The Message is We Love You
The Message is We Love You

SMART Recovery® Podcast

SMART Recovery speaks with Franklin Street Harm Reduction about a love-centred, low-barrier approach that supports people’s own choices in recovery. The conversation highlights practical harm reduction, lived experience, and science-based tools working together to reduce harm and build connection.

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46:15•14 Sept 2026

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The Message Is We Love You: Harm Reduction with Heart at Franklin Street

Episode Overview

Harm reduction at Franklin Street focuses on personal choice, respect, and unconditional positive regard rather than enforcing abstinence.
SMART Recovery tools such as cost-benefit analysis are used flexibly in one-to-one conversations and groups, even with people in active use.
Practical support—IDs, Narcan, condoms, pet care, and consistent outreach—reduces immediate harm and builds trust with unhoused community members.
Relapse is framed as information and an opportunity for deeper recovery work, not as failure or a reason for exclusion.
Low-barrier spaces may feel challenging for some, so Franklin Street offers different times, offsite groups, and referrals to other services as part of a wider recovery ecosystem.

“"We, you know, the message is, is we love you. No matter what your behaviors are today."”

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation centres on harm reduction and what it looks like when love, respect, and choice sit at the heart of support. Host Luke Frazier talks with Franklin Street Harm Reduction in Olympia, Washington, a low-barrier centre that sees around 100 people a day.

Co-director and counsellor Christina McVeigh shares her winding path from art and early childhood education into youth work and harm reduction, shaped by her own past substance use and trauma. She describes realising, years later, that what had been labelled “self-medicating” had actually kept her alive until she was ready for therapy.

Harm Reduction Support Specialist Lissa Hammons brings lived experience, including a relapse she calls "one of the most beautiful, profound things" that happened to her because it pushed her into genuine recovery work. She explains harm reduction as "the way that I put every lens on in my life"—being intentional, supporting choice, and acting as "their biggest cheerleader" while people drive their own recovery.

You’ll hear concrete examples: bringing Narcan, condoms, and sharps containers to an encampment every morning; buying dog coats and paying vet bills for people whose pets are vital coping tools; helping people get IDs so they don’t miss housing opportunities. Christina sums up their ethos simply: "the message is, is we love you.

No matter what your behaviours are today." The episode also touches on SMART Recovery’s shift away from an abstinence orientation, partnerships with Wildflower Alliance and intentional peer support, and creative approaches like movie groups and offsite meetings at a tiny home village. It’s all about connection, low-barrier support, and refusing to "should" on anyone.

If you’re curious how harm reduction can sit alongside science-based recovery tools and genuine compassion, this conversation may give you plenty to think about—and maybe a fresh way to look at your own choices.

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