SignalsAZ.com Prescott News Podcast - From Recovery to Employment: How Steps to Recovery Is Rebuilding Lives in the Verde Valley

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Send us a text and chime in!We sit down with Quinton Ellis and Damien Browning from Steps to Recovery, a nonprofit organization transforming lives across the Verde Valley. What started as a sober living home has grown into a comprehensive recovery ecosystem. Offering outpatient treatment, structured and transitional housing, job development, community education, and real pathways back into society.#recovery #stepstorecovery #nonprofit #Verdevalley #arizona #podcast #employmentopportunities Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

everybody welcome back to signals a z i am joined today with quentin ellis and damian browning from steps to recovery and you're way over there in the verde right yes way over way over there over that whole big hill over there it's funny how long does it take you guys to get here that's at an hour there you go it's 56 minutes 56 minutes and 32 seconds that is when i used to live in another state that would have been a dream commute right there 56 minutes would have been easy. So what do you guys do? It's, um, so steps to recovery. So you guys are a sober living. We're actually a nonprofit organization that helps people with addiction issues. It started 12 years ago and it was just a sober living then, but we've actually grown into a lot more. Okay. And so,

um, how many, so is it inpatient, outpatient? It's outpatient. I mean, we have a structured sober living. We have transitional living. We do, um, we have an outpatient. and treatment center. And we just opened our event center a couple years ago. And we have a resell store and we have a job development program. And then we do a lot of things for the community. We do education awareness days and fundraisers and job fairs and just a bunch of different stuff, recovery events. Right. So speaking of job fairs, you've got one coming up. So tell us about that. We do. So we have a job fair on February 12th from 330 to 630. We're really excited about it. our whole goal is to foster economic development in the Verdi Valley and put people to work.

That's awesome. Last year we sold out, we had 32 employers and about 100 job seekers. Wow. This year we're hoping to duplicate that. And I've got to give a shameless plug to our sponsors. Do it. Do it. Child and Family Support Services, Rusty's Morning Star Ranch, Northern Arizona Healthcare,

Lighthouse Flooring, the Blazinim Experience, or Blazonedham Ranch, excuse me. Yavapai County and Rim Country Roofing. So shout out to our amazing sponsors. Because we all know we can't do it without our sponsors, right? Right. Oh, and Nana's tacos. Nanas Tacos. You almost forgot Nana's tacos?

I didn't know. And they are famous. I was just saving it for suspense. They are famous for reason. Nana's true. For reason, yes. So I didn't see you bring any tacos. That's fine.

And one more thing I left out. Important to know that if you're a veteran or if you are disabled job seeker, you get early admission to the job fair. You can come in at 3. It starts at 3.30 for everyone else. Now, one thing I like to cover when we're doing a promoting a job fair because those are super important, how should I show up? Do I need to be in a suit? Do I need to be like ready to go?

Do I need resumes? What should I be doing? I'd say dress for the job that you want and bring a stack of resumes, be ready for on-side interviews. Maybe do some mock interviews beforehand and get used to answering some interview-related questions and bring a pen and a piece of paper. paper, business cards if you have them. Be prepared, people. Be prepared. You got to bring your A game.

I mean, you know, at job fairs like this, I mean, last year we had 31 businesses. This year, we have over 25 already, you know, signed up. And we all know we're procrastinators, so you'll have more than that. Right. These places are hiring. Otherwise, they wouldn't be at the job fair. So it's like, what do you want out of your career and show up with that intention, you know? Absolutely.

Yeah, I've seen all walks of lives walking into a job fair. I was like, okay, come on, you know. Right. Put some shoes on, man. Right. And it depends. You know, are you going for the roofing job or do you want to be an executive in Northern Arizona health care? There you go.

Just for the job you want. Absolutely. And will you have a list of employers that are going to be there that day? We will. Okay. And where do I find that information? We've posted it in the ad king. And it's also on our Facebook page.

We have an event called Cottonwood Job Fair 2026 on Facebook. Okay. And we can link to that as well so that you'll have it. And so if you know ahead of time, kind of who you're going to see at the job fair, do a little research on these companies, you know, be able to walk in and talk to them and go, you know what? I know about you guys. You're doing all the work over here or, you know, and you'd be surprised how, you know, that's going to surprise. People are going to be like, wow, I'm impressed. You actually took the time to get to know about this company and ask some really good questions.

