“Creating Lasting Change through an Alternative Peer Group Model: A Conversation with Chandler Newton of FullCircle”

[00:00:04] Jake White: Welcome back to another episode of Party Talk. I’m your host, Jake White. And today I’m chatting with Chandler Newt, he is the Community Outreach Coordinator for “FullCircle”. And I’m not going to give you the whole spiel on what they do, because it’s amazing. And honestly, as he tells you about what he does, you’re going to see exactly why I absolutely love him, and I love his company. So, Chandler, thanks for coming on the show. How you doing?

[00:00:31] Chandler Newton: Good. How are you? Thanks for having me on. And thank you for the kind words.

[00:00:34] Jake White: Absolutely. Well, I guess I know a little bit, but tell us about “FullCircle” and what you do?

[00:00:41] Chandler Newton: So the “FullCircle” program is ultimately an alternative peer group. So what we do is we’re completely free program. We’re located in Phoenix, Arizona, Kansas City, Missouri, Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Denver, Colorado. So we’re pretty spread across the country. But ultimately, we’re a free youth that we’re a support group, and work with teenagers, ages 13, all the way up to young adults, ages 25 that struggle primarily with drug and alcohol abuse issues, but also a variety of other issues, whether that be self-harm, eating disorders, or just general mental health issues that arise for young people. And we offer all of our services totally for free. So we do 12 step support group meetings twice a week, parent support group meetings once a week, we do so over social functions on the weekends and individual peer support counseling appointments throughout the week with the participants and parents and anyone involved in the family dynamic of the individual’s and the young people we’re working with. So in a nutshell, that’s what we do, and have been able to operate for about 13 years now. Offering all of our services completely for free, free of charge for the family and the participants in the program. So that’s a quick answer to your question.

[00:02:03] Jake White: And that’s what I loved so much about learning about you, what you’re doing is that it is a teen support center that’s focused on young people who are in recovery or starting using or are at risk in that environment. And they can just show up, and here’s going sober parties like y’all, I haven’t cried, the students have a blast and it’s a place to connect. So I was just like, how have we not heard about each other? And once we did connect, I was like, “Dude, you’re my best friend. This is amazing.”

[00:02:36] Chandler Newton: Thank you. Well, it’s exactly what AJ was saying yesterday, at the event you came to. We’re one of the best known hidden resources in the valley, not that many people know about us. And we really spread the message through a lot of word of mouth. And personal experience, we don’t do much promotion or anything like that, that’s why I love what you do too, with the whole sober party thing, because that’s ultimately what our philosophy and approach is, if you got a teenager or a young person, that’s going to have any desire to give up whatever destructive behavior they’ve been using. Recovery has to be fun. And it has to be social, it has to be peer to peer oriented, a teenager can’t walk into a meeting or meet with someone and expect, if I get sober, my life sober, I’m never gonna have any fun, it has to fill the same voids, that drugs and alcohol or whatever else, they weren’t filling, their void with that has to fill those same voids and fill that same need. So that’s what we’re doing every day and trying to make it attractive and enthusiastic and fun until they can really find a better life and pick up the tools that that we offer in the 12 steps offer, that really do fill that void.

[00:03:54] Jake White: Exactly. And you know I couldn’t agree more. It has to be fun. It has to be social. And what I was talking with you all about, as well was why I love it so much is for one, I don’t believe that there’s any competitors in our space. We need everybody all hands on deck to do this. So I love that I can now go to a school because we are so aligned in what we believe in. What we show students how to do is that if I’m on the prevention side, showing students you can have fun, make friends and feel good without using drugs. And there’s the demographic of students who say, “Great, I can keep doing that.” And I know that my message is primarily going to really resonate with them, because it’s helping them protect that decision that they’ve already made. Then there’s the group of students who are like, “Jake, I’ve already started. I need help. And that’s where my lane ends. I can’t be an expert in all things.” So that’s what so cool though. But there’s “FullCircle” like you haven’t check out “FullCircle” because they are doing it. And if you have already started using, they have the tools to not only help you but to use the same principles that were attractive from 518 and ‘Point O’, is the same principles are at work because you’re having fun and you’re being social. So I can see myself from now on when I work at schools, especially if I know they’re in Charlotte, or Denver or Phoenix, is that Kansas City that I can be like, “You have to check this out, this is the program for you if you want help.” I’ll send students to you.

