Join us on a profound journey with Leah Wright, the visionary founder and Executive Director of Wake Monarch Academy, in this episode of Finding New Waters Podcast. Leah opens up about her personal trials navigating her son's addiction, which led to the creation of a transformative recovery high school dedicated to adolescents fighting substance use disorders. With a mission rooted in the belief that recovery must come first to lay the groundwork for all future success, Leah details how Wake Monarch Academy provides a nurturing environment for students to chase academic, personal, and professional triumphs. This sanctuary of learning and healing is more than just a school; it's a community where young individuals regain strength and build a future. Discover how Leah's unwavering faith and extensive experience in education culminated in a resource that fills a critical gap for families and their loved ones on the path to recovery​​​​​​.

For more information and to support their mission, visit Wake Monarch Academy's website at ⁠Wake Monarch Academy⁠and learn about the philosophy and people behind this life-changing institution​​.

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Leah Wright-1

Justin Mclendon: [00:00:00] If you could leave a potential family member or a potential, client or somebody that's struggling with kind of a nugget or something that you wish that they could walk away with, what would that thing be?

Leah Wright: Here's what I consistently find, including myself, right? Families forget, they get so wrapped up in their loved one, right?

Leah Wright: That's struggling. They forget about themselves. So even if it's putting out like. No one can do recovery for you, right? You got to do it for yourself. You got to want to do it. Don't do recovery for somebody else, right? Do it for yourself. And that look, that could be the whole family and that you can't do it for someone else.

Leah Wright: But find the resources, find somebody who gets you because, unless you've walked in these shoes, it's very hard. To understand, what someone's going through unless they've experienced it, even though we all have different journeys. So that would probably be my best thing is you do knee recovery and do whatever you can to find that support of what [00:01:00] that journey looks like for you, right?

Leah Wright: There's no set path.

Leah Wright: Good afternoon. My Durgie, and I'm the founder and CEO of New Waters Recovery in Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to our weekly podcast, Finding New Waters. Our goal in creating Finding New Waters is to provide a resource for families to help navigate the complexities of supporting a loved one struggling with substance use or mental health.

Leah Wright: When we find ourselves in crisis due to one of these issues, most people have no idea where to turn. We hope to shed some light onto what is often the darkest hour for many families.

Justin Mclendon: Thank you guys for joining us for a new new episode of finding new waters podcast. Today I'm joined by Leah [00:02:00] Wright, who is the executive director of the Monarch Academy.

Justin Mclendon: Did I get the name of the Wake Monarch Academy? Wake Monarch Academy. Yes. There we go. Correct. I'm so happy to be here. THank you so much. Yeah. It's been a long time. I feel like we haven't seen each other in a while.

Leah Wright: It has been. Yeah. It's been a few years, right? It's been a few

Justin Mclendon: years.

Justin Mclendon: Feels that way. Yeah. Yeah. So I thank you so much for joining us. I'd love to start out with just what brought you to, I know Wake Monarch Academy, I know just talking to you over the past, several years is, been a big passion of yours, something that you're very passionate about watched from afar as you built it and watched it come to fruition.

Justin Mclendon: And so just first question is, what brought that interest and what led you down that

Leah Wright: path? Honestly, personal, a personal experience with my son. Yeah, he was, when he was struggling as an adolescent, we couldn't find any help. And we didn't know any family that was going through it.

Leah Wright: We hadn't been around it. And with him, it started. With marijuana, we handled it, thought it was consequence or typical teenage behavior, but then the [00:03:00] behavior continued to escalate and we didn't know where to turn. And so everywhere we did turn and ask, looking up, treatment centers or multiple psychiatrists, psychologists.

Leah Wright: We just, when we were first referred somewhere, I would call and they go how old is he? And I'm like he's 16 or he's 17. Sorry, we only serve 18 or above. So it was very isolating and all the while just watching the addiction continue to grow, from marijuana to pills to ultimately heroin addiction.

Leah Wright: And I'll never forget he had been in and out of rehab and Refused to go back, was still using and we didn't know, we didn't know what to do. And there was a doctor that had a family practice that had an addiction specialist there. Okay. And so I said, hey, let's...

Leah Wright: What do you think about going to talk with them? So he agreed, and they had an IOP. He said, I, I'll do an IOP. And I went, okay, awesome. And the doctor looked at [00:04:00] me and said you need recovery too. And I, the first words out of my mouth was like I'm good. I don't use.

Leah Wright: I literally said that's what I was thinking. And she goes, no, like you need recovery. Addiction is a family disease, and you need recovery too. And I went. Okay, and she said, here's Alana, Narna, she gave me a bunch of different places. She said, find a meeting that works for you and start going. And so I'm like, okay.

Leah Wright: So in my mind, still being extremely codependent on my son, I said you know what, you do your IOP and I'll go to these meetings and we'll do recovery together. Like I had still not transferred my own brain as to I need to make it about me. I, it was for me looking at, I'm going to support you.