And it makes all the difference, right? Yeah, absolutely. Somebody comes to me for a job and they actually know about my. my organization. It's like, oh. You've heard about us. Yeah. Yeah. So again, that job fair is February the 12th, which is next Thursday. Next Thursday. And right there in Cottonwood, doors open at three for veterans, senior and disabled job seekers. Nanas Tacos is going to be there. Yes, Nana's famous tacos. They're pretty good. They're pretty good tacos. Pretty good tacos. Well, I like a good taco. So if you talked about some sponsors,

if somebody would like to sponsor what you guys are doing. Because I know you guys do, I mean, you take people in that, you know, they're not walking in with their top rated insurance forms there or their insurance cards. They're not walking in with, oh, you know, my dad's over here and he's going to pay for all of this. You're taking anybody, right? They're just pretty much. There has to be some willingness in the criteria.

But, yeah, you know, the people we serve, 98% of them are homeless. And there are people that fall through the cracks. And we're helping those people. And we help them in a number of different ways. So I've heard some things about haircuts and helping them get ready for job seekers. So I appreciate what you guys are doing. Also, I wanted to mention because it is tax time that you guys are eligible for the state tax credit, right? Yeah, we're qualifying charitable organization with the state of Arizona.

So you can do your tax credit instead of that way you can dictate your money going to a good cost to help somebody. because, you know, we provide wraparound services and we have a really good success rate. And what we do is we take somebody that comes in broken and we build them back up and we empower them to become a productive member of their family and society. And it helps our community in so many different ways. Absolutely. Well, I mean, it's, I just think about, you know, I know you're talking about some success stories, but like you said, they've got to want it. And the fact that you guys are willing to take them in and wrap your arms around them and help them get jobs. help them, you know, get haircuts.

You were saying that you help them get, so they're, go get your Social Security card, go get your birth certificate. Because when they're applying for a job, these are things that they have, you know, when they're at that level and when they're ready for that. Well, then when they come to us,

we pay the whole thing is a lot of those donations and stuff like that, go towards that. So when they come to us, so they're not so worried about running out and getting a job, we pay them like it is a job. So why we're building a resume with them,

while we're getting them a haircut or getting them clothes or getting them ready, we do a, you know, like a 30-second commercial. We do mock interviews. We do all that stuff. And we're paying them hourly. And that's where that money can go. So their job right now is just that job until they, yeah, well, the thing is, is otherwise people run out and just get a job and they fail. So we're really getting them to slow down and take a couple weeks to a month or whatever it takes to really be prepared. And that's where those donations can go. Awesome. You know, and it's really a cool thing because then they're like, oh, they got some kind of supplemented income to pay for

some of the things they need to until they can get the career there, at least started in that direction. Well, and I think, too, if you don't have, if you don't have money, or you're, you know, it's, now you're getting a- You can't go to the DMV and buy your driver's license. If you don't have $12. And you don't have self-worth, right? It's like, I don't have any money. Right. I'm just, you know.

And we have a number of different people that we get grants from. You have Pike County, we got a grant some of the opioid settlement. We got some of that money that helps with that. City of Cottonwood has given us a grant for job development. 1AZ, Yavapai United Way. So, you know, there's, God, I don't want to miss anybody out. Sedona, LPD. There's people that are helping with us with what we're doing.

Arizona Community Foundation helps a lot sometimes. I mean, USDA, we've gotten a number of different foundations and other people that give us grants to help with this because building a workforce is so important, but also building the individual to maintain that workforce. I mean. Well, and it just makes the city of Cottonwood, safer. You know, we're taking people that would have otherwise been homeless on the streets.

