Providers Association.
• 20:26
  They're the ones that hold the credential for
• 20:28
  peer support in Colorado. And then we do a alternatives
• 20:32
  to suicide facilitator training, and that's a
• 20:34
  16 -hour, three -day training. And the requirement
• 20:38
  with that one is you have to have lived experience
• 20:41
  with thoughts, feelings, or attempts of suicide
• 20:43
  to become a facilitator of that group. If that's
• 20:47
  not your lived experience, we also offer a When
• 20:50
  Conversations Turn to Suicide training. And those
• 20:53
  were both developed by the Wildflower Alliance.
• 20:55
  So they also have those trainings online and
• 20:57
  things like that. But we are able to offer them
• 20:59
  to our community. We also offer a four -hour
• 21:02
  liberatory harm reduction training. And that
• 21:05
  was developed by our director of harm reduction,
• 21:07
  Lucrecia. And we have an intro to peer support.
• 21:12
  We also have a peer mentorship program. You know,
• 21:14
  sometimes you're kind of like left out there.
• 21:16
  You're like, I took this training and now what?
• 21:18
  And if you don't work for an organization, you
• 21:20
  don't have a lot of mentorship. So we created
• 21:22
  this mentorship program, which runs over six
• 21:25
  months and it has learning circles. You get one
• 21:27
  -on -one mentorship with a seasoned peer. And
• 21:30
  you also get a group supervision type thing where
• 21:33
  folks who are also in the cohort and practicing
• 21:35
  peer support can come together and talk through
• 21:37
  some of the things that we've learned. If listeners
• 21:40
  would like to learn more, get involved, support
• 21:42
  Yarrow Collective's work, where should they go?
• 21:44
  So our website is yarrowcollective .org. You
• 21:48
  can get access to our newsletter. There's a calendar
• 21:51
  for both our in -person and online groups and
• 21:55
  stuff like that. You can check out all of our
• 21:57
  socials, Instagram, Facebook. I believe they're
• 21:59
  just Yarrow Collective. Yeah, there's all of
• 22:02
  our information on there. And if someone hears
• 22:05
  this and is also interested and maybe... learning
• 22:08
  more or pursuing peer support work, where would
• 22:11
  you recommend they start? There's a lot of peer
• 22:13
  support trainings. I'm always happy to talk anybody
• 22:16
  through like offer any sort of like insider advice
• 22:19
  or like ways that maybe I navigated it. The advice
• 22:23
  that I would give is like there's a lot of trainings
• 22:26
  out there and just remember like it's not dogma.
• 22:30
  Take the parts that feel aligned and, you know,
• 22:34
  just keep your mind open, keep your heart open.
• 22:36
  And like there's as many people as there are
• 22:39
  in this world or as many ways to embody peer
• 22:41
  support. So is UroCollective doing anything to
• 22:44
  observe Overdose Awareness Month? Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:48
  So we table at Overdose Awareness Days here in
• 22:51
  Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland. But on actual
• 22:55
  Overdose Awareness Day, I think it's the 31st
• 22:57
  of August, we are hosting a celebration of life
• 23:00
  for our community, for folks who have been lost
• 23:03
  to overdose. And yeah, we're going to have a
• 23:06
  big celebration. So anybody's welcome to join
• 23:08
  us over at our office and we'll be having that.
• 23:11
  If someone is struggling with substance use or
• 23:14
  knows someone who is, what resources are available
• 23:18
  to them for support? I mean, there's a lot, you
• 23:21
  know, there's... A ton of different organizations
• 23:24
  in the community that offer like support around
• 23:27
  that. You know, there's the Yarrow Collective
• 23:29
  Us. I mean, there's North Point, North Range
• 23:31
  and Summit Stone. And there's all sorts of help
• 23:34
  out there if someone's needing it. Yeah. And
• 23:37
  I think if you're looking for like specific support
• 23:41
  from us, I would say just come on in. Like come
• 23:44
  on into our drop -in space. Reach out to us online.
• 23:47
  Someone will love to show up and sit with you.
• 23:51
  think about with you what that means and what
• 23:54
  you would like to look different in your life.
• 23:55
  Yeah. That's great. Ashley, Matt, thank you both
• 23:59
  so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you. Thanks.
• 24:01
  You can find links to learn more about the topics
• 24:04
  we discussed today in the show notes. If you
• 24:07
  have a question about public health in Larimer
• 24:08
  County or a topic you'd like us to discuss, let
• 24:12
  us know. Email us at healthiertogetheratlarimer
• 24:15
  .org. Thanks for listening, Larimer County. Until
• 24:18
  next week, stay well, stay connected, and remember,
• 24:21
  we really are healthier together.