Training & Curriculum

Where the Hurting Go First — And Why Training Matters

Across every city and community, the first people to encounter those struggling with addiction are not treatment centers. They are community‑based organizations, churches, outreach ministries, street teams, and neighborhood nonprofits. These are the places where trust already exists. These are the people who walk the streets, feed the hungry, pray with the broken, and sit with the addicted long before a referral is ever written.             https://www.amazon.com/author/markyancey

Treatment programs often receive clients only through formal channels, probation, courts, CPS, hospitals, or mandated referrals. But community‑based organizations meet addiction face‑to‑face every single day, often with no training, no structure, and no tools beyond compassion and a desire to help.

This is where the hurting go. This is where the lost show up. This is where the addicted feel safe enough to ask for help. And this is why the mission must expand. Feeding the community is essential — but it is not enough. Clothing the community is essential — but it is not enough. Praying for the community is essential — but it is not enough.

It is time to equip community workers, ministry teams, and outreach volunteers with real, evidence‑based recovery training.   Not to replace treatment programs — but to meet people where they already are, with the tools needed to guide them toward healing.

This is the heart behind the Facilitator Training Curriculum and the 12‑Month Evidence‑Based Recovery Curriculum.

Across communities, churches, reentry programs, and treatment centers, countless individuals are fighting for their lives against addiction. Many want help. Many are ready for change. But too often, the people standing in front of them — volunteers, peer mentors, ministry teams, outreach workers, and even program staff — feel unprepared, undertrained, or unsure of how to guide someone through the long, painful, complicated journey of recovery.

This is why the Substance Abuse Counseling Facilitator Training Curriculum was created. Not as another academic textbook. Not as a clinical manual written in language no one understands. But as a real, accessible, trauma‑informed training system built for the people who show up every day to help others rebuild their lives.

The Facilitator Training Curriculum is designed for the real world. It prepares facilitators, peer mentors, ministry teams, outreach workers, and program staff to confidently lead individuals through a structured recovery process. It is written in clear, practical language so that both professionals and community workers can understand and apply the material immediately.

The three volumes and their companion workbooks cover foundational principles of addiction, communication and engagement skills, assessment, documentation, treatment planning, crisis intervention, ethical practice, trauma‑informed care, and the full 12 Core Functions of substance use counseling. 

These are the same core competencies required of state‑certified addiction professionals, yet presented in a way that is accessible to anyone committed to helping others. This training lifts people up. It gives them a voice. It gives them the tools to save lives.

Once facilitators complete the three‑volume training, they are fully prepared to lead the Substance Abuse Recovery 12‑Month Evidence‑Based Treatment Curriculum. This is a structured, trauma‑informed recovery program designed for both group and individual sessions. It is built on evidence‑based practices commonly used in addiction treatment, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Relapse Prevention Models.

The curriculum guides individuals through a full year of recovery work. It helps them understand their patterns, rebuild their thinking, strengthen their coping skills, and develop the emotional stability needed for long‑term sobriety. Every session is structured. Every topic is purposeful. Every step is designed to move a person closer to freedom. This is not theory. This is not guesswork. This is a proven, practical, life‑changing recovery pathway.     https://www.amazon.com/author/markyancey

When the Facilitator Training Curriculum and the 12‑Month Recovery Curriculum are used together, they create a unified, professional‑grade system that works across both secular and Christian environments. Facilitators are trained. Clients are supported. Programs are strengthened. Lives are changed.

Organizations gain a complete training system, a consistent language, a consistent structure, and a consistent approach to recovery. This eliminates confusion, inconsistency, and the “every facilitator does it differently” problem that weakens so many programs. Instead, your organization gains a cohesive, evidence‑based recovery model that can be implemented immediately.

The system is flexible. The three‑volume Facilitator Training Curriculum can be used as a standalone training program for staff development, volunteer training, ministry team preparation, peer mentor certification, and community‑based programs. 

Substance Abuse Recovery is a structured, evidence‑based, trauma‑informed 12‑month treatment curriculum designed to be facilitated by someone who has completed the Three‑Volume Substance Abuse Counseling Training Curriculum, authored by Mark A. Yancey, Sr. or is a state‑certified addiction counselor This program provides a full year of guided healing, emotional growth, and practical life change.

Behind every chapter, every session, every tool, and every principle is a simple truth: people can change. People can heal. People can rebuild their lives one choice at a time. This curriculum was built for the broken, the hurting, the overlooked, and the forgotten. 

It was built for the facilitators who show up day after day, often with little training and even less support, yet carry the weight of someone else’s hope on their shoulders.

It was built for the organizations that want to do more, serve better, and offer something real—something structured, something evidence‑based, something that actually works.

This is more than a curriculum. It is a lifeline. A roadmap. A bridge between where someone is and where they can be. And it is ready for any organization that is ready to change lives.