Recovery Support Services with Evan DoneRecovery Support Services with Evan Done
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Coach Blu Robinson talks with recovery advocate Evan Done about peer-based support, harm reduction, policy change, and family programmes in Utah. The conversation highlights how advocacy, lived experience, and practical services can make recovery more accessible and hopeful.
46:30•20 Mar 2023
Recovery, Harm Reduction and Hope: Evan Done on Building Real Support
Episode Overview
- Peer support and lived experience can give people in addiction a practical, non-judgemental pathway into recovery.
- Harm reduction is about keeping people alive and safer, meeting them where they are and helping them move towards change.
- Wider access to naloxone and Medicaid-funded treatment can save lives and remove major barriers to care.
- Expungement and clean slate laws help people in recovery move past criminal records that block housing and employment.
- Family programmes like CRAFT show relatives how to stay connected, stay safe, and become a helpful resource when a loved one is ready for change.
“At USARA, we say that recovery is not rare and recovery is not random, right? It’s happening all around us all the time when people have the support that they need.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between Coach Blu Robinson and guest Evan Done gives a front‑row seat to what organised recovery support can look like when it’s done with heart, strategy, and a bit of stubborn optimism. Evan, Community Impact Director for Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA) and a person in long‑term recovery, shares how his own story of family loss, substance use, and grief pushed him into advocacy.
He talks openly about growing up around addiction, losing his mum to substances, then later finding recovery himself and walking into USARA for the first time in 2015. As he puts it, **"At USARA, we say that recovery is not rare and recovery is not random"** – it happens when people have real support. You’ll hear how USARA’s peer‑run recovery community centres, coaching, and family programmes are all built on lived experience, not clinical hierarchy.
Evan explains harm reduction in plain language (including a brilliant seatbelt analogy) and makes a strong case for keeping people alive long enough to choose recovery, whether that’s through naloxone, syringe services, or medication‑assisted treatment. For anyone in Utah, there’s plenty of practical talk: naloxone access, Medicaid expansion, support in emergency departments, and how changes to social work training and student loan relief might get more clinicians into addiction services.
Evan also breaks down criminal record expungement and the idea that people who’ve turned their lives around shouldn’t be punished forever by background checks and housing barriers. The tone stays hopeful, honest, and surprisingly warm for a chat about policy and law. If you’ve ever wondered whether advocacy actually changes anything, or if your recovery story could matter beyond your own life, this one might shift your perspective.
What role could you play in making recovery support more accessible where you live?
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