Ryan Barone living life on the streets. He was in and out of prison and the only thing that he cared about, the only thing he had hope in, and the only thing he could look forward to was crack cocaine. He became an empty shell of the man he used to be and a person his family didn’t recognize.
He’s earned seven years clean from drugs and alcohol this August, he got married to his wife Ashley Barone in 2012, they are raising her child together, and he is leading the life of the man his mother had prayed night after night for, pleading for his return.
Ryan Barone is a community engagement coordinator at ACR Health and has turned his time as an addict into his life work, using his darkest moments as a way to help his hometown of Syracuse, New York by being there for addicts as a spokesperson for ACR Health, but also as a friend who understands what they are going through from past and present mistakes.
He recently relapsed in September. He left his home and spent 10 hours using. He returned home in the same night and has since stayed clean. He accepted it as a humbling experience that reminded him he will always be in recovery and cannot ever be completely cured from temptation to go back the white rock that almost took his life away. He described this as one of the toughest moments in his life.
“I stopped going to meetings as much, my ego started to come into play again, and I thought I had it all figured out,” Barone said. “It was hard, and it came with a lot of guilt and shame losing seven years, but I had to start over with the time, not with the knowledge or experience.”
His story is similar to many others, that no one could have guessed Barone would have gone down the path of crime and drug addiction.
He describes his childhood as joyful one, growing up with his mother Kim Barone and her partner Gina, while spending most of his time with his best friend Jason Surratts up until the 6th grade.
While attending Clary Middle School, he explained it was difficult for him and struggled to find himself, and with his nationality being half African-American and half white, it was tough for him to feel accepted by both groups.
“I got picked on by white kids for not being white enough and I got picked on by black kids for not being black enough,” Barone said.
But he said martial arts, where he later earned a black belt, and theatre became an escape that helped him gain confidence and gave him the feeling that he was a part of something.
When he entered high school in the ninth grade, his parents split up and Barone described this as devastating news. He moved away to Liverpool with his birth mother Kim Barone, where he said things began to change.
He realized being in this new town he could reinvent himself and pretend, describing himself as a city kid. He was making his own money so he was able to buy what he wanted, sag his pants if he wanted to, and with this new found ego, he got high for the first time smoking weed.
He began to struggle with his grades, being very disinterested in doing assignments, and weed became a once a week occasion to an everyday hobby.
“The more I was around people and the more I tried to be a chameleon to my peers, the more I felt alone and the more I used,” Barone said.
He was caught by his mother, Kim Barone, after coming home high one night, and both of his mother’s sat down and spoke to him about his use and urged him to stop. He took this conversation to heart, and for the next year and a half, he stayed clean and graduated high school.
He went on to go to SUNY Brockport to study theatre, and on the first night in a new place, he felt the need to fit in, and started smoking weed again.
But, he was the lead in all put one of the plays during his freshman year, won acting awards, and said he was invited by people in the industry to New York city.
During his sophomore year, he spent more time with theatre group, and was introduced to psychedelic drugs like ecstasy and acid.
His drug began to get out of control where he was doing acid by himself on a weekday with assignments due the following day, and eventually he was kicked out after the same year with a .008 GPA.
He moved back home, where he started selling drugs and worked entry level jobs, until they would notice money missing from the cash register and fire him. At one these jobs, he was working as a foreman as a construction site, and one of his co-workers who was just released from prison offered him crack cocaine, and from then on, lost control of maintaining his life outside of his drug use.
“That day I bought some it was a wrap from there,”Barone said. “I almost knew I was addicted after that first hit.”
He described living a life of crime and violence, going in and out of jail, moving from place to place, and stealing from the people closest to him.
His mother described having no idea about his drug use and was devastated when he came to her admitting he was dealing with addiction. During this time, she constantly worried about him and his well-being.
“It was the most difficult seven or eight years of my life,” Kim said. “I told him I used to pray to whoever was there to take me and save him, that’s how painful it was and I just wanted him to be okay.”
His best friend Jason Surratts said that during his drug use, their friendship was tested, but he was never going to throw away his friend.
“I would never abandon him just because he was going through something,” Surratts said. “Yes, it was scary and hard, but I knew who he was, so I could never let him go.”
In 2009, he was in treatment court, and was sent to jail for 30 days were he decided he didn’t want to do this anymore.
He went on to a rehab facility, lived in a half-way house, and began getting his life back.
He described wanting to get a job in public health and was suggested to work at ACR Health, were he has found a place to use his experiences to help others struggling with drug addiction.
He was the community engagement coordinator at ACR Health and has been recently promoted to oversee a new program doing HIV testing and education throughout Onondaga County.
Daniel Reed, a close co-worker of Barone’s and a senior prevention health advocate at ACR Health described his ability to fit into any setting and how his experiences have made him more versatile, being able to speak with people from all walks of life.
“You don’t always see an individual that’s so honest and open about their experiences, and I think that has made him to be this beacon in ACR Health because he’s a wealth of knowledge on so many different levels,” Reed said.
He works with the peer education program at ACR Health, where people that come from backgrounds of drug use and struggle, and they advocate for ACR Health to community members still struggling to stay clean. Peer educator Tracie Adams greatly appreciates the council she has received from Barone, and after serving two years in prison, he helped her adjust to life on the outside.
