UTC to host statewide Collegiate Recovery Academy event

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will host the Collegiate Recovery Academy, a UT systemwide training seminar to promote greater understanding of substance-use recovery issues and reduce the stigma associated with seeking help.

Co-hosted by the UTC Counseling Center and the Center for Wellbeing, the event is open to the campus community and will take place in the University Center Tennessee Room from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 6. It also will be simulcast via webinar to audiences on other UT campuses.

Event speakers will include:

• UTC Chancellor Steven R. Angle
• UT System President Randy Boyd
• Hamilton County Drug Recovery Court Program Coordinator Shannon Morgan
• Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Deputy Commissioner of Behavioral Health Community Programs Matt Yancey
• Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Director of Collegiate Recovery Initiatives for Tennessee Nathan Payne
• UTC Substance Use Disorder Treatment Specialist Jami Hargrove
• UTC Assistant Director for Education and Suicide Prevention Lucy White

“We are working to de-stigmatize substance use and recovery on campus,” said Keilan Rickard, director of the UTC Counseling Center. “Part of what prevents students from entering recovery is the stigma around treatment and the stigma around being open with recovery.”

It is a priority of the UT System to increase prevention, education, treatment and recovery support services for substance-use disorders, he said.

“We know that during COVID there has been an increase in substance use,” he said, “so we want to make sure that we are providing all the services we can.”

Program topics would include a presentation on appropriate language to use, how to be a good ally for students or faculty in recovery, and suicide prevention training, Rickard said.

Earlier this year, the Mocs Recovery Program—an initiative led by Rickard and Center for Wellbeing Director Megan McKnight—was launched to assist UTC students in recovery or seeking treatment for substance abuse.

The mission of the Mocs Recovery Program is to provide a recovery-minded community in which UTC students in all phases of recovery can pursue their personal, professional and academic goals to enhance personal wellness and contributions to the global community.

“We have close to 20 students now who are participating in some form in the Mocs Recovery Program, and this is how it happens on campuses that start a recovery program,” Rickard said.

He created a similar program during his previous career stop at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

“At first, you have maybe two or three students who are interested and then, all of a sudden, it spreads like wildfire,” he said. “There’s a saying within the recovery community, ‘Recovery is contagious,’ and we are seeing that here on our campus.”