Rising Stars: Meet Hilario Vazquez of Los Angeles County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hilario Vazquez.

Hi Hilario, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in the San Fernando Valley, 1st generation Mexican-American, grew up in Pacoima CA. In 2011, I made some life changes to enhance my wellbeing. In doing so, I delve into studying addiction and being an advocate of recovery. Furthering my education, I obtained a BA in psychology and a MA in Social Work (MSW) from California State University Northridge. While studying, I had the opportunity to work in treatment centers, and juvenile justice detention centers and camps as first substance abuse counselor and later therapist and program supervisor. While in graduate school, I conducted a research project about addiction among people with intelectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This project started a new purpose and passion for me to help a significantly vulnerable and marginalized population and founded Sober State, LLC. We specialize in substance abuse treatment for people with IDD working strictly with Regional Centers in California under with the Department of Developmental Services (DDS). Since 2023, Sober State has developed innovative and equitable programs offering community-based services. One of our most recent endeavors, was the creation of the Peer Mentoring Program (PMP) in collaboration with the Westside Regional Center and funded by the Mental Health Service Act (MHSA) where we are teaching adults with disabilities in recovery to be mentors to other adults with disabilities in recovery. The profound impact we are having in such little time has led to rapid growth and expansion to many Regional Centers in California, including the East Bay in Oakland, CA. As CEO/Director, I continuously work in advocating for people with IDD by speaking at addiction and disability conferences, providing trainings for professionals, and collaborating with agencies like the State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) and the international Crisis Intervention Team (CIT).

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely been challenging. There are limited resources and materials including limited research pertaining to substance use disorder (SUD) and IDD therefore Sober State ‘s work is like building a plane while flying it too. As a sole-owner; having to work to fund my own business during startup was scary. All of my personal savings went into what I believe would be lifechanging for people in need. Additionally, the time I spent writing documents, thinking, and planning was a stressful journey but thankfully I have friends that would listen even though they had no clue of what I was talking about and back then it sounded crazy because no one else was doing what Sober State is doing now.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
What sets us apart from others is that Sober State believes in the power of relationship building. That addiction is broken through bonds that books and curriculums cant teach. Our team is composed of caring and compassionate individuals that are talented, smart, and can work anywhere else but choose to dedicate their time towards humanity by servicing people with disabilities. People with IDD are not easy to work with it and are challenging, but when you see the impact that recovery has in them it makes all our efforts worth while.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Everything is a risk even not taking a risk. I believe that with no risk there is no reward, at least that has been the story of my life where every time I took a risk despite difficulty, fear, discomfort, the payoff has been priceless either through positive change or wisdom gained.

Pricing:

• no

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sober-state.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sober_state_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556793245890&mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Credit PMP community outings. Sober State outreach events. Hilario Vazquez acknowledging a PMP mentor achievement.