DANIELLE DONALDSON: Welcome to Peer Into Recovery, a podcast with a focus on the profession of peer support. For more information about how to subscribe, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us. I am your host, Danielle Donaldson. In this episode, I’m going to be talking with Robin Hubert about peer drop-in centers. Robin is celebrating 19 years this summer as the Executive Director of On Our Own of Roanoke Valley. She is a WRAP facilitator, having been trained in the first class in Virginia in 2004. She is a Virginia Certified Peer Recovery Specialist Trainer, an ECPR facilitator, Peer Whole Health and Resiliency facilitator, and most recently became a Certified Personal Medicine Coach through Pat Deegan and Associates. Hey, Robin, thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?

ROBIN HUBERT: I’m doing well. Thank you for asking me, Danielle.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: And congratulations on your new certification. I had not heard of that one, so that’s pretty interesting.

ROBIN HUBERT: Yes, it’s wonderful. I’ll have to get into that whenever you want to.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, yeah. I hope that you’ll get into that a little bit later in our conversation, because I’m not familiar with that particular certification.

ROBIN HUBERT: Okay.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So yeah, 19 years. Wow, that is quite a milestone. So that’s pretty amazing. How did you get started at On Our Own?

ROBIN HUBERT: Well, back in 2001, I was doing very well with my mental health and substance use recovery. And I was looking for a job. And I actually went through what was called the Department of Rehab Services. And I said, hey, I need to work. I need to do something. And this, the job for the project director of On Our Own of Roanoke Valley, State Peer Center, was available. And my account, job coach, said, I think this will be perfect for you.
I did not know what I was walking into at all, because I hadn’t really heard of the peer movement at that point. So I went for the interview and was chosen. And that was in July of 2001.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So you were the first, the first director?

ROBIN HUBERT: No, we actually, On Our Own, started in 1993. And it had a few directors between 1993 and the time I came on board. So I walked into a situation where I really didn’t know that it existed before, but there was so much available to so many ideas floating around in my head for what we could do to let peers know that recovery is possible.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: How did you get acclimated? How was your transition period when you were taking over that position?

ROBIN HUBERT: Well, I’ll tell you, within a month of my hire, I heard of Vocal, somehow, I don’t know how, but I heard of Vocal and they were having meetings. I think it was either every month or every three months around the Commonwealth. So I went to a Vocal meeting and that, I met other peers in recovery, other directors, and other people starting programs. That jumpstarted my recovery and my enthusiasm into what we could do for each other as peers and helping people along in their recovery. So that was a really exciting start.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, and that’s a good point because Vocal, that’s probably a good resource to share because they do offer support for peer programs and helping those peer programs get organized and get off the ground. So there’s probably some people out there that don’t realize that Vocal is a good resource for that.

ROBIN HUBERT: Yeah, they actually have some excellent communications, some publications that are on their website. You could download them and print them off. How about starting, getting, you know, getting started with your 501C3, if you want to become a non-profit center. And the support that I’ve gotten over these years from Vocal has been instrumental in helping On Our Own grow into what it is today and helping me grow as a person in recovery. So please get in touch with Vocal if you haven’t, get connected, get their newsletters, and, you know, once we, once things start opening up, you’ll hear about things to do, conferences and trainings and things, once we kind of get back into whatever the new normal is going to be.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Right. Actually, let me backtrack a little, because I’m guessing that there’s probably some listeners out there that probably don’t really know what a peer drop-in center is, or how On Our Own of Roanoke Valley operates. Would you mind giving a little brief description of that?

