A four-year prison sentence turned into a life helping others as a culturally specific recovery mentor.
A 13-year journey of sobriety that led to becoming the director of a digital marketing firm.
A mother with five children and a history of alcohol abuse who turned her life around to become “Peer Mentor of the Year.”
Those were just a few remarkable stories recounted Thursday, Sept. 12, as the Board of County Commissioners proclaimed September as Recovery Month in Multnomah County. The annual public declaration aims to raise awareness about recovery from substance use disorder and brings community members together to share inspiring stories of healing. This year’s theme was “Join the voices of recovery: Together we are stronger.”
The packed meeting of testimony and celebration followed an unprecedented year of work by the County to support people in their recovery as the region, along with countless other communities across the country, continue to grapple with the impacts of fentanyl and other drugs. Multnomah County continues to serve community members seeking to start or stay in recovery through an entire system of care: from prevention to withdrawal management and stabilization, to long-term supports. The Board has approved critical investments in each of those areas, notably in recovery housing, which has grown by 80 beds, and in post-acute stabilization, which has grown by 75 beds.
Recovery is possible
According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 72.2%, or 20.9 million, of the 29 million adults who perceived that they ever had a substance use problem considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their drug or alcohol use problem. Recovery is not only possible, but probable with the right supports in place.
Members of the recovery community showed up in force to the boardroom to support the presenters there to tell their own stories of recovery, including Shane Dorn.
Dorn says his addiction issues led to multiple prison stints, the longest of which was four years. While in prison, he was sentenced to START (Success through Accountability, Restitution and Treatment) drug court program that required attendance to 12-step recovery meetings.
“At first it did not work for me because I did not identify as an addict,” said Dorn. “After having multiple relapses, jail sanction and treatment stays, I realized I had a problem and I went back to 12-step meetings and really listened to these people and realized I was just like them.
“I was open and willing to make changes in my life, in the hopes that I would have a better future.”
Dorn knew he had a purpose in life, but he just needed to find it. He found it in his passion for helping others.
He’s been sober since May 19, 2023, he proudly told the Board, and since then has become a culturally specific peer mentor at the Miracles Club, a culturally-specific peer run organization who services the Black/African American community. Dorn has also become a mentor at the same START drug court program he graduated from in 2016.
“Getting to work in the recovery field for a culturally specific organization has allowed me to be able to help people of color and support specifically Black people find themselves, find their voice and lead them into a path of recovery,” Dorn said. “This alone has given me a purpose, and a hope that my community will recover from addiction and be able to live sustainable lives.
“My message today is one of hope: the hope that I can inspire people and be a living example that, even after multiple arrests and incarcerations and battling a life of addiction, you can change your life around, choose recovery and anything in life becomes possible.”
Sadie Campbell, a peer program specialist with the Behavioral Health Division’s Office of Consumer Engagement (OCE), went on to read the proclamation.
County services and investments aid people’s recovery journeys
In January 2024, the County joined the State of Oregon and the City of Portland to declare a 90-day fentanyl state of emergency, launching a unified approach to coordinating a response. As a result of the declaration, the County and its partners connected thousands of people with outreach, shelter and treatment, held numerous law enforcement missions, and seized more than 400 grams of fentanyl. Just 2 milligrams is enough to kill an adult.
The emergency also resulted in better communication and coordination with community-based partners and first responders; a new opioid overdose dashboard to better track trends and outcomes; a tool that will monitor, in real time, the amount of open treatment beds; improved access to naloxone, the life-saving opioid reversal medication; and medications for opioid use disorder that can now be prescribed in the field and at County clinics.
The OCE is currently overseeing a pilot that is funding two organizations, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Multnomah, who focus on peer outreach to veterans and to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Two Spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) community members who are drug affected and struggling with mental health, and the Miracles Club. Both of these organizations are working together to do outreach to support underserved communities who are drug impacted.
The OCE also led the development of the BHRC (the Behavioral Health Resource Center), which is Multnomah County’s first mental health and addictions drop-in center. The BHRC offers peer support and has two floors dedicated to 30-day and 90-day housing. Since opening in December 2022, the BHRC has had 67,489 people utilize services, housed 410 people in the onsite 30-day shelter and 134 people in the 90-day housing program.
In March 2024, the Health Department launched its Recovery Is Possible campaign to raise awareness about recovery and its benefits and to encourage more people to access recovery services. The countywide media campaign included 43 high-traffic area billboards, posters and social media posts.
The campaign aimed to increase the number of addiction support calls and enrollment into local recovery programs. During the first 45 days of the campaign, Recovery Network of Oregon saw a 19% increase in web traffic.
Additionally, in July 2024, the Health Department launched addictionrecoverysupport.org, a site that provides people with information about addiction, recovery and how they can show support for family and friends on their recovery journeys. The website provides information in English and Spanish.
And now, Multnomah County is embarking on providing a better pathway of connection between the behavioral health system and law enforcement in response to the passage of House Bill 4002 and the enforcement of drug re-criminalization that began Sept. 1.
Commissioners voice support
Commissioners praised members of the recovery community for telling their stories and coming together to raise awareness about Oregon’s addiction crisis.
“For most of my childhood my dad was in recovery and he relapsed, and I remember the first time I saw him drunk and I didn't recognize the man as my father,” Commissioner Jesse Beason shared. “But he was still a man that I loved and I knew that with our love that we could get him back again. And he relapsed a couple of times in my teenage years and every time we celebrated when he came back into recovery.”
Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards thanked all who came and spoke before the Board for their call to hope. She also thanked the people who did not speak but came in support of the presenters.
“Community is very powerful. I want to thank you for your call to action,” said Commissioner Brim-Edwards. “I'm hopeful that it will be a powerful motivator for the County to do better to support those who are on their road to recovery or in recovery, not just in September, but every month of the year.”
Commissioner Sharon Meieran emphasized that thanks to the recovery movement, there’s more funding available now than there ever has been.
“After years of your voices being silenced or stigmatized, this movement has just reached primetime, and it is a place where the difference you're making is going to be real,” she said. “Addiction is a chronic relapsing medical illness. Like most chronic relapsing illnesses, it can be treated and recovery is possible and we see this right here today in such a beautiful way.”
Chair Jessica Vega Pederson reaffirmed her and the Board’s commitment to continue the partnership with the recovery community and the Health Department’s behavioral health team.
“Peer specialists are making a difference every day all across the work that we do here at the County and especially in the work that we’re doing in behavioral health,” said Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. “We wouldn’t have this system and we wouldn’t have the strength of our system without you.”