Glen Weems

Glen Weems is a Legacy Lakelander and a trauma-informed peer addictions counselor who works at Hope House and Nick’s Place. The son of organizer Billy Weems, he remembers going from house to house, putting his father’s one man newspaper describing the dangers of urban renewal into residents’ mailboxes. His vocation as a peer addiction counselor grows directly out of his own experience of displacement, fragmentation, trauma, addiction and recovery. He writes “I grew up in a  small but loveable neighborhood called Lakeland, where you could leave your doors unlocked. Urban renewal came and tore down our house to put a lake in its stead. What happened next is that I ended living with family and friends. Because of the capacity of living sometimes 8-12 people in one home, violence and drugs became a part of what was once a peaceful neighborhood. I’m no longer controlled by the effects drugs had on me and now I work in the field of helping people get off drugs and alcohol.”