ROBIN HUBERT: Sure. I want to start out by saying, On Our Own has grown so much over these years that I’ve been a part of it, and so when I describe the programs, if somebody who might want to start something, don’t think you have to be where I’m at. I started out where people were coming, just coming in for coffee and snacks, and an occasional bingo game. Over these many years, and there were grant opportunities that I was able to get to help expand programs, but we are now open seven days a week in the afternoons, and before the pandemic, we were holding our groups, two groups a day, and people could just come in, and just either they could go to groups, or they could sit around and chat, they could do some of the crafts that we have available. Just participate at whatever level that they wanted to. Play cards, have coffee and snacks, or just talk to somebody. And so, it has evolved into having many meetings throughout the week. And now that the pandemic has started, has been going on for these past few months, we’ve been doing some interesting things to keep in touch with the folks that come. So we have been holding two Zoom meetings each day. We’ve also hold an extra meeting once a week on Saturdays for Bipolar disorder Group. And we have three evening meetings on Zoom. So for the folks that can connect up with us, they can either call in or if they can, if they’re comfortable doing a video chat on Zoom, they can do that. We also are making phone calls from the center right now. And we are receiving them during our regular operating hours. The other great thing about On Our Own is we have this big porch. So people that are not tech savvy, that are used to coming to On Our Own for their daily support, can actually come and sit on the porch and talk with the folks we have two staff on per day, so that we can still see people face to face and be within the guidelines of social distancing. So we are there. The building is just not open. We’re also sending letters out to folks. So everybody who we have connection to, we’re sending them letters if we have their address, and we’re also calling them and receiving calls, as I said.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Wow. I’m glad that you guys have been able to adapt and continue serving people. Everybody’s having to think on their feet and find ways to continue to provide services. Can I ask you a question? What do you think is unique about offering peer support as a drop-in center, maybe compared to other ways of receiving peer support? What do you think makes a drop-in center unique?

ROBIN HUBERT: Well, I think the drop-in center has a place to meet. The interesting thing is that people know where you are, and so they could say, hey, we can go to On Our Own. And the word gets around in the mental health community, that hey, there’s a place you can go to every day. And it makes it’s different because people, you know, I know I’m in recovery. I know what it’s like to isolate. And that’s what I did a lot of my years when I was not well. And to have a place to be able to just get out and go to is really, was really an important piece for me and my own recovery. And I will say that, you know, people can congregate anywhere that, well, not now, but, you know, I would always say, if you don’t have a center to come to, all it takes is two people and two chairs to meet somewhere, sit down, have a cup of coffee, you know, and I’d say, well, meet in a coffee shop when they were open, or, you know, go to the library and just meet. That’s all it takes to begin this whole journey into supporting each other. And, you know, the quickest way out of my own depression was to help somebody else. And so when we start supporting each other in that way, wherever we decide to meet, hey, let’s meet on the patio of the coffee shop every so-and-so Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning at 10 o’clock and have an established place. It just gives you a way to say, I’m going to do something for my own wellness.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Well, and I want to just take this moment to thank you, because you were instrumental in my journey as a peer support specialist, and you were my trainer for my peer recovery specialist training. So thank you for being an excellent model and for being encouraging and supportive, and it really made a difference in my life. So I just wanted to thank you for that.

ROBIN HUBERT: You’re welcome, and thank you for letting me know that, sure.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: So what does a typical workday look for you? I mean, especially as, I guess, an executive director because I’m sure that you probably have things that you need to do during your workday that maybe the other peer specialists might not be doing. So, what is a, I guess, imagine that we’re not in a pandemic world right now. What did your typical workday look like?

ROBIN HUBERT: Well, primarily, most of my time was spent administratively. So making sure finances were spent correctly, reported correctly, doing all kinds of reports for, well, we have funding from federal block brands. So there’s special reporting guidelines. So making sure those reports are written correctly and keeping contracts. We have contracts. We also go into the community. We go into Catawba Hospital, provide peer support and RAP groups there. We go into the CSB and we provide RAP groups and we have a little place there, a little room that we do one-on-one interactions with people, introducing them to what peer support is. So there’s different little contracts that we have. So I have to fulfill the contracts and make sure all those things are like, you know, making work schedules and, but I think the best part is when I, you know, I get to supervise peer specialists. I get to learn with them on how we can best support the people who come to On Our Own every day. So that is also a big part of every day, is that my door is always open. When my staff come, whether they’re on the clock or not on the clock, if they want to come and talk, they come and talk and, you know, we learn together. I don’t have all the answers. I have a lot of them because of my years of experience, but I didn’t.