Leah Wright: We'll do this together and I'm not really thinking. About me really so going to the meeting. I remember, going around visiting and thinking, Oh, this is not helpful to me, but then that's how I met you was many years ago at healing transitions working [00:05:00] over there and went to their family support group.

Leah Wright: And so there for the first time I was around other people that were going through what I was going through and not feeling alone and starting to listen to Oh, wow, they gone through the same things I have a couple of things that were really like mind blowing to me were some hard decisions that had to be made by some families.

Leah Wright: And I remember thinking at that time Oh, I'll never do that. Like how could somebody do that, to their child and but just the more I got involved with it and really starting to educate myself. And then later the family support group said to me one day, she said, Leah, you're going to love your son to death.

Leah Wright: And I will never forget that. It was life changing to me. And I started getting tools in my own toolbox and I remember hearing about recovery high schools in a conversation that we'd had at a [00:06:00] family support group, but at this time, our son was probably about 19, 20 years old at this time.

Leah Wright: We've been dealing with this since he was 14. So many years into it. And I remember thinking, wow, that's a really cool idea, but there's none around here and he's already out of high school. Okay. It literally went in one ear and out the other. But about a year later as I continued to work on my own recovery, and our son had been not, very long.

Leah Wright: I think he probably went, at that time, the longest he went was about three months. And then here we were just in this cycle. But it truly, I have a very strong faith for myself. And led. I felt like this was something that I should be doing. I fought it for a while because I'm like, Hey God doesn't use me to do what to start a school that even makes sense.

Leah Wright: I was getting ready to retire actually that same year from being an educator of 30 years in Wake County public school system. So I'm like, I'm getting ready to retire. I'm like, Yeah, I'm going crazy. Like [00:07:00] I want to help others. I don't want others to go through what we did as a family But like this is not gonna be me But I fought it and the more I thought it the stronger it began so on a Sunday afternoon.

Leah Wright: I had not watched the film, Generation Found and I told my husband Jimmy, I said, I want us to watch this film together, this documentary together about, I didn't even tell him what it was about. I said, I want us to watch it together and then afterwards I'm going to tell you. Why I wanted to watch it with you because I knew if I didn't have his support to do this I don't know how I could have done it.

Leah Wright: And so I literally bought through the whole documentary because all I could see was how our son would have thrived in that environment, um, wishing that he had it. And so after the, documentary is over, I sat and I went the reason that I wanted to watch this with you is. I feel like I'm supposed to do this.

Leah Wright: I have no idea how to do it, what to do, where to turn, but I need your support. [00:08:00] And so he was on from the very beginning. And then the next person I went to was our son who at that time was living in an Oxford house. And before he got kicked out of that one, but I went to him and I said I feel like I'm supposed to do this, I'm gonna start researching and I hear there's a Charlotte school that's also been, they're a couple of years ahead, but they are getting the school open and some reach out to them, but if I decide to do this, are you gonna be okay?

Leah Wright: Cause I know people are gonna ask me, why are you doing this, right? And in order to tell them that, I'm going to have to share our story. Are you going to be good? And from there, he said, yeah I'm going to be good with that. And so once I had those two, then I, reached out, started gathering information, and talked to their executive director.

Leah Wright: She was the founder, not executive director at that time, and said, how did you do this? And so they, just as we did, started, we did screenings of [00:09:00] Generation Found at multiple places. I remember that, yeah. Started telling everybody what we were doing, what was the process, wanting to build a team, anybody interested, and helping us come join the team.

Leah Wright: And we're meeting, this day and this day. And started working on our non profit application, and so that took a while. But We had my very first meeting was May 7th of 2018 with a group of seven of us some from my family support group my husband was there the youth pastor and An addiction professional that I worked with our son And who had actually was very involved with the healing place, which is now Healing Transitions.

Leah Wright: Very much valued what he had to say. And so he was at that first meeting. And then a year later, almost or a year plus, July 17th of 2019, we became an official 501c3 nonprofit. Then our goal was to open up in 2020. We had just found a location and we're starting [00:10:00] inspections. And then... So that could, that put a big, stop on everything and what could we do?

Leah Wright: So basically we lost our team because how can he, it was hard to delegate what to do if no one could go anywhere. So the ones that remain was the board. And so the board very hardworking board, what could we do? While no one can meet, we can't do anything. So we started working on like a strategic operating plan.

Leah Wright: What's our handbook going to look like? So things that we could do on a computer, on Zoom that we didn't necessarily have to meet. And would send revisions and what do you think about that? So that's what we did until things started to open back up again. And as soon as they did, we started inspections cause we weren't totally sure if we could even do the school there because of all the inspections that needed to be done.

