The Importance of Cultural Elements in Building Recovery Communities
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Date & Time
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Educational Goal
Participants will gain competency in addressing cultural barriers to substance use treatment affecting Latino clients.
Description
Angelo Lagares, Founder and Director of Latino Recovery Advocates (LARA), shares his organization’s commitment to supporting culturally and linguistically appropriate Recovery Support Services, reducing historical health disparities, and promoting diversity and inclusion in public health. In this presentation, Angelo shares his personal experience and expertise in the addiction recovery field to help increase the audience’s understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion as it relates to Latinx communities and other communities of color.
The Importance of Cultural Elements in Building Recovery Communities is more than just a presentation. Angelo Lagares states that his “soul is in this curriculum.” Like countless individuals over the past decades, he has suffered the loss of family and friends because of inequity and lack of justice in the addiction recovery movement. Lack of access to language-accessible treatment, recovery support services, and stigma have all played a role in increasing barriers to healing for too many communities. Angelo Lagares aims to change that with his advocacy work, personal recovery, and professional impact.
Target Audience
- Counselor
- Marriage & Family Therapist
- Social Worker
- Substance Use Disorder Professionals
Presenters
Angelo Lagares is the Founder and Director of Latino Recovery Advocates (LARA), a 501 (C)3 non-profit organization that promotes recovery services in Spanish and advocates to change policies in an effort to promote cultural competency and provide culturally appropriate services. LARA’s mission is to create Recovery Community Organizations in Spanish that will ultimately reduce health disparities among the Hispanic communities. He has worked as an activist and leader in prevention in treatment services internationally. Since 1991, he has received extensive professional training and development. He trained with Boston University Public Health and CASA in The Joined Together Program from 2009 until 2012, Introduction to Certified Addiction Professional at Palm Beach Community College in 2008, and Human Service Specialist at Boricua College in New York in 2004.
He was one of fifty advocates nationwide to be chosen to lead Mobilize Recovery, funded by Facebook’s Community Leadership program, which was aimed at changing public and professional attitudes about addiction recovery and breaking the intergenerational stigma surrounding addiction.
In May 2019, Angelo met with Congress in Washington, DC, and spoke to Senators regarding the importance of reducing health disparities and improving the quality of services to Latinos. Angelo was also chosen as one of twelve storytellers featured in the powerful “Stop Opioid Silence” campaign supported by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and Facebook. Angelo was the only Spanish speaker on the panel, and his story was viewed and shared thousands of times. The “SOS” campaign received over 50 million shares and impressions in its first week, positioning Angelo as a vital, dynamic, influential voice in the recovery and Latino community. Angelo’s hands-on approach is powerful and effective.
He has built a network of Latino advocates who, just like himself, are passionate about translating recovery for communities in Latin America and the United States. Angelo was the director of therapeutic communities in the 90s and does extensive work in prevention and advocacy in Latin America. He presents research at professional conferences, builds programming with other leaders, and works tirelessly to uplift Latino voices in recovery.