Former basketball player turned peer specialist supervisor helps emerging adults avoid the mistakes that cost him everything
Derrick Brewer knows firsthand what it means to need a safe space. Born in Chicago’s Cabrini Green housing projects and raised by a single mother struggling with alcoholism, Brewer went from Division I basketball player to drug dealer to multiple prison sentences before finding his way to recovery. Today, as a Peer Specialist Supervisor at CRCC, he dedicates his life to creating the safe spaces he never had growing up, with a particular focus on emerging adults aged 18 to 25.
His program targets African American men specifically because, as Brewer points out, while overall overdose statistics show a decline, they’re not declining among Black men. Through community outreach and his personal testimony, Brewer works to catch young people before they make the same devastating choices that derailed his own promising future.
What inspired you to get involved in creating or facilitating safe spaces for others?
I got involved with this for a number of reasons. First of all, I’m a personal long time recoverer. Growing up as a young Black man, I know how important it is to have safe spaces. In my era, it was always told to me that kids were to be seen and not heard. So I never had a safe space and because of that, I know the importance of people needing a safe space to go to.
How do you define a safe space and what makes it effective for people in recovery?
A safe space is somewhere I feel comfortable enough to get vulnerable. A space where I don’t feel judged. A space where I could just share things that I normally wouldn’t be able to share with other people just to get free. I believe that when we hold things in too long, they tend to explode. So it’s very important that people have outlets where they can feel safe.
What challenges do you face in raising awareness and encouraging people to participate in the program?
Some of the challenges are the communities. One of the things about people in recovery is once an addict, always an addict and so there’s stigma that comes along with it. People are not willing to trust people that they know used to be involved with drugs or that may struggle with mental illness. And so it’s important to let them know that people who struggle in those areas do recover.
How do you envision the future of the safe spaces program?
I envision it growing. We are out, boots on the ground, in communities showing up at events. This particular program that we have with safe spaces targets emerging adults 18 to 25 and 21 and older. So getting out into the communities at the parks, the high schools, the community colleges, places like that, and just sharing information with them. Because I feel like mental illness and substance use touch every family. If we don’t have a relative, we got a friend or somebody that’s affected by it.
So just getting out and letting people know if you need help, we’re here to help. And not just the individual himself, but also the families. The family members, the friends, they need support as well. Our public awareness campaign on substance use and support is not just for the individual that’s struggling in that area, but also the families.
What type of program is safe spaces and who is it designed for?
Safe spaces is for everybody. Even people that don’t struggle with mental illness, substance use, or homelessness. I think everybody needs a safe space. Everybody needs that place where they can go where they don’t feel judged. They don’t feel like people can use what they said against them and where they can get some encouragement. I’m a firm believer that if we don’t give people hope, where there’s no hope people perish. So it’s important for us to get out and spread the message of hope. Sometimes people just need to be heard. People just need to be given the feeling that they do matter, that they count.
Can you tell us about your personal journey and what led you to this work?
I’m somebody that was born in the projects, Cabrini Green, single mother home, no father figure at home. I was the oldest of three, my mother was an alcoholic and I used to resent that when I was younger, but today, being where I am in life, she gets her pass. People only can share with you what they know.
I played college basketball at the University of South Florida, Division 1. Had a big ego like most people from the projects. I ended up dropping out of school, which was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. And I couldn’t bounce back from that for a long time. The guilt, shame, and resentment that I held against myself. Got involved with selling drugs and eventually became my best customer, which is usually the story. Took a couple of rides to the Illinois Department of Corrections and finally got out and got around some people that were living the type of life that I wanted to live.
I felt safe enough around those people to get honest. Here I was, a grown man, and didn’t know how to live. I was not afraid to get vulnerable, that I didn’t know how to live and I needed some help. That’s one of the lessons that I try to portray. It doesn’t matter how old or how young you are, everybody needs support and help. Everybody needs a safe space. Our mission is to try to catch emerging adults before they make those bad choices and deflect them from having to go through all the things that I went through. That’s how I ended up doing this type of work and I really consider this work, it’s a lifestyle.
How important is it for people to be in the right environments when they’re going through recovery?
It’s extremely important, especially in the beginning phases. It’s hard to stay clean in a dirty environment. So in order for me to clean myself up, I need to be in a clean environment. And sometimes that may be medically assisted treatment or medically assisted recovery, 28 days to get the wheels turning and just to get some clarity in my mind and spirit. A lot of people think detox is only three days and it’s out of our system. Yes, out of our system physically, but what about the mental and emotional part? Those things heal a lot slower and so it’s very important to be in a safe environment, especially in the beginning phases of recovery.
If someone doesn’t have a clean environment to go to, what would you suggest?
That’s exactly what we do. We provide them a pathway to clean environments. We let them know we can get you in treatment. For somebody that’s not struggling with substance use, maybe mental illness, we’ll get you to see doctors. We have pathways that are free. So that’s why people like us are here, so that we can point them in the right direction. More importantly, I can tell them that I too have been there and this is what I’ve done. You don’t have to take what I say I did, but let’s just take a look at it because what you’ve been doing isn’t working.
I’ve learned that the credibility of them knowing where I’ve been and where I am today tends to give them a little push, give them a little more incentive to say if I can do it, then they can do it. So that’s what we try to do. I try to pay forward to other people what other people have done for me.
Why do you do this work and why is it important to you?
This work is important to me because we have a public awareness campaign on substance use and support, and the target is emerging adults 18 and up, but more importantly, the target is African American emerging adults because we’re dying at a higher rate. When you look at the overall statistics of overdoses, they say that it’s declined. And that’s very true, but it’s not declining among Black men.
I just feel like young Black men need to see more Black men who have been in that situation or more Black men who are trying to keep them from having to go down the same path that we went through. I believe that when we begin to get successful, everybody move out the hood. So in the hood now, all they see is people doing negative things. So it’s important to me to go back to the hood and let them know we don’t just live that way, we can also live the right way and they just don’t see it. So it’s important to go back to give them some hope.
Connect with CRCC
For more information about safe spaces programs or to access recovery resources, contact CRCC (Community Recovery and Crisis Center). The organization provides free pathways to treatment, mental health services, and support for individuals and families affected by substance use and mental illness.