Hope Is a Person. Sometimes That Person Is a Peer Mentor. — "We're Here to Love You Until You Can Love Yourself"

"In reality, if you leave now, you may not come back."

That's what Luciano Nicolas heard on July 3rd — standing in a detox hallway, ready to walk out. His peer mentor said it. One sentence. And Luciano stayed.

We recorded Episode 120 of the Real Recovery Podcast live at True Colors Recovery in Portland, and it was unlike anything we have done before. Three guests — Luciano Nicolas from Atlas Treatment Center, Ebony Brawley from 4D Recovery, and Jack Taylor from True Colors Recovery — sat down with us to talk about peer services. Not what they are on paper. What they actually feel like.

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Luciano is now Director of Operations at Atlas, connecting clients with peer and housing partners including The Peer Company and Galia Recovery — which accepts dogs, something Ebony mentioned before we even got there. Ebony leads outreach teams for Multnomah County, heading out to East County and near the Central Library with supplies, wound care, and same-day assessments. Jack runs the intake line at True Colors — he is the one who picks up when you call from jail. None of them came into this work from a clipboard. They came from the same places their clients are.

"We're not here to judge you. We're here to help you. We're here to guide you, and we're here to love you until you can love yourself."

— Luciano N.

The conversation kept returning to a phrase that Ebony said almost offhand: "We're like little hope dealers out there." It landed. Because that is what this episode is — three people whose literal job is to find the person who has stopped believing anything will change, and stay until something does. Listen to Episode 120 and you will hear what that looks like in real time.

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RRP 120 — Hope Dealers: A Peer Services Round Table with Luciano, Ebony & Jack

We talked about what it takes to build trust with someone you have visited twenty times before they say yes. We talked about what happens when someone says they cannot go to treatment because they will not leave their dog behind. And we talked about the cost — the emotional weight of being the person who always shows up.

Jack told us about a day in 2015 at the Holgate MAX station. Soaking wet, he passed out in the rain — and woke up to find a brand-new warm puffy coat zipped around him by a stranger he never identified. You need to hear how he tells this story. It is one of the most quietly devastating and beautiful things we have recorded.

That is what peer services are. Not a program, not a referral, not a resource list. A person who shows up — in the rain, at a MAX station, in a tent, in a jail call — and says: I see you. I have been where you are. And I am not leaving.

Listen to Episode 120 and then share it with someone who needs to know that someone is out there looking for them.

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