32: What Can Civic Engagement Look Like?32: What Can Civic Engagement Look Like?
a Place for everyone
Shawn Watkins shares how sober living, routine, and housing support helped him move from justice involvement into stable recovery, fatherhood, and community leadership. The conversation also highlights why civic engagement and voting matter for people rebuilding their lives after addiction and homelessness.
15:03•26 Oct 2026
From Sober Living to the Ballot Box: Shawn Watkins on Community Engagement
Episode Overview
- Stable housing, routine, and accountability are central foundations for sustained recovery and regaining custody of children.
- Recovery involves more than stopping substances; it requires addressing underlying behaviours that repeatedly harm progress.
- Community engagement can mean being available, living the message you speak, and using past experiences to guide and support others.
- Civic participation, especially voting, is presented as vital for shaping policies that affect communities, organisations, and future generations.
- Justice-involved individuals are encouraged to learn about their voting rights and to seek supportive organisations willing to "walk it out" with them.
“I think if you're thinking about recovery, understand that it is a marathon.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This episode of *a Place for everyone* zooms in on exactly that through the story of Shawn Watkins, a graduate of Homeward Pikes Peak’s Harbour House programme, recorded live at Studio 809’s “Our Voice, Our Future 2026” marathon. Shawn, a veteran, father, and site director for Community Anchor Academy in southeast Colorado Springs, talks about life after being justice-involved and how stable housing, sober living, and routine helped him rebuild.
Harbour House, a sober living programme for men and families, gave him the structure he needed. As he puts it, “recovery is like every component, every moral fiber that I have to be able to kind of navigate from day to day.” Host and Homeward Pikes Peak Executive Director Beth Roalstad asks the questions many people in early recovery might be wrestling with: What does recovery really mean? How do you become a steady parent while staying sober?
Shawn points to routine, accountability, case management, and community as key pieces: “you get out of it what you put into it.” The conversation doesn’t stop at personal change. Shawn shares what civic engagement looks like for him now—raising his son, working in a nonprofit, supporting justice-involved individuals into employment, and helping people understand why voting matters. He stresses that past harm is a kind of “voice” in the community, and recovery is about using that voice for good.
They also talk frankly about relapse, root causes, and why substance use is often a symptom of deeper behavioural patterns. Shawn’s advice to someone saying, “I’m ready to get sober”? Start with housing and support systems, commit to the process, and “get a community…that’s willing to walk it out with you.” If you’re interested in recovery, housing stability, or how people in sobriety stay engaged in civic life, this conversation offers real-world experience and practical encouragement.
What might community engagement look like for you?
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