Sérénité serves up new opportunities for recovering addicts

MEDINA — After spending time in prison when he was younger, Brandon Chrostowski partnered with the Recovery Center of Medina County to form Sérénité, a program for people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. The program takes inspiration from Edwin's Leadership and Recovery Institute, a prisoner reform school that teaches incarcerated individuals how to run and manage their own restaurant. "We have a lot of direct connections to Edwin's," said Kip Erwin, Recovery Center Program administrator and peer recovery supporter. "Both our general manager and executive chef went through Edwin's program upon release from prison. While all of the recovery programs that are out there have great intentions and are a necessary part of recovery, our restaurant and center show students how to work while they adjust to a completely new way of life." The basic course of Sérénité discusses the science behind addiction, the coping mechanisms that may be helpful in the recovery, group therapy, group activities and exercises, support group meetings, relationships and how to navigate through early recovery. "Maybe we also talk about how it becomes tough to get a decent job when you start adding felony convictions into the mix," Erwin said. "Or how lots of employers don't appreciate having to schedule around all the court dates, drug tests, probation appointments, treatment sessions, individual therapy appointments and all the scheduling baggage that comes with us recovering alcoholics and addicts." This is where Recovery Center of Medina County and Sérénité come in. It is modeling and practicing something that is important in the big picture of recovery. On the ground level at 538 W. Liberty St., there is a fully functioning, five-star French restaurant that is a paid culinary training program for individuals in recovery (the only requirement for interested parties to enroll is that they are active in recovery from addiction/alcoholism). Students are paid for a period of eight months to work and study fine dining to develop an understanding of how a fine-dining establishment operates. At the end of the eight months, program graduates are placed at a local restaurant in Northeast Ohio. Throughout each week, every student is required to attend a cognitive behavioral therapy course, a moral reconciliation therapy course, a parenting workshop (for all those with children under 18 years of age) and a "life skills" or rotating topic recovery class that ranges from meditation practice to budgeting and credit repair. Emily Stratman, a junior at Medina County Career Center School, is one of over fifty student "backpack journalists" (grades 6-12) in the award-winning BEAT Video Program.