[00:05:44] Chandler Newton: Thank you for the support man. Well, it’s cool what you said, actually, made me kind of think of something I tell parents all the time and people in the community because it’s exactly that we’re not competing with other treatment centers or residential programs or anything like that, we get lumped into that community a lot of like, we’re in the treatment field and stuff. But with “FullCircle”, we’re not treatment, not intensive therapy or anything like that, we’re just a free youth at risk support group, we’re a support group level of care. And the thing I’ll tell providers and parents a lot when I’m doing appointments, or community appointments or events, is you can send your kid to the best program in the world, you can send them to the best RTC (Residential Treatment Center), you can send them to the best outpatient. But the second they get discharged is where the real issue starts because they can get and they might have a good experience. Like, they might get a lot of tools out of a residential or a school talk or something like that, but when they get out of that environment, and they go back home, or wherever they’re going, they’re typically going back to the same environment that they were in before, which for a teenager or a young person, that’s the same friends that they’re getting high with. And they’re using with maybe the same family dynamic that needs some work, or the same high school, they’re going back to the same environment that they were using in. And I think the real kicker is after that initial intervention, you got to change your environment. For a teenager, they have to be placed in an environment where they’re around positive peers, and people that are going to support them and push them to grow in that way. That’s where the whole alternative peer group model really comes from. Because they have to, and I’ll always say this, whether I’m talking to a teenager or a young person or a parent about our second step, which our second step is, we found it necessary to stick with winners in order to grow. And the way of thinking I’ll give, and the way I’ll kind of pitch it is I’ll ask someone, what is anything in the universe required in order for growth? And people will kind of be like, “I don’t know, life or water or whatever else.” “No, because black holes grow. Black holes grow in the universe, the thing that’s inquired for required for everything to grow is the environment, and because you can plant a cactus in the South Georgia, and it’s gonna die.” But if you plant it in Arizona, it’s gonna flourish and grow. It’s the same thing with people, you have to be in the right environment, whether that’s people places and things. And that’s really what we’re trying to create for a long term process, because our program is typically a year and a half to two years of involvement before we consider someone to graduate our program. And what we found is for a young person that really is early recovery that two year mark is still pretty early recovery. Because they’re not just getting sober, but their brains are still developing, they’re still growing, they’re still going through the growing pains of adolescence. But what if a relapse happens, what if these things come up, we want to really be there to hold their hand through that and walk them through that and continue to support the individuals that we’re working with. But the other piece of that is, it does take a lot of time for them to really get the level of ownership over their own recovery to say, “No, this is truly I want to live now. I’m gonna go transition back into church or a different 12 step meeting where there’s older people or something like that.” And that’s usually what we see when we do formal graduations with our program with people that have a year to year sober have been in our program that long, is they typically have like that level of ownership to really own the tools that they’ve gotten here and go utilize them in every area of their life. Where if you’re discharging someone with 90 days sober, they’re not going to know where to go. If it’s a 16 year old, they’re just gonna go back to their friends that were kicking it and a friend is gonna say, “You’ve been way like you want to hit this blonde or in this pan or whatever.” So there’s got to be something more than just a 30, 60, 90 day program. And we really work best with the people that are familiar with the model and know how it works and are willing to support that. So get out of treatment, and then go into a setting an alternative peer group. That’s when the success rate is the highest and when family members are involved too.

[00:10:31] Jake White: Very cool. And I want to ask you about some of the events that y’all do. But first, can you tell me a little bit just that background story of how did this start, how did first “FullCircle” come about?

[00:10:45] Chandler Newton: So “FullCircle” came about in 2010. So our Executive Director, he’s a priest, his name’s father, John, and I believe the story was, he was working for a church here in Tempe, Arizona, and was working with a couple of members from his parish, and a couple of them were parents that had kids that were struggling with substance use disorder, substance abuse, and he would meet with these teenagers, but didn’t really have anywhere to send them aside from maybe a treatment center that works with adolescents or AAA, or in a or some type of 12 step meeting. But a lot of those meetings are just adults, and people that a 16 year old is not going to relate to. So fast forward, I believe one of those teenagers that he was trying to reach overdosed and passed away. And it kind of sparked this thing, where there needs to be something out there that is attracted teenagers, it’s going to work for teenagers and set them on the right path. But the vision has always been to keep it free. For parents, and for the individuals either it’s early intervention, and then maybe they don’t need treatment, or they don’t need to pay $10,000 to go to a program or something like that or they’ve already used up all their resources and they’ve sent their kid to treatment, and they spend all this money, or for the families that can’t afford it. So we’ve always had a goal to keep it free. And to be able to reach as many people as we can and we get funding through private donors, fundraisers, we do grant writing all types of stuff. So that definitely keeps us busy but it’s worth it. And we’ve been blessed and had grown in the past couple of years from just Arizona to six different locations, and become a lot more structured along the way to and kind of really figured out how we want to run this thing, and what makes the most sense and how it works the best.

