Rising Stars: Meet Tracey Levine of Franklin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracey Levine.

Hi Tracey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Thank you so much for reaching out to me. At age 59 I feel like that is a loaded question in that I could easily fill a book with my backstory. For the purposes of this article, I will share what I feel is the most relevant as it relates to my position as Executive Director at Healing Housing. I have been in recovery from alcohol addiction since 1998. I spent many years coming to terms with or accepting the self-diagnosis of my alcoholism. In a nutshell, when I drank, I couldn’t stop. If I wasn’t drinking, I was obsessing about when I would be. The obsession wore me out and when I finally surrendered to my husband about my disease, it was a big relief. When my children were old enough for me to focus on my career, they encouraged me to work in recovery as so much of my free time was spent helping others on their recovery journey. After working in recovery coaching, family support and intervention services for a couple of years, I was hired by Healing Housing as their Executive Director in 2018. For those of you who don’t know, Healing Housing is a nonprofit residential recovery program serving women with limited financial resources throughout Middle Tennessee who are healing from alcohol and drug addiction. Since opening in 2017, we have served more than 400 women, provided housing for over 150 participants, and celebrated more than 50 graduations. Aside from marriage and raising children, it is the most fulfilling work I have ever done.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Addiction is a disease that involves cycles of chronic relapse. That in and of itself makes for anything but a smooth road. For the most part, society measures the success of our disease by abstinence. I spend a good amount of my time educating our community about other ways we can measure success – i.e., how long the relapse lasted (24 hours is a huge win), the recovery community we have built up, reunification of a family, job skills development, mental health diagnosis and medication management and growth in self-awareness. There is also stigma around addiction that is an obstacle in recovery. The more we can educate our community about the predictors of the disease of addiction, the better we can serve those seeking recovery. The more we can bring awareness to and educate about Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE’s), trauma and mental health diagnosis, the quicker we can address the coping mechanism that was used to survive or medicate.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am currently working on an educational event to be held this September in honor of National Recovery Month. The current rate of fentanyl overdoses we are seeing in Tennessee is extremely alarming and I would like to use this event to raise awareness on this as kids head back to school. As a nonprofit, I spend a good amount of my time networking, fundraising, and working closely with other local nonprofits to collaborate and outsource services that we do not provide in house. We hope to use this event to amplify these connections and strengthen our program’s presence in the community. With this being said, the best part of my day is being with the women we serve. I embrace the ups and downs they face on their individual journeys and am grateful for the ability to listen and love them unconditionally. Another highlight for me involves working with our Program Treatment Coordinator, Cash Lambert, to assess and evaluate our program regularly and make sure we are meeting the individual needs of each resident as well as the overall community. I find it incredibly fulfilling to be involved in the excitement and challenges of this job.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I remember all the family trips we took to visit my paternal grandparents in Palco, KS. We would load up in the station wagon with our PJs on and drive from Augusta to Palco after my dad finished work. Though my parents always wished we sleep through the drive, our excitement typically caused us to pester them, relentlessly asking, “Are we there yet?” After a seemingly endless drive, we siblings spent our days catching turtles, cruising around the farm in my grandpa’s pick-up truck, climbing on old tractors, going to the A&W for root beer floats, and going to the drive-in movie theater. How I wish I could turn back the clock! Simple times, beloved memories, I think of them fondly. I cherished every moment with my grandparents and at age 59, I still miss them daily.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.healinghousing.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healinghousinginc/?hl=en