Leah Wright: And we had started, but then couldn't finish. But fortunately for us, the inspections turned out okay. We had to do a little bit of [00:11:00] upfitting, but. We were able to open. So then was like, okay, here's our timeline. So we opened a year later. So we did our ribbon cutting June 30th of 21 and opened in August of 21 with two students.

Leah Wright: So it was just myself and another staff member. We hadn't found our, the recovery coach position yet. So we're like We can do this. We've talked to other recovery high schools. We can contract with another treatment center. So we actually contracted with Greenhill recovery. So I was like healing transition.

Leah Wright: Greenhill is I know one of these two, we've We have met and interacted before, but we contracted with them to do our check ins in the morning. So check ins where you touch base on mental health topics, recovery, and that's what we did until the first, that fall. And then we were able to actually find that perfect person, your recovery coach, who, started in January of 22.

Leah Wright: Okay. Yeah, I know

Justin Mclendon: Ian. That's awesome. Is he still with you guys? Yes. That's [00:12:00] great.

Leah Wright: How about that? He's an amazing individual. That's awesome. And has just really helped to build a program and has wonderful relationships with the students. That's amazing.

Justin Mclendon: That is amazing. Yeah. Sounds like a long road.

Leah Wright: Long road. Yeah. Long journey that honestly looking back like I would never want to relive or wish on any other family, but I will tell you, there's so many experiences and feelings of, especially new in recovery, a lot of these families are just at the very beginning, right? Only been with it a few months, so I can relate a lot to those.

Leah Wright: Feelings, especially time of send your child off to rehab and okay, good, they're fixed. They're fixed. Yeah. They're good to go. I remember all of those same failings. And so it makes, I can relate to them and guide them through the process. But instead of them waiting and years into it, like we were not knowing where to turn, like they're immediately connected to resources.

Leah Wright: We have family support within our school as well. So yeah. Addictions of [00:13:00] family disease. So again, learning from my own experience of saying, Hey, you need to go to weekly support groups, find one that works for you, but here's why, give them the why behind it. Because we're not going to be a good fit for a family.

Leah Wright: If a family comes and says fix our child, cause we're not a treatment center. We support the treatment, right? But we are not a treatment centers, if a family says, fix my child and they're going to sit back and not do anything, then we're not going to be a good fit. So I'm very upfront in sharing that information through a tour.

Leah Wright: There's a process for enrollment, but when we enroll a student, we know that they want to be there and willing to work a program of recovery. So

Justin Mclendon: You mentioned you're not a treatment center, right? I know that, but so I'm wondering maybe a next a good next step is what is Wake Morn Ark Academy?

Justin Mclendon: Obviously it's a recovery high school, but what does that look like? What does the student look like? What did they engage in? What does that

Leah Wright: look like? YeS, a safe and supportive environment for a student in recovery, but honestly, so [00:14:00] much more. Yes, working on the sustained recovery.

Leah Wright: Yes, trying to give them a college ready academic program. That we, I, as a school, like I report to the Department of Administration. Which there's really no set curriculum. I could make it whatever I want to make it. Interesting. But for us, we didn't want families to look that they were getting less or like a step down for academics.

Leah Wright: Cause we knew a lot of these students would be coming from our public school system. Sure. So I'm like, I really want to have it. And I being the board, the organization, let's make this where they're really getting a step up because with all the individualized instruction that they're giving in addition to recovery, but let's have it a college ready program.

Leah Wright: So we, what our requirements are, what. a regular school system. So we look at what DPI does and then that's what we work towards. We also have on dual enrollment with Wake Tech. So our juniors and seniors can take classes while at Wake Monarch, but they're [00:15:00] getting college credit just like they would have in a regular high school.

Leah Wright: So I really tried to build it up to this is actually a better program, coming here because of what we're able to offer. And so that's what we did for our students. But Our students, not only, again, recovery academics, but it's teaching them to be a well rounded individual. What are, what's an important part of recovery?

Leah Wright: Exercise is an important part of recovery. One of our amazing community partners is Neuse River CrossFit. Okay. And so our amazing coach, Christy Hagen, who you might know in recovery herself has been with us since the very beginning. So she's our coach, but many of our gym classes have turned into like recovery pep talks.

Leah Wright: And that's our gym class. We go twice a week. And. Students work to the best of their ability, as long as they're trying, like not doing it as not an option, right? But doing it, but watching them even involve, evolve there, right? And the competition, friendly [00:16:00] competition, between the students and Ann.

Leah Wright: We're in there as well, staff doing the best that we can as well. But another part of important part of recovery is giving back. We have integrated service learning, because we want them to know there's someone else besides yourself. And how you learn that is when you serve others.

Leah Wright: We have multiple community partners that on Wednesdays, we do what we call Wednesday Wellness. We go out and we learn, so we're learning something, but then while we're there, then we're giving back. And so we keep track of those volunteer hours. So for example, we're involved currently with a bit of pleasure horse school.

