Wrayanne Glaze Parker\u2019s story doesn\u2019t start with much promise. She grew up in Polk County, Georgia, spending most of her childhood and young adult life struggling with drug and alcohol addictions. But she knew this was not the life she wanted. So she moved to a long-term treatment program in Rome to break her addictions. Little did she know, she would eventually help operate programs just like this one all across Georgia\u2026<\/p>\n
After graduating the program, she was ready to start a new life with kids and family. And she told herself she wanted to go to college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really sure what I wanted to do at the time, but I knew I wanted to help people who live with some of the same issues I had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wrayanne immediately applied to Georgia Highlands College.<\/p>\n
On her first day of class, Wrayanne told her professor she wanted to \u201csave the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thinking back on it, she admits it sounds kind of silly, but that didn\u2019t stop her from earning her associate degree in human services, and then moving on to complete a bachelor\u2019s in psychology from Ashford University and a master\u2019s in mental health counseling from Walden University.<\/p>\n
Wrayanne now works as the women\u2019s program coordinator for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work in the division of Behavioral Health in the Office of Addictive Diseases (OAD),\u201d she said. \u201cWe are tasked with developing, monitoring compliance, supporting financially with federal and state funding through block grants, and workforce development. My job is focused on women\u2019s treatment programs for substance use disorders.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wrayanne said the office she works for has programs in regions all over the state, serving more than 1,200 women each year.<\/p>\n
What she does is special to her for more than a few reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am actually a graduate of one of the women\u2019s programs that I now manage, which is such an amazing blessing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her drive to succeed has been fueled by the destructive addictions of her past.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew from my own experiences that I was not alone and there were many, many other people out there struggling with an addiction they hated, but didn\u2019t know how to escape from and that every time they got up the courage to ask for help, it was met with judgment from a society that doesn\u2019t understand mental health challenges or addictive disease,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wrayanne added that helping people with addictions is not as hard as it may seem and helping communities see that is one of her number one goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ultimate purpose is to help others and change social norms, fighting stigma and reducing the shame people feel when things get out of control,\u201d she said. \u201cUntil each community learns to separate the person from the addiction and come together, then people will continue to be afraid to ask for help and addiction will continue to plague our communities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wrayanne touts that she is the perfect example of someone who not only recovered, but has continued on to be successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to know recovery is real and people get well, regardless of what they have done or been through,\u201d she said. \u201cSo honestly, I still feel that way and I still want to save the world. It\u2019s just a bigger job\u2026 and it\u2019s going to take everyone \u2013 not just me.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Wrayanne Glaze Parker\u2019s story doesn\u2019t start with much promise. She grew up in Polk County, Georgia, spending most of her childhood and young adult life struggling with drug and alcohol addictions. But she knew this was not the life she wanted. So she moved to a long-term treatment program in Rome to break her addictions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5771,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions\/5771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}