So another big part of what I have done over the years is reach out to other centers and ask them how they handle a certain situation or, you know, some things that come up that you don’t, you don’t expect and some, and how to make the center the best that we can. And a lot of times the staff will come and say, hey, you know, there’s a situation. What do you think we should do to make this better? And we’ll talk about writing policies, you know, and sometimes I will reach out to other centers and say, do you have a policy on this or that? And the neat thing is that we help each other. Over these many years, you know, we don’t just try to write it on our own. If we don’t have to, we get some ideas and brainstorm together and say, what’s the best way to do this? So, I also, in a typical day, will go downstairs. My office is upstairs, and I’ll go downstairs, and I’ll just grab a hot chocolate or something, or an iced tea, and I’ll sit down, and I’ll chat with folks down there. That is a really great part of my day, because I love that interaction part. I, you know, I’m not great, I’m not, I was not really great at paperwork when I started this job, but I learned a whole lot. But I like, I like working with people. And I love when I do, you know, I’ll occasionally co-facilitate a rep group, or do a peer whole health and resiliency. I love that in my day when I’m able to go and be actually part of the peer support team down on the floor with everybody else. So typically myself, that’s what I do. My peer specialists downstairs, would you like to know about what they do?

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Oh, sure. Yeah, please share.

ROBIN HUBERT: Sure. So we have two peer specialists every day that are on the clock and most days we have either an intern from the local colleges or we have volunteers. A lot of people want to be volunteers. What we do is we, first thing we do is greet people with hospitality and warmth. We let people know that they’re welcome and we offer a cup of coffee or iced tea or Kool-Aid and a snack and we have that, you know, a lot of times people can really bond over just sitting there sipping on a cup of coffee and chatting and getting to know one another. So our staff will serve people regularly during the day and also sit down with them. Maybe they want to play a game of cards and, you know, sitting down playing a game of cards or Yahtzee or some kind of game facilitates discussion and comfort. People get comfortable. Sometimes they’ll pull out, we have a lot of coloring pages, adult coloring books, and so people will just sit there and do something actively with their hands. And then so that people get comfortable together and then they share and let, you know, that’s the beauty. It just kind of happens. The magic happens. And then they also facilitate support groups on a regular basis every day. We have some different kinds of support groups on our own. And so that is something that people, they can either go in the group or they can stay in the center or sit out on the porch. So, and then we’re available for one-on-one peer support. Sometimes people just need to talk for a few minutes. And so we also do that. So in a nutshell, that’s basically our day-to-day operations.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: That’s great. That’s great. It just, it gives people a sense of community. And that’s wonderful. So are there any particular types of challenges that you’ve faced as a peer drop-in center or as a director of a peer drop-in center? Is there anything particular to that type of work that you’ve encountered? And how did you overcome them?

ROBIN HUBERT: Well, I think probably the first thing that pops in my mind is that a lot of us, when we come into peer support and to this profession, we, or even as just want to volunteer, give back our time without being paid for it, we come in because we want to help. And a lot of times we want to fix. And so probably the biggest challenge and the biggest learning opportunity that folks have, and especially people that are newer to peer support, is learning that we’re not here to fix people. We’re here to support. And so I think on a regular basis, I have to remind new people that you don’t have to have the answers. You can share resources, but there’s three words that you have to always remember. Listen, listen, listen. You really are there to listen. And listen with compassion. And listen without an agenda. Don’t listen by, if you’re sitting there with somebody, don’t listen to them and think, what am I going to say when they stop talking? Just listen fully, listen with your heart. And that’s what that ECPR, that emotional CPR is about. It’s about listening with your heart. And when people are truly listened to, they feel like they have worth and value. Somebody is actually listening to me. I may not have the answers, but I’m here for you. I’m going to sit right by your side. And that’s a really important skill in life to learn, is to just be there. And it’s hard in some situations.