Leah Wright: Oh, okay. And so we go there, we split the students up because we're, grown, quite a bit. And so half of our students are learning to ride. Other half of our students are doing groundwork and things like that with the horses. And then afterwards, then they're all pitching in, cleaning water buckets, mucking stalls, doing whatever.

Leah Wright: That's great. And we keep track of [00:17:00] their volunteer hours. When that ends, then we'll be involved in another organization. Learning while we're there, but also giving back. We've done a place at the table. We've been involved with Maggie Cain and her group. So the students have greeted, they have bus tables, they have, prepped food, they have done a variety of things.

Leah Wright: We've done things at the food bank. We're going next week with the food bank to the state fair. Oh, wow. We're on there. collection can food drive the students help them with sorting the cans that they need. And then while we're there, then we have some fun together, that team building.

Leah Wright: So we'll have a little bit of time at the fair together and eat some fair food, but we do that something on Wednesdays about the, throughout the year and relate it to our curriculum whether it's even art. We were at the summer, we were at the museum, North Carolina museum of art. doIng our Wednesday wellness music class.

Leah Wright: We went to rock and roll high school in Apex. Oh, cool. That was our music class. But while we were there, students filed papers, [00:18:00] they swept, they cleaned windows. So the idea is of that, like, how good you feel when you help someone else. And it was, it's amazing to hear it. I'll never forget one of the students.

Leah Wright: Came while we were doing something. He says, Lee, I gotta tell you this. He has like, when I helped him, like when I'm doing this, I feel good about myself. And I went exactly, absolutely. Exactly. But for them to realize that instead of, everything we do here is for purpose. I tell them that all the time.

Leah Wright: Like you're getting credit for lots of things, but we're, there's a reason behind what we do, but for them to realize it, like they get it,

Justin Mclendon: that's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. So do is there certain criteria? It sounds like they obviously are struggling with substance use disorder, but are they?

Justin Mclendon: Do they have to go to residential treatment first? Are there any kind of criteria that they have to meet before they can be admitted? Great

Leah Wright: question. So most of these students are coming from a residential treatment center or IOP. So having some treatment in place, because again, we are not a treatment center and they need that.

Leah Wright: [00:19:00] So if I have had families call and I'm like tell me a little bit about what's going on and I can share with them. I'm like, Your child, I have lots of, not lots, for the adolescent community for resources for treatment is limited, right? Absolutely. I'm able to share with them tell me about your story, what's going on right now?

Leah Wright: Your child needs help that we're not going to be able to provide. Let me give you some resources. So I've put families in touch with, depending on where they are, I said here's an IRP, talk to the director, here's a treatment center, talk to the director, and then the professionals, because they are in treatment, let them.

Leah Wright: Help you and decide what's best for your family. And some of these students I've worked with for over a year before that. In fact, one just recently enrolled. I've been working with his family for over a year now because of that same process. And, but once they get there, the student has to want to be there.

Leah Wright: And they have to have at least 30 days in recovery. So they're [00:20:00] usually coming from a treatment background, 30 days in recovery, and willing to work a program recovery, but wanting to be there. And wanted to be, student term down, for things that we do there like random infrequent drug screenings, like there we're not, we don't do it to catch you.

Leah Wright: That's not why we're doing it. We're holding it for doing it. Because you're accountable to yourself, you're accountable to your peers, your parents, your caregivers, staff, absolutely. So I have to be willing to work a program of recovery and by doing that and going through the process of a tour and then an interview, I always say, don't let that word scare you like, but it's the purpose of it is to make sure all questions are.

Leah Wright: are answered and that we're a good fit for you guys as a family, but that you're a good fit for us. And based upon that information that we gather, then we enroll a family or not. But sometimes, it comes to where I'm able to have to say, look, our doors are always open. We want to help you, but we cannot [00:21:00] do recovery.

Leah Wright: For your child, right? Absolutely. And so when they are willing, to work a program of recovery, you'd know that we're here and would welcome you at any time. We also have a community to protect because I can tell you that the students that are here are working on a program of recovery.

Leah Wright: So we want you to, come back when you're ready and sometimes they come back and sometimes they don't,

Justin Mclendon: but I guess the hope in that situation is that, like you said, you guys will be ready when

Leah Wright: they are essentially. Exactly. Exactly. And our age limit like is 13 to 21. We did that purposely early on.

Leah Wright: Like you didn't cut up 18. Now, because of that scenario, I remember having a discussion with the board going what if we have a senior, right? Yeah. In and out of treatment. And not going to school even though you should be by law, but maybe doing online school, not doing well, like what if, and what if they just can't get it until later?

Leah Wright: Yeah. So that's why that reason behind it was 13 to 21. Okay. Come when [00:22:00] you're ready because you can't have education. If you don't have recovery. Absolutely. And, parents are like worried about, Oh, I'm getting behind or they're not where they should be. And I'm like, look, I know this sounds weird coming from an educator or, that's my profession, but I'm telling you not to worry about the education.

