Dream Big Buffalo · Peer support
Still here
Lived it.
Came back.
Answers the phone.
Timothy Boland has been through addiction and the kind of family trauma that sets it up in the first place. He is not a case manager reading from a binder — he is a Western New York guy who survived the same machine this whole platform exists to fix, and he is here to sit with the next person who is in it right now.
What he actually lived
The part nobody says out loud
Addiction doesn't start at the needle or the bottle. It starts somewhere in a house, in a childhood, in a thing that happened that nobody handled.
Family trauma runs downhill
It lands on the kids, the siblings, the one who tried to keep the peace. Getting clean is only half of it — the other half is untangling all of that.
Being talked about, not talked to
Programs, counselors, courts, forms. A lot of people described his life to him. Very few asked.
Still here
That's the whole credential. He made it through and he's willing to sit with somebody who hasn't yet.
What he offers
Peer support with teeth: presence, honesty, and somebody in the hallway with you.
A real conversation, no script
Not intake questions. A person who has been in the room telling you what actually helped and what wasted his time.
Walk-alongside, not hand-off
Detox calls, treatment intake, appointments, court days — going with you instead of handing you a phone number.
Family side too
For the brother, the parent, the kid who grew up in it. The damage spread out; the support should too.
Straight answers about relapse
No shame math. Relapse gets handled as information, not as failure — and you don't lose your spot here for it.
If you're in it today
You don't have to have the whole story ready. Start with the one thing that hurts most right now.
For Timmy — and for every person told they were the problem when they were really the one carrying it.