Recovering addicts work to help others in 'Project Recover'
A program in central Virginia is aimed at getting people struggling with drug addiction into treatment by giving them support from recovering addicts who have turned their lives around
CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) — Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the word “PEER,” Joy Bogese approaches people struggling with drug addiction the way a teacher might approach a reluctant student — gently, calmly and armed with experience in a subject that has stymied each of them.
Bogese, a recovering heroin addict, breaks the ice by telling them a bit about herself.
"I've been homeless, I did time in jail. I remember thinking, there's no hope. I'm always going to be a junkie," she tells a homeless man while standing next to a uniformed police officer. “I made it and you can, too,” she quickly adds.
Bogese is one of four peer recovery specialists who have been working in central Virginia this year as part of "Project Recover." The specialists are embedded with ambulance crews and police officers so they can offer guidance and resources to victims during one of the most difficult times of their lives — immediately following an overdose.