Leah Wright: I know what we do here. I know that this, we can catch the students up and where they should be, but there's not a time limit. And they'll be ready for that when they're ready. And sometimes there's Okay. I'm like, the education will come, but I always explain if you can't have education, if you don't have recovery.

Leah Wright: So let's get solid in that. And then that education will come. Absolutely.

Justin Mclendon: Do they work at their own pace or is there are they assigned to grades? I'm curious as to what the kind of the academic

Leah Wright: part of it. So we have rolling enrollment. So and modified year round. So the most that these students are ever out of school or away from us, as two weeks.

Leah Wright: Okay. So our first year, a lot of it's been trial and error, [00:23:00] like what works, what doesn't work. And three weeks is just too long for these kids to, to be out. They, and as much as they don't want to admit it. structure. Yeah. They want the structure to the day and they need that and they thrive on that.

Leah Wright: And so we were modified around and so they come and totally lost my train of thought. What was the question? Oh my goodness. The academics, you said. Academics. Yes. Thank you. So ninth through 12th grade and we start them off, we'll get the transcript from there. school and we'll map out a a program to where they, to catch them up.

Leah Wright: Cause most of the students are behind to catch them up and then a plan to graduate. And with students being ninth through 12th grade, they're all over the place. So that was something we put a lot. A thought into early on is how are we going to meet the needs of these students 9th through 12th grade when having multiple teachers like hiring a teacher to teach history for one student like that just financially [00:24:00] doesn't even make sense, right?

Leah Wright: So we looked at various online programs and had an evaluation, excuse me, from Wake County. Teachers said, if you could evaluate these various programs based on the content area, based on the curriculum, what's gonna be best, what online program will be best in your opinion? . And so from that, we went with a particular, it's called Edmentum EdOptions, online education platform taught by North Carolina certified teachers.

Leah Wright: And then we have two teachers there. So we have a full time North Carolina certified teacher and a part time North Carolina certified teacher. And it's the only way, too, that we could offer accredited classes. So again, looking. Into the future, right? We didn't want one of our students to be in a situation where that particular college, if that's what they chose to do, said these classes aren't accredited, you're not, you can't come here or you need to go do this.

Leah Wright: We didn't want to put the student in that position. So that was another reason that we [00:25:00] went with this particular program to be accredited in that way. And so our teacher sits down, maps out a program with them, and we started them with two classes. And then we, the teachers gauge, some of these, they're behind.

Leah Wright: A lot of the students are difficulty focusing or, because there's usually like a mental health component there too as well. And so they go at their own pace. We want them to be successful. And so we also tell parents that oh, I want them to do honors, AP, I'm like, let's start with this. And let's see how your child handles it. We want them to be successful. We want to challenge them, but we want them to be successful, right? And sometimes that is slow because most of the school experiences with these students have not been good. They've been suspended, expelled. And they hate school, they don't like school.

Leah Wright: They like the idea of our school because, it's cool. They realize they're going to do academic work. They just don't realize that, when they're not doing it yet. So when they [00:26:00] know like our expectations are here but they're attainable, but we're going to work at your own pace. We want you to be successful.

Leah Wright: And it's, that's another transformation. That's amazing to see. And the praise of Oh my God, I did it. Like I got an A exactly, you can do it again. And then many times they're like, they can handle the rigor. And so they want more challenging. So then we're able to add another class and then it is gone.

Leah Wright: And yeah, we got students on honors classes. We have students that are taking weight tech classes. So it's a process, it's like I tell parents, you may have. 20 plus things you want your child to do better, but let's do one thing at a time. Yeah, absolutely You know, are they in recovery check?

Leah Wright: Yeah, are they in school check? Are they working at on academics check like one thing at a time, you know If you want them to take you know, an honors class, let's get them there. We have the time and

Justin Mclendon: especially like you mentioned, I would imagine a lot of those A lot of those kids do have, they're coming from situations where they weren't doing well in school.

Justin Mclendon: Very similar to [00:27:00] what you said. And I would assume it probably takes some of that to build up that confidence. It's just, just small bits of success for them to be able to start to realize that they can do some of this, right?

Leah Wright: Yeah. Yeah. It was when one of our students came, had, who had not.

Leah Wright: been successful. It just really had a bad attitude towards school, doing school work, but was willing to be there, knew they had to do school, this particular strategy school made an A, came down like high five, Leo, guess what? And so it's again, confidence, building that confidence of yeah, you can do anything you set your mind to do.

Leah Wright: Your past does not define you. Yeah, absolutely. You know what? Look what you're doing now. How awesome is that? And building their confidence up to where okay, I can do that. I can be successful. That's fantastic. I can go to college if that's what I choose to do. That's amazing.

