CRSS Graduate Looks to Continue Education and Start Her Own Business

Before becoming a student at Elgin Community College, Antoinette Herring was focused on overcoming many different life obstacles. Growing up, she experienced abuse and was later diagnosed with multiple brain aneurysms. Then, in Herring’s senior year of high school, she became pregnant with her daughter. After having her daughter and undergoing brain surgeries, she sought treatment for  addiction.

During her time in treatment, Herring first learned about ECC's Certified Recovery Support Specialist (CRSS) program.  She wasn’t ready to pursue it then, choosing instead  o focus on her healing journey. But once Herring completed her stay at the treatment center, she immediately wanted to get her GED. She came across marketing that promoted ECC’s GED program.

She was able to pass all portions of the GED exam, except for math, which she completed through ECC before earning her diploma. Once she had completed her GED, Herring remembered hearing about the CRSS program while at a treatment facility a year before. 

She connected with Andrew Beck, instructor of the ECC’s CRSS program, and immediately signed up. 

Herring took all three classes at once. The first month of classes was especially hard, as her mother had just passed away. She was especially grateful for Beck and her other instructors, Recovery Support Specialist Wendy Chen and Student Success Specialist David Meraz, for their support during this time, she said. 

In one CRSS class, faculty helped Herring build her resume. Not long after, she applied to Serenity House Counseling Services in Addison after an employee from the company spoke to the class about internships and open positions.

Herring was quickly hired as an intern at Serenity and then hired as a recovery support specialist upon completion of her internship and certification. 

Now at Serenity, Herring shares an office with her ECC CRSS classmate Lorraine Wright. She joked that she was trying to get Wright and her other classmates to join her at Serenity immediately once they obtained their certification. Wright is a counselor at Serenity, while Herring is a recovery specialist coach. Herring is currently taking classes at ECC for her certification in drug and alcohol counseling.

At Serenity, Herring helps coach multiple groups at the DuPage County Jail and has also led groups at Kane County Jail. She tackles topics like addiction and grief with her groups. She also works with women in sober living and provides one-on-one coaching, and helps with daily tasks like grocery shopping.

“I’m a certified WRAP (wellness recovery action plan) facilitator, I support them, and I’m pretty much already a counselor without the title,” Herring said. “I help them build their resumes, help them set up doctor appointments, and help them find jobs, doctors, and therapists. Especially within the program because they have counselors while they’re there, but it's only a 90-day program.”

For Herring, working with individuals in the jails isn’t intimidating. It's how you treat people, and if you treat people with respect, they will treat you with respect, she said.

The groups that Herring leads also discuss topics like shame, guilt, and forgiveness in a 10-week curriculum. 

“One week we were talking about shame and guilt, one week we were talking about boundaries. We're talking about forgiveness and denial,” she said. “We talk about post-acute withdrawal syndrome, and there are different things about addiction you have to understand to be able to overcome.”

Herring plans to work towards her associate degree once she finishes her certification for alcohol and drug counseling, and eventually obtain a bachelor’s degree. Her ultimate goal is to found her own recovery center. She wants to educate herself and those around her as much as she can before she becomes a business owner, she said.

“I’ve learned a lot so far, and I want to educate myself as much as I can to help everybody I can,” she said. “I'd better understand them and what they’re going through. If I had not gone through the darkest times in my life and started my addiction, I wouldn’t be sitting there in front of you. I wouldn’t be walking in my purpose right now.”