And now we're giving them purpose. That's a great point. If you've ever, if you've ever driven down through Cottonwood and you see a lot of people walk in the street, those are the, a lot of times, those are the people that are, if they're in our program, they're not walking down the street. Or if they are, they've at least had a shower the night before. They've had a breathalyzer and a drug test and they're on a path to. Which is helping home values, which is helping businesses grow, which is helping, everything. environments. I mean, just think about all the people that are going to, going to jail or whatever, neglecting their children. You know, I mean, the grandparents that are raising children. I mean,

there's so much, the schools, the neighborhoods, theft, employment. I mean, there's so much that really the core issue is the addiction. And underneath that is why they use. We were talking about that earlier. It's like, you know, it's not, it's not about the substance. It's why, so we're teaching people how to deal with life so that they don't get overwhelmed and don't go self-medicate. Because once you solve Medicaid, for whatever reason that is, the trauma, the neglect, the anxiety, you know, all of a sudden you just throw everything away. It just ruins everything. And then you create a big mess and there's a hurricane that affects other people, your loved ones,

yourself, your kids, you know. So you guys believe in healing the whole person and not just, we're going to take the drugs away from you. And in 30 days, you're going to be clean because what other choice do you have, right? Absolutely. And it's a really practical program. Like we have the outpatient clinic where people can address. root causes and get the therapy that they need to address the trauma or to address the addiction

or grief or whatever it is. And the job development program works in conjunction with that. And it's really comprehensive. There's an exhaustive list of the stuff that the job development program does. But basically we help people find. We help them get employable. Then we help them find and keep jobs. We're just as interested in them keeping their job as we are and then running out and getting the first job. And we work with like 30 businesses that sponsor us. and we have job placement. But one of the things that's important about what he was saying is like we also do hard skills. So after the soft skills and we do this emotional intelligence, because emotional intelligence

is very, very important, right? But we also bring them into some hard skills so we can work with them in the store, the event center, or we take them out in the community and do volunteer service. And that way, when they're in these situations, you know, we're teaching them how to clock in, how to show up, how to be productive. when they get anxiety not to just leave the job. Like, let's talk about that. Let's talk about your feelings, your needs,

advocating for yourself. There's so many things. How can you manage yourself to where you can keep that job once you get it? Right. It's important. How to stay sober and show up? And it's a lot of work. Yeah.

And we need a lot of help with that. Because everybody, you know, I mean, we had, what, 80, 80 people last year we served. Wow. Is that the number? 7980. Right about. Yeah. So all 80 of those people have so many different.

situational variables that went into and the ages are, I mean, gosh, sometimes we have people in there, they're 60 years old. Sometimes we have somebody that's in there, it's 22. You know, it's like, and they all have different experiences. So different traumas, different neglect, different abandonment issues, whatever, different, you know, upbringings or religious things or beliefs or from out of state and they get in trouble and they get stuck here with nothing. It's like, how do I get home? Well, first you get to become a person they want to take back home, right? Well, and then you have to save housing for a lot of these people that don't have it. And then, you know, there's educating the public, you know, that this isn't a Band-Aid approach,

like you were saying. It's more of a, it's an 18-month-or-more thing, you know, people have to understand that, you know, it takes more than just throwing, and rehab's a huge part of it. But just because you're cleaning or sober for, you know, 30 days doesn't mean you're cured, you know, how are you going to deal with that? So we have educational awareness days, free educational awareness days that we do for the public to kind of show, talk about the stigma, talk about the labels, talk about the recovery, talk about what it really means to really help somebody become whole and get that self-esteem.

Because that's what, 90% of this is people have low self-worth for whatever reason. So it's empowering them to really see that they can do it and be better people. Great. That's good stuff, good stuff. So steps to recovery homes.org. There's become a sponsor. Shout out to your sponsors. a whole thing on what we do.

We've got dinner for hope coming up. So we'll talk some more about that as we get closer. But if you want to involve yourself with the Cottonwood Job Fair, reach out to you guys. There's all their information on their website. That steps to recovery homes.org forward slash job dash fair. And that's Thursday, February 12th from 330 to 6. So you guys, thank you.

Oh, and it's at the connection room, 637 North Main Street. suite number two B. But thank you guys so much for what you're doing. Thank you for making Cottonwood, a better place to live, and just keep doing what you're doing. I appreciate you guys. Well, thank you for having us on, Alicia.

We look forward to changing lives together. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you so much. You're welcome.