Leah Wright: It's like I said, it's a transformation of the whole child. Not just recovery. Yes, this is a safe and supportive environment, but there are just so many other things that we're, working on that is not, it's just [00:28:00] like subtle, right? Building their confidence. But when I tell you like the transformation, like the student that they came in to where they are now, especially if we've had them.

Leah Wright: Some students we've had, a couple of years right now. That's great. And to see them what they were to where they are now is. Yeah, it's incredible. And it's healing, for me, like I said. Oh, I can imagine

Justin Mclendon: healing. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah That is amazing. So three years now you three years.

Justin Mclendon: That's amazing

Leah Wright: Yeah, how to start a waiting list like we're growing out of room, right? I mean we're we are just like the other day, like every room was full and I needed to have a private conversation. I'm like, okay I'll go into a room over here, that that's part of the churches that's not supposed to, not supposed to use, but there's nowhere else to go.

Leah Wright: Yeah. So there's been a few situations I've had to text going, sorry, had to use the room, which is fine, right? But but yeah it's a, I guess a good problem now. Yeah,

Justin Mclendon: sure. It shows that there's a need and you guys are working to fill it, right?

Leah Wright: Yeah. Which is great.

Leah Wright: And the students are bringing other students. That's [00:29:00] amazing. In and out. And so that's your best kind of referral is when, who's actually living the program, of the students and the parents that they're sharing with other families about this program. So then, okay, I'm gonna call and get some more information and it just goes from there.

Leah Wright: That's awesome.

Justin Mclendon: I love that. So are you guys thinking about other locations or things like that in the future or

Leah Wright: expanding? We're the eyes are open, let's put it that way. The eyes are open and just actually had a conversation this morning, just be on the lookout, we can make it work by growing, a little bit more, but again, That needs staff.

Leah Wright: So that's where, it's not just location is why we have a waiting list. Really the main reason is that we're at a point where we need to hire more staff. Okay. And we're just in a position that we need to do some other things, as well, because, the majority of our budget we have to fundraise.

Leah Wright: Now, and so that can be, that's challenging. We have a gala for recovery coming up on November 4th at McGregor Downs Country Club, so that's our largest fundraiser. We're going to [00:30:00] reevaluate after that fundraiser and see where we are, that's great. We want to continue to grow because the need is great.

Leah Wright: The need is great and, any opportunity that I can talk about the school. So thank you again for giving me this opportunity or go to businesses and, do a short presentation of what is a recovery high school opportunities like the international overdose awareness day for the fifth year now was able to speak and the students were able to speak and share.

Leah Wright: So opportunities like that just to get the word out. Even if it's just for awareness, of this is what a recovery high school. Looks like, right? Because there truly needs to be a recovery high school in every county and state. Honestly.

Justin Mclendon: That's what I'm thinking as we're sitting here talking is that, thank goodness, right?

Justin Mclendon: That you guys are here and that we have that, that resource here locally. But, to your point, I could see where this would be valuable. Literally everywhere. Yeah,

Leah Wright: everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, even the mental health. Even if it was just that recovery, maybe if it was the mental health, just that these kids need that.

Leah Wright: That one on one, attention, but also the flexibility, [00:31:00] that, Hey, I can take a break from academics and go talk to recovery coach, or I can take a break and, say, Hey, can I come over here and, color, draw, whatever, take a mental health break, yes, you can and come back to it.

Leah Wright: And so we have the flexibility to do that because we meet the students where they are. Meet the families where they are, and we go from there. And each of the staff members looks at it at a different lens, recovery coaches and recovery knows the walk, right? And so he's able to really relate to the students and students relating to him.

Leah Wright: And then even though I'm not personally, in recovery, but I am as a family member. I'm able to look at it from that lens as well. And then our staff has been touched by addiction in one way or the other. We've all been touched by it just differently. And we're all be able to just give our own input as well.

Leah Wright: And very much involved in the program. To make this really truly work to it also take the staff of being approachable, you know That's why I mentioned Leah like [00:32:00] we're not by our last names like it's breaking down the barriers, right? Leah, Ian first names being approachable, but also Showing them that we can be vulnerable to Like we're staff as part of the check ins in the morning if it's on a topic.

Leah Wright: I mean they've seen us cry You know, except Ian. Ian is the only one, which we laugh about it, but totally, I give him a hard time about that. But no, all of us have cried because if we're asking the student to be vulnerable about difficult situations in their life and we aren't, like, what does that show them?

Leah Wright: Yeah. So when we break down those barriers and show them like, yeah, we've been through trauma too, right? We've been through some hard things in our life too, but. This is what we did. This is how we overcame it, right? And you can too, I remember even recently I was talking about purpose right and what they want to do and I'm like What is it?

Leah Wright: What is my [00:33:00] purpose in life, and so I was able to shine The light on it going on like i'm decades Like older than you sure. I said i'll be honest with you. I was in Like I love teaching, right? I loved being in the classroom, but I was probably 25 years. I remember having this thought 25 years in, right?

