YSU for Recovery started as a student-led initiative for addiction recovery several years ago. Since then, the program has gone through a transition period as faculty adviser Ryan McNicholas attempts to find new students willing to take on the program.
Mason Edmunds, a prevention specialist with Meridian Healthcare, has taken over the program in order to provide support to struggling students.
“My main function right now is keeping it alive and making sure that we can find a healthy transition period between me handling it and it being put back in the hands of students because it is a student organization,” Edmunds said.
The group holds biweekly meetings on Monday afternoons in the Hynes Room in Kilcawley center.
“It can be whoever wants to stop by and feel that sense of camaraderie and maybe find a place of belonging that they might not necessarily have in their regular day to day,” Edmunds said.
“Especially if a student feels like they’re struggling, they can stop by. I have contacts and tools at my disposal where I can talk to them, and I can get them referred to somebody who could help them set goals and get back on track,” he added.