Five Questions With: Monica Smith

Monica Smith is executive director of Rhode Island Communities for Addiction Recovery Efforts Inc. An Oregon native, she has over 20 years’ experience working in business administration. She spent 10 years working in corporate America before making the transition to nonprofits, where she has 12 years of progressive operational and program experience in innovative nonprofits.

Smith has been responsible for developing and implementing systems, processes and programs with a relational focus. Among her biggest accomplishments, she lists creating long-term, democratic housing for survivors of domestic violence. Prior to RICARES, she served as operations director at Portland Homeless Family Solutions.

PBN: You come from a community-organizing background in Portland, Ore. What intrigued you about the situation in Rhode Island that encouraged you to move here from the West Coast?

SMITH: Whether my role was working in a program organizing communities as a program manager opening houses for domestic violence survivors or in a leadership role serving families coming out of homelessness, I am invested in people.

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Initially, I had a five-year plan to move to Washington, D.C. At year three, a friend encouraged me to check out the East Coast. Growing up in Oregon, family of mine from Boston and New York always came west. My first visit to New England felt like coming home – it’s a perfect mixture of city and small town.

PBN: How does your personal history drive your interest in supporting the recovery-services community in Rhode Island?

SMITH: That is a loaded question! I am a person in long-term recovery. I practice cognitive flexibility, seek to live a balanced life and practice moderation in all that I do.

I have extensive experience navigating the entire system of care due to my life experiences. I have had to advocate for my special needs child, had to carry the stigma of mental illness, parented while being a single mom in poverty, received TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] and SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program], been homeless, participated in three treatment programs for substance use, slept behind a dumpster, overcame abusive relationships, lived in shelters, lived in subsidized shelter care and housing, had a child in family foster care, gone through the reunification process, got out of debt, got married, bought a house, went back to school, got my bachelor’s degree, started a master’s program, got a divorce, traveled to Vietnam for the master’s program, finished the master’s program without a degree, sold a house and moved across the country. The last 13 years of my life have been as a recovering person. I have more time in recovery then I ever did in active addiction. That was a huge milestone for my family.

My life today is about making the achievements I have celebrated accessible to anyone else having to navigate similar systems. I am just a regular person living a regular life with other regular people.

PBN: As the new executive director of R.l. Communities for Addiction Recovery Efforts Inc., what are your first goals?

SMITH: First and foremost, relationships build change. It is important to me to get to know my new community: professionally and personally. Any community-building I hope to achieve relies on my investment in relationships.

Operationally speaking, I am approaching my first year at RICARES using a three-phased approach. Phase one is building relationships and infrastructure, phase two is strategic planning, phase three is implementation.

I believe recovery is a topic that touches so many different areas. The focus of RICARES has always been about recovery, and that will not change. What we will be doing is broadening our scope to recognize recovery touches people at different points in their lives and supporting people in those stages. This means issues related to economic security are recovery issues, issues related to trauma and healing are recovery issues and issues that impede a person’s ability to successfully navigate their community – these are our issues, too.

PBN: What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing the state’s recovery-services community?

SMITH: Locally, there are challenges due to the current overdose crises, and challenges we will always face as a recovery community.

It is time to ask for advice and expertise from new people. People in recovery need to bring their voices to the table. We are the only people representing the voice of active addiction. We need to begin talking about harm reduction as an intentional strategy to make an immediate impact. The conversation needs to move beyond recommended strategies into opening our first safe injection site.

Challenges we will always face include being short-staffed, securing living-wage jobs and a funding stream that supports an infrastructure worthy of the expected outcomes.

We need to collaborate on more projects throughout the state. Applying for grants or funding as joint applicants would allow us to shift the conversation at a public level and provide opportunities for disjointed agencies to work together, possibly expanding the number of people served and increasing programmatic outcomes.

PBN: How can interested members of the community become more involved with supporting the recovery-services community?

SMITH: RICARES has a focus on education, advocacy and mobilization. Our biggest need is two-fold: donations of money and time. There are many ways to support people that are investigating recovery. Depending on your interest you can volunteer at a homeless shelter, a domestic violence shelter, volunteer with local schools, help distribute narcan/naloxone or become an RICARES recovery ambassador, among many possibilities.

Emily Gowdey-Backus is a PBN staff writer. Email her at Gowdey-Backus@PBN.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey.