CHRIS JOHNSON
communications specialist
THE PODCAST
As Much Fun as Work Can Be
Re·Verb (definition)
/ˈrēˌvərb,riˈvərb/
verb
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Take action to create a change. I lived at the shelter, now I work at the shelter. (Change the verb.)
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Tell stories of recovery and hope that reverberate with others. I lived in loneliness and despair, but I have a hopeful and productive life today, and I want to share my experience with others. (Change the world.)
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The objective of ReVerb was to allow people in recovery from behavioral health concerns to use their voices to share their lived experience.
The goal of ReVerb was the reduction of stigma and the expansion of recovery.
The purpose of ReVerb was to provide hope to individual people, families, and communities.
TaTa-Nisha
(play)
Tony
(play)
Leonard
(play)
The podcast was a success by most any measure, except for the one that counts the most: funding. My co-host Roz and I had a great time doing the podcast (which is probably why, in retrospect, our boss at the time let us do it), we had a loyal and growing following, and we had people wanting to be guests on the show. It was, however, a lot of work. Between the technical challenges of getting the thing recorded, getting it online in all the places in all the right formats, it began to feel very much like a part-time tech job, and at the end of the day, it just took too much time for an unfunded effort. We were considering ways to raise funding for production costs when Covid hit, and that put an end to that.
Like most smaller provider organizations that survived the pandemic, we did so by working tirelessly for weeks, then months, then years on end, with little time for what felt like luxuries. But it has ended. And while we are unlikely to capture that magic in a bottle again, it was a great moment, and putting this website together gave me the opportunity to revisit that moment. It has me thinking thoughts again. Luxurious thoughts that we used to just call imagination. It's okay to daydream again. And for that I am truly thankful.
Typical social media post
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