State Peer Support Best Practices Panelist
Overcoming a lifetime of incarceration and twenty-three years of drug addiction, author and speaker Jimmy McGill has beat all odds and is living his best life! His childhood was marked by trauma, but what should have destroyed him is now being used to transform addiction awareness in the state of Arkansas. His recently published book, “From Prison to Purpose,” is a detailed account of his journey to sustained recovery.
Jimmy is the State’s Recovery Manager for the Arkansas State Drug Director’s office and he holds multiple peer recovery certifications. His lived experience has allowed him the chance to lead the development of the recovery Infrastructure throughout the state of Arkansas. He has assisted in the training of over 330 peer recovery support specialists.
He designed and developed the Peers Achieving Collaborative Treatment program, also known as the P.A.C.T Project, allowing Arkansas to place peers recovery specialists inside the Division of Youth Services, emergency rooms, drug courts, jails, reentry centers, and community service centers.
He spearheaded the development of the Arkansas Model of Peer Recovery which has now gained national attention.
He and his wife are the founders of Next Step Recovery Housing, a non-profit recovery foundation that houses people in recovery. Assisting them with employment and everyday life skills.
Jimmy was the founding member of both the Arkansas Peers Advisory Committee (APAC) and the Arkansas Peers Achieving Recovery Together (A.P.A.R.T) coalition.