Leah Wright: Of teaching and remember distinctly thinking, and this was before, right? This is before I even thought about recovery. What's my purpose? Is this what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life? Like when I retire, like what am I supposed to do? I'm not teaching. I'm fairly young, right? What's my purpose in life?

Leah Wright: So by sharing with a student I was in even a career still trying to figure out my purpose. Hands down. Do I know my purpose now? Absolutely. I'm passionate about what I'm doing. That's great. But I can also look back over my entire life. of going, of things that have helped me get to where I am now, right?

Leah Wright: And [00:34:00] so my purpose may not come until like years later, right? And that's okay. Do something that you love, right? And if you're in a, yes, this is my job. But if you're in a position where it doesn't feel like a job, like you're showing up at work every day that doesn't feel like work, like you, that's your purpose.

Leah Wright: There you go. I like that. So that's what we're able to bring to it. So it's a collective experience, and then the kids bring in. Their own experiences and helping others and that's an amazing thing to see because again, recovery is best in community. Absolutely. So when you see another peer help another peer and it's it's powerful or lead a group, it's powerful to see.

Leah Wright: And I can

Justin Mclendon: imagine that is such a big part of it because I would assume the students and that's got to be a big part of it.

Leah Wright: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And sometimes specially. if We have a student that we know they're really good at art, or they're really good [00:35:00] at, whatever else we can connect students and, or work on hey, can you...

Leah Wright: Talk to the student a little bit more. I think if maybe if you sat down and showed him a few things or showed her a few things like I think you'd really be able to help them, and sometimes these kids don't look at themselves as leaders, but then when you're able to point down like you are leading look what you did, look, you did this, that is leadership.

Leah Wright: So getting them to look at themselves as cause a lot of them are really hard, that, that's, that There's a lot, been a lot of things that they've been having to work through that where they haven't had a very positive Self image about themselves and so being able to turn that around of going look When I know you don't see this now, but when I look at you, like I see so much potential and this, look at your gear, good at this.

Leah Wright: And you're good at this. It's hard for them to see that. But again, all what you're doing is just planting the seeds, that.[00:36:00] Hopefully over time, and that's another reason too behind community partners is them being around other adults that are, positive role models for them that are coming from different careers.

Leah Wright: Yeah. Some in recovery, some are not, right? But sharing their life experiences to... To help these kids to plant seeds, to, help them see that what we see that we're hoping that we're going to get to the point like they see that within themselves. And it just takes time. It takes time to build that within them,

Justin Mclendon: that's amazing. Yeah. Have you had anybody graduate and move on to

Leah Wright: the next step? Yes. We had our first formal graduation this past June. Had a graduate. We've had another senior graduate actually in August. That's awesome. And from that, we're developing again, looking at that and going, okay, we want them to work at their own pace, right?

Leah Wright: But we can't do like multiple graduations like all throughout the year. Again, like reaching out to the associated recovery high [00:37:00] schools, other recovery high schools. So how have you done your program and getting their feedback, which is how we've developed ours. Our model is based on.

Leah Wright: other successful recovery high schools. Absolutely. So reaching out to them and going, how have you handled this? And most recovery high schools are part of their school system. So that's been a little bit harder to, to relate to that. But what we and staff came up with is that most recovery high schools, like we'll have one graduation ceremony, right?

Leah Wright: So that we set, we're going to have one formal graduation ceremony in June. But. If we can set up our students to finish their WMA classes in the fall of their senior year. Get enrolled in Wake Tech. So they're taking a college class, they're earning college credit, and several of the classes you can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Leah Wright: So if they, take a, college credit, then it could also count as one of their high school credits, right? So we try to set that up best the way you can. But ideally, if we can set [00:38:00] up a senior to be done with their WMA classes and that December finish up a weight tech class, then we have our break, right?

Leah Wright: Come back after, holiday break in January. They would come to check in the morning they would do their academic classes, which now would be all weight tech classes because they would, re enroll for the spring. Okay. Then they leave around 1130 and go to an internship of a career choice that we've helped them figure out with as part of our life skills block.

Leah Wright: That's great. So that's what we just finished up with life skills, did a whole lot of things with like career building and looking at like your personality. Like these are the characteristics that would be really good in this, these particular fields and really have them look at research that particular job.

Leah Wright: So have an area of interest. So that's been another involvement of searching out community partners, which we still need, help and bright, great of like you're interested in interior design. All right, let me go see if I can [00:39:00] find a community partner that would be interested in doing something like this.

Leah Wright: And this actually just happened recently. Didn't know this particular she has a community partner now, right? But it was like a friend from a, through a friend and said, and would love something, interior design, he's very artistic, loves to do things like that, what do you think?

Leah Wright: And so I ended up getting connected. to this particular, organization and talk with the owner and said, Hey, we haven't done this before. But this is what it, what we want it to look like. Would you be open? And so she was came in, talk with a student. And when I tell you Like the sparkle in his eye.