[00:13:02] Jake White: That’s so inspiring, though, that he saw a need Father John and said, “I can help, and all that’s come from that,” because I’m sure going from a pastor role and just meeting him briefly the other day, it sounds like he’s even part of the youth program helping out with that, and just really seeing the need, and thinking how can we practically help these students? Because they’re just going through something extremely difficult. And maybe a lot of people that need help, they won’t show up to church, so I go to them whatever it is. Like, I think you said meet them where they need help. So it sounds like y’all are doing a great job of doing that. And just how we got connected as a perfect example of it. I was talking to each other saying, “Hey, did you know this thing exists?”

[00:14:02] Chandler Newton: Totally. He’s definitely got a huge heart for the recovery community and young people and it shows. Like I said, “We’ve totally been blessed. I think God gives us exactly what we need in the moment we need it. No more, no less.” So we’ve been able to really grow and continue to just reach people and help people. So it’s been awesome.

[00:14:27] Jake White: It’s evident that God is with you on this journey. Because y’all are growing and helping so many people. Can you tell me more about the events like I’m all about the sober parties?

[00:14:43] Chandler Newton: Totally. That’s because we do those what we do 12 step meetings, those are also , we take an enthusiastic approach to those as well, but I think the functions really are kind of a huge, vital part of what we do and Friday, Saturday nights typically 7:30pm is when they start. And when they take place, we do sober social functions. And those consists of dances, weird game shows we’ll put on here at our building, going out for nights on the towel and random stuff like that and I can give you more specifics. Like, one of the functions we do in house at our building, we have like a whole warehouse area in the back. And I know you saw yesterday, but we’ll do this function called flyswatter hockey, where we basically play hockey with fly swatters, and a ping pong ball and there’s a flag and there’s dance lights going on. So we’ll do stuff like that. Some of the bigger ones we do, we’ll do conventions a couple of times a year. And one of them we do in Denver, Colorado, is Friday night, all of our programs get together Friday night, we do a rave dance at “FullCircle” building, we set up this whole event, and there’s typically about 400 young people that come and family members and stuff like that. So it’s really cool to see 400 teenagers, young adults having the time of their lives sober, so we’ll do that Friday night. And then Saturday, we do a picnic with the parents and the individuals in the program and the staff, and then Saturday night, will put on this huge sober concert, where all the programs get to get a band together. And then, obviously, we’re not phenomenal or anything like that. We’re not celebrity level talented at music. We’ll do a sober concert performed for the program, and it’s super fun and super cool. So those are some of the bigger events we do. And the way of thinking that I got when I was being trained and working here, and I got sober and an alternative the peer group as well. So I got sober going to these events, and these meetings, these functions as well. But the way of thinking I got was for a teenager, you want to really make it getting high just flipped on its head. And what I mean by that is typically, if you’re a kid in high school, you’re showing up on Monday talking to your buddies about what you did over the weekend, and then leading closer to the weekend. And, Wednesday or Monday night, we do a meeting. We try to create that, do the functions as we can we’re so cool, or this is what I did, or remember when Billy did this thing or whatever, closer to the end of the week, you’re talking about what you’re doing this weekend. So Wednesday night we have another meeting, starting to talk about what’s going on this next upcoming weekend, getting people excited for it hyped up on. Friday night, is usually a pregame to Saturday, which is the big party in the big event. Sunday’s recover. So Friday night for us is usually something milder than Saturday is our big function and our big event, so maybe Friday night would be just a shout night where we all show up here, play games hang out Saturday, we do a dance, and it’s something like that. So it really is just positive peer pressure instead of negative peer pressure. The word peer pressure can get a really negative connotation. But I think if you use it in a positive light, it can be really powerful too.

[00:18:19] Jake White: I’m thinking about my experience, starting my organization is just the positive psychology of knowing other people are doing it, make you want to do it. So if other people are making great choices want to do that, that’s great.

[00:18:35] Chandler Newton: If you’re immersed in that environment, if you hang around the barbershop long enough, you’re gonna get a haircut, it’s that whole thing. Like, if you’re around people that are getting high, not going about doing bad things or making bad decisions, like you’re more likely to do that. And you’re around positive people doing positive things and encouraging you in positive ways. You’re more likely to follow suit too.

“Guiding Values: Finding Silver Linings and Raising Bottoms”

[00:18:59] Jake White: So tell me more about since you’re at the Chandler Arizona location here in Phoenix. So what do y’all have to have as far as staffing goes to support the whole program? And how many students you’re able to serve with, with the model that you’re doing? What does that look like as far as your team goes?