Other challenges we have is sometimes people are difficult, and that doesn’t have to do with mental health, substance use, or anything, particularly. But people, we are human beings, and we are not perfect. And so people, sometimes we have people that are more difficult to serve, to give support to. And so, we talk about those things. That’s how we handle it, as we talk about what’s going on with this particular person that is causing you to feel anxiety and trying to be there for them. And we don’t try to change people, but something that helps us is that we have a set of standards of conduct. We don’t call them rules, what we call them standards of conduct, or ways to behave when you’re in the center, and this little microcosm of society where you may not, you may not be successful in developing relationships out there, but maybe you could learn how to develop relationships in here, within the four walls of this building, where we have ways to help you to know how, where we all are expected to behave. The peer specialists, the volunteers, and the people in there, like respecting each other. We go, and when people come in and they say, hey, you know, you can come in and you can visit On Our Own.

And after about the third visit, we ask you if you want to become a member. And becoming a member really gives, gives you that feeling of, hey, I’m a member of something. You know, I’m wanted here, I’m a part. And you, we go through the standards of conduct. You know, we respect each other. We don’t use foul language. There’s no harassment. There’s no borrowing. There’s, you know, there’s, and we don’t say it in the negative like that. No, but, you know, we, we try to raise everything in a positive way. But I think that there are guidelines for living. And it’s, it’s a lot, it reminds me a lot like the, the little poster that says everything I learned, everything I learned to do, I learned in kindergarten or something like that. You know, it’s basically treat each other with respect and kindness. And so people know what’s expected of them. And when they don’t follow that standard of conduct, our staff gently says, hey, let’s look at this here. This is the way we, we conduct ourselves within these four walls. And that’s what creates the safe haven. If you come to On Our Own, Roanoke, you’re coming in the door and you know that you have, you know, everybody’s expected to respect each other. You’re not gonna, you’re not gonna, don’t, you’re not expecting to be hit on because we don’t allow that kind of behavior. This is not a dating service. This is a support center. So, you know, you don’t have to worry about people trying to borrow your cigarettes or borrowing $5 for a pack of cigarettes because that’s against our standards of conduct. So, you don’t have to worry about that kind of thing because we’re gonna remind people if they do cross that line and are not doing that.

So, we’re helping people learn, hey, this is the way we work in our community here, in our little peer support community. And subsequently, they learn that that behavior is more successful for them in society too. And so, people do grow and again, I will say that I have contacted other centers when we’ve become, when we’ve come across difficult situations. And so, you know, I can’t cover everything in one conversation like this. But I will tell you that my information is with you to make available to people. So, when other people have challenges, they can contact me and see how I’ve handled it. Or we can brainstorm together and share resources on how you can find out, how you can, you know, deal with this so that you can have a successful peer support atmosphere.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: That’s excellent. How do you see peer drop-in centers evolving over time? How has On Our Own maybe evolved in the 19… You did speak about this briefly at the start, but how do you see peer drop-in centers evolving maybe in the future?