Leah Wright: Yeah, that's cool. And that, to see them talk back and forth, oh, this is what I did and this is what you do. And like the conversations that I'm I'm like that's cool. Sitting back in my head going, this is cool . That's awesome to see. Yeah. And so hopefully he's gonna be doing that, in the spring with her.

Leah Wright: So that's what we like to do with this premise behind it. [00:40:00] We are working really hard on Yes. Recovery education. But it's a scary world out there, so how can we slowly transition them in before they get that diploma? And so this was a great way to go, Hey, they're here for recovery support.

Leah Wright: They're doing their academics, but then they, as a senior, the big deal, leave campus. Go to a career, whatever that internship looks like and then when we do have the graduation in June Like they've been out of they've been connected to WMA but half of their day They're also like in the real world, right?

Leah Wright: Whatever that looks like for them So that is a program that we're developing As we you know as we speak, you know as a need has arised, but that's what we want to do. I

Justin Mclendon: mean, that's huge, being able to get some, internship. I think as we know, colleges are just becoming much more competitive and things like that.

Justin Mclendon: Just internships in general I think put you give [00:41:00] you a good, leg up there. But also just that, on the job training type experience Yeah. And being able to just see what it's like being in a work environment. That's just so valuable. Yeah,

Leah Wright: exactly. That's amazing.

Leah Wright: Exactly. So we're still working out the details, . But to be able to go out and shadow something and this is what we say. You may get into that and think that I don't want to do anything like this, right? But then guess what you haven't lost like you're not two years into a degree if that's what you choose right and just say I Don't want to do this and now you do a complete, degree change And now I've added more time like if you can figure that out or we can help maybe help you figure that out now You're not losing anything all you've done is just gain experience and still earn college credit, still on track to get your diploma as originally, right?

Leah Wright: But now you've gained something else. And and that's what we're hoping to do. That's amazing. Now, if we have a student come in and say, I want to be an astrophysicist, then that might be a little bit more challenging. [00:42:00] I'm like, I was trying to keep it within this realm, but you know what, would I go out and try to, I'm like, you know what, if that's what you want to do, let me.

Leah Wright: Let me see what I can find out. Yeah, absolutely. Who knows, so

Justin Mclendon: I'll say, and we can talk a little bit more offline about this, but as you're saying that we would be happy to support any way that we could too. If there was somebody that needed an internship or something like that, that maybe was interested in like the mental health or the substance abuse field, we would be happy.

Justin Mclendon: Guess

Leah Wright: what? I absolutely have a student which had She wants to be a nurse, but she also wants to work in treatment. We should talk about that. Let's talk about that. Yeah. And we're close. That's great. Yeah. Okay. I'm excited. I'm excited. You never know, right?

Justin Mclendon: You never know. Yeah. That's awesome.

Justin Mclendon: Yeah. Yeah. I'd love, we would love to support

Leah Wright: that. Absolutely. All right. That offline, we will, we'll talk and develop this together, right? Yeah. I love it. Because when it, something works out, I know that there'll be other students that will come up and since we're not planning on going anywhere, right?

Leah Wright: Yeah, absolutely. Don't be another nurse [00:43:00] or whatever, or doesn't even have to be a nurse, could be something else. There are different ways they can, even if it's the business side. Yeah, 100%. How do you run a business? How do you start a business? Yeah. There's so many different angles that we can look, but that's the value of community partners because without the community helping us, build, this, I don't know where we would be. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah.

Justin Mclendon: Leah, I really appreciate you coming in. I do always like to end these, I'm developing a little bit of a theme here with this, but, or a pattern, should I say? I like to wrap these up with, so the main reason for the podcast is, for to provide You know, education resources for like families or anybody that's struggling their self with a, with an addiction or mental health issue.

Justin Mclendon: Obviously some professionals watch it as well. But if you could leave a potential family member or a potential client or somebody that's struggling with kind of a nugget or something that you wish that they could walk away with, what would that thing be?

Leah Wright: Here's what I consistently find, including myself, right?

Leah Wright: Families forget. [00:44:00] They get so wrapped up and their loved one, right? That's struggling. They forget about themselves. So even if it's putting out like no one can do recovery for you, right? You got to do it for yourself. You got to want to do it. Don't do recovery for somebody else, right? Do it for yourself.

Leah Wright: And that look that could be The whole family and that you can't do it for someone else, but find the resources, find somebody who gets you because, unless you've walked in these shoes, it's very hard. To understand, what someone's going through unless they've experienced it, even though we all have different journeys.

Leah Wright: So that would probably be my best thing is you do need recovery and do whatever you can to find that support of what that journey looks like for you, right? There's no set path. It's perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Justin Mclendon: Yes. Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming to chat with us and look forward to chatting with you again soon.

Justin Mclendon: Absolutely.

Leah Wright: Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Bye.[00:45:00]