[00:19:18] Chandler Newton: So with Arizona we have two lead coordinators. So we have a younger group lead coordinator and an older group lead coordinator. The younger group lead coordinator works with the families with the kids that are 13 to 17 older group works with individuals and families that are 18 to 25. So the lead coordinators are the one that are doing the initial appointments. They’re doing the follow up appointments with the support group and people in their age range and that’s ongoing up until an individual graduates. They’ll still be meeting with staff regularly and periodically and get into direction from the staff and all of our staffer and recovery. So we have two lead coordinators, we typically have a junior coordinator. So their kind of role is just do stuff around the building, do stuff around the shop gets worker up here during the day, make it happen and be around them. Because a lot of the times, the lead coordinators are the ones kind of putting up some walls and boundaries and kind of saying, “Dude, you can’t come here, if you’re getting loaded, or something like that, are going to be pushing them to grow.” And sometimes that’s uncomfortable. So we want to have a junior staff member that is just kind of a buddy too. So if Jim walks out of his office all angry and pissed off, because Anna put up this wall with him, he can go back into the shop, we call our warehouse shop. And our junior counselor, Joe is there being like, “Dude, what’s up man, what’s going on?” and just be his friend, be his cheerleader, stuff like that. And then we have our program director, his name is AJ. So he runs all of the programs across the country. But that’s typically all you need. And obviously, as the program grows, you’ll need more people, my role is pretty new. So for the first two years, I was working with “FullCircle”, I was the younger group lead coordinator. So I was pretty in the trenches with the individuals and family. And lead coordinators, the ones that facilitate the group as a whole and continue to see, how is the health of the support group who needs love and need support? Who do I need to get in? And dumps a lot of energy and attention into the leadership of the support group, the individuals that have been in the program for a while, and that trickles down, obviously. So that’s more their role is facilitation of the support group. So that’s what I was doing for two years. And for the last six months, I’ve just been more in a role of community outreach, and some fundraising and stuff. So it’s a pretty new role, and we kind of just created it. But my vision has always been, we’re a free program, I know we can serve more than 25 kids, but to put this in perspective, the Denver location right now has over 100 young people actively involved, and to facilitate a support group with teenagers and make recovery look attractive and fun, and reach people, it has to be done very artfully, and a huge part of that is, all of our staff got sober young, we’re all in recovery, so we really can relate to them and connect with them on that level. I’m not just some psychiatrist or therapist that you’re talking to, because your parents dragged it hear, so we’re a voluntary based program as well. So if a kid doesn’t want to be here, or doesn’t want to be sober, or coaching the parents on how to set up some serious boundaries and walls, if they need that to get them into a higher level of care. I think the approach is, you gotta raise a teenager’s bottom, because they’re not going to hit bottom on the road, they’re still in this phase where they’re having fun. Maybe they’re getting in trouble, their parents are getting suspended at school, but they think like, this is my parents problem, it’s not really my problem. Sometimes you get, sometimes you get the young people that do really are ready and want to get sober and want to get help, but more times they need some form of intervention. So we’re talking to the parents on how to really help them get there a little bit quicker and raise their bottom and to be able to help we communicate like, “Hey, I love you, and I’m not okay with you getting high in my house.” So if you’re gonna live here, what you are because you’re a miner, we got to do something.

[00:23:47] Jake White: Wow, I’ve never heard of that phrase “Raise their bottom”. That hit hold on him to hit rock bottom of what that could potentially look like. So raising it, that’s a cool image. Is there anything else? Even just seeing some of your T-shirts on the walls and the phrases that commonly go on in the shop, as you call it? Is there anything that you kind of live by that’s really struck you from your time with them and I ended up saying this all the time, or one of our values that is really for students to grasp on to?

