Sue celebrates a decade in recovery!

Sue Fox spent over three decades struggling with addiction, until finding recovery in 2016 while in federal prison. She was incarcerated in 2012 and sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone. Today, she is thankful for her time in prison.

“I was relieved and I was thankful because I was done at the time, but just didn’t know how to get out,” Sue said. “It (prison) made me sit still and take a look and really evaluate myself.”

On February 5, she and her friends at the Manchester Recovery Community Center – operated by Volunteers of America Mid-States – gathered to celebrate her major milestone.

Sue participated in a prison program that helped her find recovery. After exiting incarceration in 2019, she returned to Manchester but was concerned about the lack of sober support resources in the area.

“There was one meeting and it was an NA/AA meeting smashed together, and that’s all there was. I’m like, ‘What am I going to do?’”

To receive more support, Sue traveled to London and was connected with some old friends who told her about a new Recovery Community Center (RCC) in Manchester. She decided to stop in and was met by 60 to 70 people sitting in a circle for a recovery meeting.

“It was a spiritual awakening for me because I found my place,” Sue said. “I found some acceptance in the RCC, and people trying to do the right thing – get their lives back.”

Since finding VOA’s RCC, Sue has become committed to helping others find what she did – a community of like-minded individuals uplifting each other on their recovery journeys.

RCC helped Sue receive her Peer Support Certification, and she started working for VOA. Today, she shares her story and uses her 10 years of sustained sobriety to show others that recovery is possible.

She is the Community Outreach Supervisor for VOA and works on Team Kentucky’s Recovery Ready Communities initiative. Sue travels across the state and helps other communities establish accessible recovery support systems so individuals who are struggling with addiction have the resources they need to take back their lives. 

“I was always part of the problem in my community, but today, I try to be part of the solution,” she said. “I have a job that I love. It’s not work; it’s a passion.”