For anyone who needs help in a crisis, Andrew Fortriede has some sage advice: Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. That’s what Fortriede did on Valentine’s Day 2024 and it was the first giant step toward sobriety and reunification with his daughter, Luna.

Alcohol had been part of this single dad’s life dating back to his high school years. After the birth of his son at the tender age of 14, he turned to the fast lane of drinking and music to relive what he felt he had lost during his youth.

Time passed and Fortriede welcomed the arrival of his daughter 16 years and 16 days after the birth of his son. He had committed to change, but it wasn’t until the state Department of Child Safety intervened to remove young Luna from his home that he heeded the call for help through Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. (Families in Recovery Succeeding Together), a community-based treatment program in partnership with Terros Health.

After nearly 10 months of sobriety, Fortriede relapsed and was evicted from his home. Thinking he would spend the night on the streets on a chilly February evening, he purchased some whiskey. It was at that moment he grasped for help, calling his former Terros Health recovery coach.

“What better day than today to love yourself,” he remembers hearing on the other end of the line. That was the encouragement Fortriede needed to get a new lease on life, addressing not just his addiction but the source of his pain.

Fast forward more than a year and Fortriede is now guiding other dads on their recovery journeys as a father support specialist at the Family Involvement Center in Phoenix. He manages a busy caseload, teaching men grappling with substance use disorder how to be better fathers and navigate resources for help. One of his most important roles is to be a listening ear, checking in with “his dads” even for five minutes to assure them that they have what it takes to live a life of sobriety. He is also using his artistic prowess — Fortriede is a writer, painter and musician who can play “anything with strings” — to create a 13-week children’s curriculum to complement the Family Involvement Center’s program for dads.

Looking back, Fortriede feels like he’s already lived a whole life. But he looks forward to what’s ahead — using his experience to inspire others while raising a young daughter with unconditional love for her dad.

Julie Butera spent her formative years living a life of addiction, not knowing how to raise children even though she had three of them.

Then, the wife and mother reflects on the ways she puts her lived experience to work and realizes that her pain was worth something. “They trust me,” she said softly, referring to the parents she helps reunify with their children and recover from substance use disorder.

Butera is a care coordinator coach for Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. (Families in Recovery Succeeding Together), which offers community-based substance use services to parents of children named as victims of abuse or neglect by the state Department of Child Safety. In this role, she connects parents with treatment, communicates with their probation officers and other resources, and advocates for them with DCS specialists. The “coach” in her title refers to Butera’s leadership: Along with an average caseload of 40 parents, she hires and trains other care coordinators. She is also the face of recovery in the community and a recent graduate of Grand Canyon University, earning a degree in social work with a near-perfect grade point average while working full-time. (She is now pursuing her master’s degree in social work.)

Breaking free from a lifelong cycle of addiction, Julie Butera determined to put her experience to work helping others on their journeys to wellness. Now, years of study, persistence and hard work have yielded a degree in psychology that combined with her life experience is transforming lives.

Butera achieved sobriety on Nov. 12, 2005, breaking the cycle of addiction prevalent in her family as far back as she can remember. Now, she pays forward her experience helping thousands of other parents on their wellness journeys. She knows that people in recovery listen differently to those who have walked in their shoes. She plants the seeds to help these parents find a new path and works with resources around them to help the seeds grow. Her magic is a combination of compassion and encouragement with loving boundaries.

As if keeping families together and helping people realize a life free of drugs aren’t enough, Butera lent her voice to legislation that changed outdated Central Registry guidelines. She also co-founded the Parent Advisory Collaborative, which brings the voices of parents and families into the decision-making process of Arizona DCS.

Butera is a light for those overwhelmed by darkness. For her, helping people feeds her soul. Among the “Julieisms” she shares with parents: “Addiction doesn’t define you.” “Relapse doesn’t have to be part of your recovery.” And “recovery comes first.”

Individuals touched by substance use disorder often have a turning point that guides their recovery.

For Julie Erb, the moment of clarity came on Nov. 4, 2016, when she and her unborn child faced a near-death experience.

Living on the streets, Erb had been assaulted, leading to a high-risk pregnancy. When she unexpectedly went into labor and was in distress, Erb was airlifted to a local hospital’s Emergency Department. During the helicopter ride, she remembers thinking, “If I don’t change my life, I am going to die.”

After nearly dying and exposing her newborn child to an addictive substance, Erb was ordered by the Arizona Department of Child Safety to Terros Health and the Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. (Families in Recovery Succeeding Together) program, which offers community-based substance use services to parents of children named as victims of abuse or neglect. Working with case managers and clinicians, she recommitted herself to recovery and rebuilt a life with her family while earning a bachelor’s degree in addiction counseling from Ottawa University.

Today, Erb has a new lease on life. She is nearly nine years sober and remains active in a 12-step fellowship program. She serves on the board of a nonprofit organization and sponsors women in recovery while sharing her lived experience in the community and as a former lead recovery coach for Terros Health and Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T.

Erb’s stellar work earned her a promotion as a clinician at Terros Health’s Olive Health Center, where she conducts patient assessments, facilitates individual and outpatient group counseling sessions, and handles case management.

If that’s not enough, this busy mom in recovery is pursuing a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. She said the focus of her studies was an easy decision, knowing that an individual in crisis isn’t the only one affected by mental health challenges and substance use disorder. “We treat the person,” she said of the healthcare system, “but I want to treat the whole family system.” Doing so, Erb said, will give everyone involved a chance for a lifelong recovery.