Equipping

Our Process

Uplift Appalachia staff offers an initial free consultation with your church or organization. This will be a conversation with up to five of your church or organization representatives. We will share our history and mission and go over our services; discuss your challenges, goals, and ideas, and work with you to decide what you need/want. We will also facilitate collaboration between organizations and the local faith community if desired.

Training

Churches and organizations can choose from trainings described below. We also work with you to develop customized trainings when appropriate.

Creating and Equipping a Triage Team

We help churches or organizations develop a lay person triage team that will act as first-responders, assisting individuals with problematic substance use or mental health challenges and their families, helping them to navigate resources. This will include some of the trainings described in our offerings, and customized training where appropriate .

Coaching and Consultation

We provide continued coaching and ongoing consultation as needed and train others to train within your church or organization.

Trainings We Offer

Church and Organization Training

Uplift Appalachia seeks to build intrinsic motivation in staff and volunteers who serve as a support system for others, particularly those who are addicted to substances. These trainings differ from many others offered in that they not only increase what people know, but also seek to change how they view other people, motivating them to seek the good of the other person. This prevents burnout and turnover and supports sustainability of programs. We offer training for churches, faith-based organizations, and non-faith-based organizations. Trainings can be offered in-person or online. We can also develop recorded trainings or train trainers for your organization.

Training for Churches and Faith-Based Organizations

There are many different models for how to help people who are addicted to substances. What sets Uplift Appalachia’s training apart is our focus on the theologically and scientifically supported need for interpersonal connection. Trainings connect foundational theological understanding, medicine, science, and practical application. The training not only focuses on the what and who, but the why and how. These trainings can be tailored to other applications besides those addressing addiction.

General faith-based introductory training - This training includes brief overviews of the theology of why the church should address addiction and mental health challenges, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed practices, layman's view of addiction, treatment options, church programming ideas

Specific trainings:

Theological basis for the why and how of addiction ministry
Faith-based adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed practices (general)
Faith-based adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed practices (specific to addiction)
Understanding addiction treatment and recovery options (faith-based)
Understanding about addiction and mental health challenges (how addiction occurs physically; what the person who is addicted experiences – cravings, legal issues, poverty, unemployment, stigma; helpful and unhelpful interaction – boundaries, manipulation)
Accessing community resources
Creating a volunteer transportation program
Creating and equipping a triage team

Training for Non-Faith-Based Organizations

Trainings connect medicine, science, and practical application. The trainings not only focus on the what and who, but the why and how. These trainings can be tailored to other applications besides those addressing addiction and can incorporate ways to collaborate with faith-based organizations.

General introductory training - This training includes brief overviews of the need for addressing addiction and mental health challenges, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed practices, layman's view of addiction, treatment options, and programming ideas

Specific trainings:

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed practices (general)
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed practices (specific to addiction)
Understanding addiction treatment and recovery options (secular)
Understanding about addiction and mental health challenges (how addiction occurs physically; what the person who is addicted experiences – cravings, legal issues, poverty, unemployment, stigma; helpful and unhelpful interaction – boundaries, manipulation)
Accessing community resources
Creating a volunteer transportation program
Creating and equipping a triage team

Who needs these trainings?

Addiction treatment and recovery organizations
Churches
Denominational organizations
Government and nonprofit organizations
Businesses and corporations

Endorsements

Forming a tight-knit community that shares information and holds each other accountable makes practical sense too—especially if a congregation wants to reach out to people caught in cycles of addiction. If there’s one thing all too common among substance abusers, it’s a sense of social isolation.

-Duke Divinity Magazine

Churches are the most prolific social organizations in our region and have been largely underutilized to promote population and behavioral health. If our proposed theory is accurate, having a large number of caring members of the faith community to tackle the problem of addiction and its drivers should prove more effective than many of the other interventions attempted to date.

-Dr. Andrea Clements, PhD

Connect with us

Applied Programs

Uplift Appalachia has applied programs that are much needed to help people out of their addictions. These are applicable much more broadly than just for those who are addicted to substances. We will work with churches, faith-based organizations, or other organizations to tailor programs to their specific needs.

Uplift Rides

Transportation is usually thought of as a way of getting a person from point A to point B. It can be so much more. It can be a source of healing and increased flourishing. Uplift Rides is a direct application of the trainings we offer. Uplift Appalachia will help organizations to develop a tailored solution to meet transportation needs of different populations that is not a “public transportation” model, but focuses on enhancing flourishing…actually improving the life of the person receiving the ride.

Uplift Housing

Uplift Housing is a housing model that is an application of the trainings we offer. We will consult with organizations or churches to design a housing model that works for them.

Can You Help Financially with This Work?

Free Consultation

Flexible Ways to Enable us to Train You

We would love to meet with a small group from your church or organization to see what fits your needs.

Flexible Ways to Enable us to Train You

We will work with churches and organizations based on size and resources to determine how we can offer training. That could include purchasing books or other training materials, paying for a training session(s), taking up an offering, or making a donation.

Monthly Donors

Flexible Ways to Enable us to Train You

Monthly Donors

We would appreciate donations so that we can mobilize churches and organizations. Donations are tax deductible. If those who have resources donate, we will be more able to offer trainings to those with fewer resources,

Meet Our Trainers

Andrea Clements, PhD

Tanner Clements, MDiv

Andrea “Andi” Clements is a professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University, co-founder and board president of Uplift Appalachia, and associate director of research design and implementation in the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute. Her main areas of research are religiosity, health, and trauma-related neuropsychological development, particularly focusing on addiction. She teaches and trains about the science of addiction, navigating addiction treatment options, being trauma responsive (trauma informed care), and stigma reduction. She has taught measurement, evaluation, and research design for the past three decades.

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Tanner Clements, MDiv

For eight years Tanner Clements was a bi-vocational pastor and elder at Christ-Reconciled Church in a low income, high need area of Johnson City, Tennessee. He is a co-founder, training, and media director for Uplift Appalachia. He publishes and speaks publicly about the need to build community to address addiction. Clements holds a MDiv in Theological Studies from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and a BA from East Tennessee State University in digital media. He has spent 15 years managing Web and Video Services at a large regional university until stepping away to devote himself to full-time freelance work that focuses primarily on the work of Uplift Appalachia.

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Teronya Holmes

Teronya Holmes is dedicated to helping find solutions to address the problem of addiction and its effects. As former executive director of the Holy Friendship Collaborative, a precursor to Uplift Appalachia, she worked in collaboration with the Church, communities, and organizations throughout the Appalachian Highlands to faithfully discern and address the problem of addiction in biblically-inspired ways. She has conducted trauma informed care training for large congregations, and also works with churches to discern their training needs.

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Becky Haas

Teronya Holmes

Becky Haas is an international presenter of trauma informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study as well as a pioneer in successfully developing trauma informed communities. She offers trainings in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed care, including trainings specifically tailored to law enforcement

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