350. Growing an Active Sober Community Across the US with 159K Lives Impacted- Rob Baumgartner

CommunityMission Story

Nov 11

Written By Andie Murphy

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Overview

Meet Rob. He’s a rock-climber and the Colorado Program Manager of The Phoenix, a national sober active community, where he first joined as a participant in 2008. The Phoenix has experienced explosive growth with programming across the U.S. reaching 159,000 participants (Rob was the 159th member🤩) Join us for a conversation about what goes into creating a safe, inclusive, welcoming space where others “believe in them until they believe in themselves.” 🙌⛰️

💡Learn

Mission and overview of The Phoenix
Building a safe and authentic community
Stepping into the power of your story (even when it’s difficult)

Today’s Guest

Rob Baumgartner, Colorado Program Manager, The Phoenix

“Constantly stepping back and re-examining and being willing to say okay, it doesn’t have to be done the way that I think it has to be done is really important to success as a nonprofit.”

— Rob Baumgartner Colorado Program Manager, The Phoenix

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Rob’s story and journey to where he is today (3:00)
Overview of The Phoenix and its mission (7:35)
The process of building a safe community (11:00)
Create a safe space for those in recovery to tell their story (19:15)
Impact and expansion of The Phoenix (22:55)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Rob’s life (26:30)
Rob’s One Good Thing: Don’t be afraid to try new things (29:00)

Powerful quotes

“I got the courage to go check The Phoenix out. I was immediately just welcomed by people who you could tell were genuine, in wanting to create community and just to welcome anyone who walked in through that door.” -Rob

“When I first signed up I was the 159th member of Phoenix. So it was a very new and very small organization and about a month ago, I was just looking at some of our data and noticed we had served 159,000 people.” -Rob

“It can change that face of recovery, because so many people have this image in their heads that that isn't accurate.” -Rob

“A lot of the disciplines that we first did, were things like rock climbing, triathlon training, mountain biking, and things like that. But we quickly realized as an organization that wasn't going to be welcoming to everybody and nor accessible to everybody.” -Rob

“I wanted to just tie back to something our founder [Scott Strode] says a lot, which is, we believe in people until they believe in themselves.” -Rob

“Constantly stepping back and re-examining and being willing to say okay, it doesn't have to be done the way that I think it has to be done is really important to success as a nonprofit or in life.” -Rob