Aaron Casper, the former treasurer for Crawfordsville Pride, has collaborated with the Recovery Rec Center to offer a new recovery meeting and program for members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community.
The meetings are called Alphabet Soup, Casper said, to take a positive spin on the pejorative term “alphabet people” and promotes the idea of each member of the meeting contributing to the bowl of soup. Casper also said it’s easier to say than “LGBTQIA2+ All Recovery/SMART Recovery hybrid meeting.”
“We are a unique experience in recovery support, breaking free from addiction, implementing life enriching tools, self-care, and living a full and joyful life as an LGBTQIA+ human,” Casper said.
Alphabet Soup offers a unique spin on the SMART Recovery Program with its PRIDE Recovery Method.
The PRIDE Recovery Method stands for Peer Run Integrative Dynamic Education, is established by, ran by and focuses on LGBTQIA+ community and their allies.
Dallas Ames, another former board member of Crawfordsville Pride, is an assistant facilitator of the meetings and is trained in the SMART recovery method. Ames is also in recovery, something they say this program helped them come to terms with as they contributed to the creation of this project.
“We experience different lives than cisgender or straight people and that really has an effect on our life journey, in ways of any type of addiction,” Ames said. “This is an all inclusive recovery group, from alcohol, shopping, drugs or even over eating.”
Alphabet Soup also offers around the clock crisis chats on their Facebook group. The chats are available for diving deeper into meeting topics, mental health and suicide prevention. There are multiple staff members that have Question, Persuade, Refer training to help those with suicidal thoughts.
The meetings are held 4-6 p.m. every Sunday at the Recovery Rec Center, 1300 Ladoga Road.
Casper takes pride in the program being a safe space for all members of the community and that it is participant led.
“Gather with folks who understand your lived experience. Come check-in with us, share and discover new skills, get connected with resources, and support one another’s sobriety,” Casper said.