ROBIN HUBERT: Well, I would hope that people would just start by, like I said, that two people, two chairs. I think there’s a lot of places around the state of Virginia and around the whole country, I’m sure. But I know about our state that don’t have a center like ours. And like you can start by deciding that you want to just get together. And once you get a couple people together and you can let other people know, hey, we’re going to meet here for coffee. You know, once you get a group of people who are wanting to do things together, wanting to be there to support and listen, and then you could maybe go bowling together or have, sometimes we have card game tournaments and fun things that we do as well as the peer support. So I see where people, where it’s going to evolve in my, in my experience is just those people who are getting together. And then as things may come up, maybe a little grant may come up for a couple thousand dollars. Hey, I got one of those early grants. And I opened, I had, it started my computer program and a little coffee house. So we still continue to have that coffee house with karaoke every Saturday. And it’s just started with a little grant and we had a little bit of money. It was $2,000. And we were able to buy a computer and some little, a karaoke machine. And so if you’re together, if you start being together, you have one goal to just support each other and do something. Because peer services are not taking the place of the professional services and the counselors and the medication and other things that we use to get well. But peer support is the part where we grow. You can go see your counselor maybe once a week in the beginning, once every two, three weeks later on. But what do you do all the rest of those hours in the day and the rest of the days in the week? It’s that peer support that helps you to learn and grow and have a life that is meaningful and has purpose for yourself that you can enjoy and have things you make makes you smile. So I hope that answered your questions.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Oh, yeah, that’s that’s that’s lovely. I really love that sentiment. So what recommendations or suggestions do you have for others who might want to get into peer drop in center work? And if it and if your new certification kind of falls into that, I’d love to hear a little bit more about that as well.

ROBIN HUBERT: Sure. Well, I would say the first thing you would would be probably helpful would be to volunteer. When you volunteer, even prior to getting training, if you go and even say, I’ll sweep the floors or I’ll wash the tables or whatever, you get a sense of what other peer specialists are doing in a drop-in center environment. You can’t really volunteer in my, in my experience, you can’t volunteer at like a CSB or a place that hires peers, but you can volunteer at a place like a drop-in center. So, the first thing you do is volunteer. If you like it, then seek out the peer training and go get as many trainings as you can. I will move to your question about the personal medicine coaching that I am now certified in. It is a beautiful way to enhance your recovery. Doing, we take medicine, physical medicine, maybe for diabetes or blood pressure, but there are things that we do that help us, that are also medicine. It’s like we’re reclaiming the word medicine to say, what can we do for ourselves? When I was in recovery from eating disorders, I didn’t eat prior to that. Food was my medicine because I had to eat. I had to start eating in order to feed my brain and my heart. So food was my medicine. But playing my guitar is my medicine because it helps me get out of myself. Maybe drawing is something that helps you to, it’s an action and it helps you ease your anxiety. And maybe taking a walk is another form of personal medicine because that calms down your racing thoughts and helps you to focus on nature. There are many, many things that people do to help them to be well in addition to things that may be clinical things, like going to their counselor or taking their medicines. But the things that you do every day to put a smile on your face, those are personal medicines. So, you’ll hear more about that, because I’m not the only one in Virginia that was certified. I believe there’s 19 people certified around the state. So, as soon as I can open that up, I’m going to have that training to other people. And I’m going to be holding a personal medicine class on Zoom, a group, I mean. And so, that will be advertised in our calendar. So, people who might want to get in on that can look to our calendar and sign up for that at our website. We have that every month. And I’m really excited about this additional resource for folks, for their wellness and recovery.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Yeah, that sounds great. Would you, do you want to share On Our Own’s contact information?

ROBIN HUBERT: Certainly.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: For the listeners?

ROBIN HUBERT: Sure. Our website is onourownroanoke.org, all spelled out. And there’s also a website, a Facebook page, On Our Own of Roanoke Valley. If you go on either one of those and you hit the contact button, or you’ll get right to me, that emails will come right to me, and I’ll respond to that. There’s also a phone number. It’s 540-362-0061. And we are there every day starting at noon, Monday through Saturday, and up until 5. And we’re also there 130-5 on Sunday. And if you leave a message with your phone number, we’ll be able to get back to you. So please reach out, and we will be glad to get to know you.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Thank you, Robin. Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise. I really appreciate it.

ROBIN HUBERT: You’re very welcome.

DANIELLE DONALDSON: Thanks for listening to the Peer Into Recovery Podcast, brought to you by the Virginia Peer Recovery Specialist Network and Mental Health America of Virginia. If you like our show and would like to subscribe to the podcast, please visit our website at www.vprsn.org. And please leave us a review on iTunes. Take good care of yourselves. Thanks for listening.