Corrections & Re-entry Specialty Training
Recovery Vermont is offering an advanced Corrections and Re-entry training for experienced Recovery Coaches. This two-day specialty training is specifically designed to teach recovery coaches to work with people who are currently incarcerated in the Vermont Corrections system, as well as people re-entering their communities. The training was developed building on the work that Tracie Hauck, Executive Director of the Turning Point Center of Rutland, and her recovery coaches have been doing with inmates in the Springfield and Rutland facilities, and those reentering their communities. We worked together with Tracie and her team to develop all aspects of this training.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the prerequisites?
In order to take the training you must:
- Have successfully completed Recovery Vermont’s Recovery Coach Academy
- Be working as a Recovery Coach at: one of Vermont’s 12 Recovery Centers, Working Fields, or at one of Vermont’s Certified Recovery Residences.
- Be actively coaching with supervision
- Attend the full two days of the training
- Coaches must have access to a computer/tablet , have a strong WiFi connection, and be present on Zoom with their camera ON for the entirety of the training.
- Participate in a follow up survey to offer their feedback on the training
- Respect the work of Tracie, her team, and the relationship they have painstakingly built with DOC
What is the cost?
This training is free for Vermonters working in recovery supports, supervisor’s approval required. The cost for those out of state is $400.
What are the requirements?
This training will take place daily from 9 – 3pm on Zoom. For the duration of the training, you will need to be present. A strong WiFi signal, computer or tablet with a working video camera and audio microphone are required in order to participate.
What are the training objectives?
- Understand the culture of the Corrections system
- Understand stigma, power and privilege as it relates to both staff and inmate populations
- Demonstrate professional readiness to do this work
- Demonstrate proficiency of trauma-informed response
- Understand the co-occurring nature of substance use and behavioral health
- Learn the policies, rules, and regulations governing visits at VT DOC Correctional facilities
- Understand the pressures people re-entering into their community experience because of system expectations and responsibilities
Corrections & Re-entry Coaching Guest Trainers
Tracie Hauck
Tracie Hauck is a person in long term recovery since May 2013. Her recovery started when she first came to attend a 12-step meeting at the Turning Point Center of Rutland. Prior to her recovery, Tracie was a Registered Nurse for 29 years locally. She became involved with the center by volunteering and eventually became the Executive Director in June 2015. The Turning Point Center provided a safe, non-judgmental, and supportive environment to grow in her recovery. It is her passion to provide this to all who struggle with substance use disorder. She wants to continue to give away what was so generously given to her.
Tracie is the mother of a wonderful daughter who is her pride and joy! She enjoys being outdoors in the mountains and loves sitting around campfires. She also has a wonderful crazy dog named Maggie!
Jr Layne
Jr is a Certified Recovery Coach. Having recovered from 35 yrs of untreated Substance Use Disorder and negatively impacted by incarceration and the current judicial system, Jr has now devoted his career to helping others who have SUD overcome their disease by using peer based methods as well as restorative, or transformative, justice principles and practices. Jr gets the most fulfillment doing direct service work but is also highly involved with the work being done behind the scenes reforming our current justice system by developing empathy from and bringing awareness to communities throughout Windham and Windsor counties VT.
John Cassarino
John Cassarino has been the Volunteer Services Coordinator at the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland VT for the last 25 years. He helps provide a wide range of educational and volunteer programs to the offender population including, Bible Studies, AA, Making Recovery Easier, Smart Recovery, Recovery Coaching, Parenting Groups, and various workshops and recreational opportunities. For the last 25 years John has had the pleasure of training, coordinating, and supervising hundreds of community volunteers who have volunteered thousands of volunteer hours working with the offender population.
Nikki Fuller
Nikki Fuller (she/her/hers) is a human resources and diversity and inclusion leader with nearly 20 years of experience training and educating on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. She is currently the owner and senior consultant of Workplace Matters offering HR and diversity solutions. For over 7 years, as the Senior Director of Human Resources and Equity Affairs for the Burlington School District, Ms. Fuller worked to embed the principles of diversity and inclusion throughout the organization. She has also provided support, mentoring, and training to an array of organizations in Vermont as they embrace their journey to inclusion.
Christopher J. Bondi, MD
Born, raised, and schooled in the Midwest, Christopher moved to Vermont 12 years ago to enjoy the beauty and healthy atmosphere of this wonderful state. He began his post-graduate medical training in anesthesiology, but later decided to pursue a career in addiction medicine and Psychiatry. For the last 10 years, Christopher’s work has been focused on helping people with substance use disorders to find recovery. He has worked in inpatient and outpatient settings in pursuit of this passion. Last year Christopher completed the Vermont Recovery Coach Academy, and has greatly enjoyed doing that work on a part-time basis with the Copley Hospital Emergency Department. Now Christopher has the great honor of helping the next generation of Recovery Coaches by teaching at the Academy! He is supremely grateful to be involved with helping new coaches learn to do this important work.
Dave Carlson
Dave identifies as person in long term Recovery and currently enjoys almost 18 years of continuous sobriety from drug and alcohol use. Four years into his Recovery, Dave made the decision to make working in the field of substance use the third and hopefully final career of his life and returned to school to complete a NYS CASAC certification program and a Bachelor of Science in Human and Community Services with a concentration in Substance Use and Addiction Counseling. Prior to coming to Vermont and joining the Turning Point of Rutland team, Dave’s clinical experience was as a counselor in a NYC hospital-based detox unit primarily serving areas of Harlem and the South Bronx.
Working with Turning Point’s Department of Corrections Program (DOC) has proven to be some of the most rewarding work in his career. Prior to the COVID shut down, Dave ran Making Recovery Easier (a 12 Step primer) and SMART Recovery groups at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility. Returning after COVID, the Turning Point DOC program was reimagined, and Dave’s role now incorporates a greater emphasis on providing individual Recovery Coaching and running a combined curriculum group which also explores many individual pathways to Recovery.
Jason Barry
I was introduced to the Turning Point DOC Program in February 2019 and have continued to stay in contact throughout my incarceration until my release September 12, 2022. In that time I made connections and formed a support network that I surround myself within the Rutland Community. The support has been like a new family and has given me the support during my reintegration into society. I can not say enough about the support that I’ve received from Turning Point. Gratitude.
Karinne Comenzo, MA, LICSW, LADC
Karinne Comenzo is the Program Services Chief Clinical Specialist for the Vermont Department of Corrections. Ms. Comenzo is a former Trainer of evidence based practices, including Trauma Informed Care and Cultural Competency. Ms. Comenzo is the former Program Director of the Bronx Court-based Intervention Resource Team (CIRT) in New York City, which provides court-monitoring services to defendants with mental health issues. Ms. Comenzo previously supervised the New Jersey Residential Reentry Center (RRC) for approximately 4 years, a facility contracted to the Department of Justice and overseen by the Federal Bureau of Prisons housing federal inmates. She also has experience counseling crime victims at Safe Horizon and substance users at the Lower Eastside Service Center (LESC). Ms. Comenzo is licensed in New York and Vermont as a Licensed Independent Social Worker and Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Ms. Comenzo earned a Master of Arts degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and her Master of Social Work degree from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Ms. Comenzo also earned her Bachelor’s degree from New York University.
Upcoming Training Dates
November 9 & 10, 2022
9am-3pm, daily
Applications are open!
CONTACT US
Recovery Vermont
A program of VAMHAR
100 State Street, Suite 352
Montpelier, VT 05602
(802) 223-6263
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