[00:24:28] Chandler Newton: It really all of it, like all of the stuff that we talk about the meetings we lead, I really do try to live by, and I’m not perfect. Obviously, no one is, but I do think there’s a reality of to work in the role that we do and work with the people we do and try to accomplish the mission we do the staff and the leadership really duty to practice what they preach and own what they’re talking about and live by it. The same way like you would want a pastor or preacher to live by Christianity in the Bible and stuff, but the big a big one that resonates for me and we were talking about last week is we have a saying called God straight with crooked lines. And that’s a meeting that will lead sometimes and saying we have and really what it means is like, “For me, my personal experiences, I’m so grateful where I ended up.” And I got sober when I was 15. There was about a year of intervention before that of me going into different treatment centers, hospitals, psych wards, and different programs and places. I didn’t want help and I was really broken and hurt. But I didn’t want to get sober. I still thought this is my parent’s problem. This is my girlfriend’s problem is my ex-girlfriend, don’t yell like, “Oh, just leave me alone, I’d be fine and I can get and do my thing.” But my parents were really unwilling to give up on me and I’m super grateful for that. Because now, I’m so grateful to be in recovery and doing what I’m doing. Because I know I wouldn’t be doing this if I never went through what I went through. And if I got what I was asking for when I was 15, I would have been selling myself so short compared to the life I have now. Now I get to help people every day, I get to do a job I really love and care about. I’m engaged, I’m about to get married to a wonderful woman. And the friendships I have, and the love I have in my life, I don’t think I would have gotten any of that. If I wouldn’t know if things wouldn’t have played out the way they did. So that’s kind of what God writes through crooked life means is, “God does have a plan. And even if stuff isn’t going your way initially, you don’t know what the big picture is.” And if you’re willing to trust and take the next right action, and not step out of a loop in a sense. It’s all going to work out the way it’s supposed to. And you’re going to be able to see a silver lining and find gratitude and the hardships and the stuff you’re going through. So that’s one that really resonates with me, and something I really love, and has been totally true in my life. I could talk about that for an hour and a half.

“Empowering Youth Through Recovery”

[00:27:12] Jake White: I think what it really comes down to that phrase is, it’s about faith. And it’s also about resilience, because you’re asking a young person to go through maybe withdrawals, and recovery and isolation, but you’re helping all that stuff with your program. But at the same time, it’s still difficult, because our bodies and our brains have been used to using substances to get all those things. So it’s hard for adults, and it’s hard for students to so for you to say, “God writes straight with crooked lines, it gives you permission” that like, “Alright, when you mess up, it doesn’t mean you give up it. You keep trying and you build resilience and grit and perseverance.” Because you believe in yourself and you believe in the outcome. So I see that you’re just thinking through line into your organization. I bet you they experienced that with the staff, they experienced it with support with volunteers with this other students there. And it’s really built in throughout the entire organization which is fascinating. We are run out of time. So I want to give people a chance to connect with you with “FullCircle”. The people that listen to this drug prevention coalitions or in schools? And they’re on that side where they might get a student coming to them asking for help? And they might know what to know what to do, they might not. So if they’re in the areas where y’all operate, if they could get in touch with y’all, how do they do that?

[00:28:49] Chandler Newton: Absolutely. So you can reach me personally at my email that is chandlernewton@fullcircleprogram.com. And our office number here at the Arizona location is 480-620-7995. So those are the two easiest ways to reach us. The office number is always forwarded on my cell phone. So if you leave a message, I’ll call you back, or I’ll pick up immediately. But whatever location you’re in, or whatever state you’re in, I can always connect you with the appropriate staff or anything like that. So those would be the two easiest ways. And I always look at my email, I respond every day. So I’m reachable.

[00:29:36] Jake White: And it has the as the guy who is in charge of fundraising and development. What do y’all need right now? Is there anything that you need from the community that you’re looking or goals you’re moving towards right now?

[00:29:49] Chandler Newton: Not necessarily. The thing I will say as far as community outreach is, we are in a place where we’re really able to work with a lot more people than we have right now. So if you have a loved one or a parent that struggling or kid that’s struggling, don’t hesitate and we do referral sourcing. So if they need more than we can provide, we’re gonna put them in good hands or we can work with them. So that’s really the biggest thing is if you know people that that need, the services we provide are struggling, we’re happy to help and reach out our hand. Aside from that, though, you can find. So on our website, there is an option to donate. So if you want to put in the donation, anything does help. We’ve been really blessed as far as like the grants we’ve been able to get this year. And we have some really generous private donors and stuff. And we got some fundraisers coming up at the end of the year as well. So all that will be on our website, and on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Facebook at FullCircle Program, Arizona. So “FullCircle” is one word, FullCircle Program, Arizona, and all our upcoming events and fundraisers will be on there. So those are the two biggest ways that you can support us financially as either donate on our website, or just follow us on social media and fun fundraising that we have coming up in the future.

[00:31:21] Jake White: There you have it another episode of Party Talk where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention. I hope you enjoyed that episode with Chandler Newton from “FullCircle”. And if you’re inspired by them, reach out, create a partnership. I know they’re in a couple different areas right now, but who knows in the future where they’ll be? I can see them all across the country. Y’all have a great week and keep doing what you’re doing.