L-A Rotary Lunch Club to Welcome Jesse Harvey & Eric Skillings

Auburn - On Thursday, May 31, from noon to 1:00 p.m. at The Village Inn, 165 High Street, Auburn, Jesse Harvey and Eric Skillings will be the featured guest speakers of the L-A Rotary Lunch Club.  Harvey is a person in long-term recovery. He is a Certified Intentional Peer Support Specialist (CIPSS) and is the Founder of Journey House Sober Living. He works full time as Peer Support Coordinator for Greater Portland Health, and volunteers as Chapter Lead of Young People in Recovery- Portland. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Health Equity Alliance and serves on numerous other boards and committees.  A decade of drug use, marked in the end by trauma, psychosis, incarceration, and extreme isolation, brought Harvey to a very dark place. After several overdoses and suicide attempts, he was involuntarily committed for a fifth time into a treatment facility in a Massachusetts state prison.  In mid-2015 he was discharged to a Portland Maine recovery house, and, with the support of his peers and with opportunities for growth, he began to rebuild his life. Today Harvey is a passionate recovery advocate who seeks to improve our communities by advocating for and implementing low-cost, low-barrier, and evidence-based public health interventions.

 

Eric Skillings grew up a broken kid who did not know how to deal with his emotions. He turned to alcohol at a young age after the divorce of his parents. In that bottle, Skillings found relief from his childhood for the first time. He was in and out of jails starting at the age of 11, and when he was a young adult he was injured in a work accident and became dependent on prescribed opioids. It wasn't long before he went to prison as a direct result of his Substance Use Disorder (SUD). He was defeated by the disease but luckily found help through a nine month rehab program in prison. Upon release he quickly became extremely involved in the Southern Maine recovery community, and today he has three years of recovery and co-owns and manages Journey House Sober Living's two Sanford recovery houses.  Reservations are not required at the luncheon.  FMI on future Rotary speakers, contact President and Program Chair, Monica Millhime, 713.7045 or email millhime@myfairpoint.net.  Events and other club information are posted at www.lewistonauburnrotary.org and www.facebook.com/lewistonmainerotary/.