Take 5 Spotlight – Molly Princic

Molly Princic is the SMART Recovery Online (SROL) Support Manager in the Volunteer & Meeting Resource Management Department. As Molly puts it, that means the online community is her area, “I help with all things SROL—working with a small group of volunteers, known as the Leadership Team, who represent one of the three online communities—Meetings, Message Board, and Chat.” She works with this Leadership Team to improve their platforms and offers technical support to participants as needed. Molly also works closely with SROL volunteers, helping them enjoy and embrace their roles.

As far as landing at SMART, Molly knew she wanted to do something to help people, not just have a job to simply make a living. She finished her Bachelor’s degree at age 20, but the jobs she held weren’t really fulfilling. She says SMART is different, “…it doesn’t feel like just a place that I work at, but it is fulfilling for me to be involved in an organization that works toward something that is bigger than myself.” She loves when she gets calls where someone is having a hard time and she can help them in some way.

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Here are Molly’s responses to Take 5 Spotlight questions:

1. Are there tasks you perform regularly during your work day?
   I grant access to restricted access forums in SROL, help issue Zoom licenses, and provide general tech support.  In the future I’ll also be designing training and developing support resources for SROL volunteers.
2. What are a couple of the ways you interact and coordinate your job with other national office staff?
   SMART Recovery is about peer support and it really shows in the office. We are like a little family; we all watch out for each other. Katie [Mackey] taught me how to answer the general tech support email and then we did training together to learn the SROL platform more in depth. Melina [Gilbert] and I work very closely together to make sure that everything in the face-to-face world is aligned with the online world and vice versa. When I started, I was on the national office call center team, and they made it possible for me to transition into SROL. SMART is very cohesive and we work together very well!
3. What is one of the ways that you think you personally make a difference at SMART Recovery?
   Helping people when they first get to SROL. Technology in combination with the life conditions that bring someone to SMART can initially be very overwhelming for new comers. I work to help them understand how SROL works and hopefully show them that the National Office truly there to help support them.
4. What is your message to all those dedicated SMART volunteers across the country?
   There isn’t enough we could do to thank you! While the national office is the core organizer, it’s our volunteers that are the conduits for change. There are lots of things which volunteers do to help the national office beyond meetings—volunteers increase the impact we make for the greater good.
5. What kinds of things are you interested in outside of work?
   I spend a lot of time working on self-care, you have to take care of yourself if you want to be able to help others. For me this shows up as meditation, reading, music, yoga, traveling and spending time in nature.

Between taking care of herself and helping others, Molly Princic is the kind of person making a difference in the world of SMART—and beyond!

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