“When I went came home from prison, I went to talk to him, and he gave me his honest opinion,” Adams said. “He was a great listener and he helped me out a lot.”
Barone acknowledges he is not a model of perfection, which his peers and clients appreciate, making him a role model they can approach, whether they are doing well with their recovery or have had a moment of weakness, they know Barone will be there to speak to without judgement, according to Reed.
“It’s more than fulfilling, to know that I didn’t do it, but I helped somebody to save their own life,” Barone said. “It’s one of the most amazing feelings.”
He’s earned seven years clean from drugs and alcohol this August, he got married to his wife Ashley Barone in 2012, they are raising her child together, and he is leading the life of the man his mother had prayed night after night for, pleading for his return.
Ryan Barone is a community engagement coordinator at ACR Health and has turned his time as an addict into his life work, using his darkest moments as a way to help his hometown of Syracuse, New York by being there for addicts as a spokesperson for ACR Health, but also as a friend who understands what they are going through from past and present mistakes.
He recently relapsed in September. He left his home and spent 10 hours using. He returned home in the same night and has since stayed clean. He accepted it as a humbling experience that reminded him he will always be in recovery and cannot ever be completely cured from temptation to go back the white rock that almost took his life away. He described this as one of the toughest moments in his life.
“I stopped going to meetings as much, my ego started to come into play again, and I thought I had it all figured out,” Barone said. “It was hard, and it came with a lot of guilt and shame losing seven years, but I had to start over with the time, not with the knowledge or experience.”
His story is similar to many others, that no one could have guessed Barone would have gone down the path of crime and drug addiction.
He describes his childhood as joyful one, growing up with his mother Kim Barone and her partner Gina, while spending most of his time with his best friend Jason Surratts up until the 6th grade.
While attending Clary Middle School, he explained it was difficult for him and struggled to find himself, and with his nationality being half African-American and half white, it was tough for him to feel accepted by both groups.
“I got picked on by white kids for not being white enough and I got picked on by black kids for not being black enough,” Barone said.
But he said martial arts, where he later earned a black belt, and theatre became an escape that helped him gain confidence and gave him the feeling that he was a part of something.
When he entered high school in the ninth grade, his parents split up and Barone described this as devastating news. He moved away to Liverpool with his birth mother Kim Barone, where he said things began to change.
He realized being in this new town he could reinvent himself and pretend, describing himself as a city kid. He was making his own money so he was able to buy what he wanted, sag his pants if he wanted to, and with this new found ego, he got high for the first time smoking weed.
He began to struggle with his grades, being very disinterested in doing assignments, and weed became a once a week occasion to an everyday hobby.
“The more I was around people and the more I tried to be a chameleon to my peers, the more I felt alone and the more I used,” Barone said.
He was caught by his mother, Kim Barone, after coming home high one night, and both of his mother’s sat down and spoke to him about his use and urged him to stop. He took this conversation to heart, and for the next year and a half, he stayed clean and graduated high school.
He went on to go to SUNY Brockport to study theatre, and on the first night in a new place, he felt the need to fit in, and started smoking weed again.
But, he was the lead in all put one of the plays during his freshman year, won acting awards, and said he was invited by people in the industry to New York city.
During his sophomore year, he spent more time with theatre group, and was introduced to psychedelic drugs like ecstasy and acid.
His drug began to get out of control where he was doing acid by himself on a weekday with assignments due the following day, and eventually he was kicked out after the same year with a .008 GPA.
He moved back home, where he started selling drugs and worked entry level jobs, until they would notice money missing from the cash register and fire him. At one these jobs, he was working as a foreman as a construction site, and one of his co-workers who was just released from prison offered him crack cocaine, and from then on, lost control of maintaining his life outside of his drug use.
“That day I bought some it was a wrap from there,”Barone said. “I almost knew I was addicted after that first hit.”
He described living a life of crime and violence, going in and out of jail, moving from place to place, and stealing from the people closest to him.
His mother described having no idea about his drug use and was devastated when he came to her admitting he was dealing with addiction. During this time, she constantly worried about him and his well-being.
“It was the most difficult seven or eight years of my life,” Kim said. “I told him I used to pray to whoever was there to take me and save him, that’s how painful it was and I just wanted him to be okay.”
His best friend Jason Surratts said that during his drug use, their friendship was tested, but he was never going to throw away his friend.
“I would never abandon him just because he was going through something,” Surratts said. “Yes, it was scary and hard, but I knew who he was, so I could never let him go.”
In 2009, he was in treatment court, and was sent to jail for 30 days were he decided he didn’t want to do this anymore.
He went on to a rehab facility, lived in a half-way house, and began getting his life back.
He described wanting to get a job in public health and was suggested to work at ACR Health, were he has found a place to use his experiences to help others struggling with drug addiction.
He was the community engagement coordinator at ACR Health and has been recently promoted to oversee a new program doing HIV testing and education throughout Onondaga County.
Daniel Reed, a close co-worker of Barone’s and a senior prevention health advocate at ACR Health described his ability to fit into any setting and how his experiences have made him more versatile, being able to speak with people from all walks of life.
“You don’t always see an individual that’s so honest and open about their experiences, and I think that has made him to be this beacon in ACR Health because he’s a wealth of knowledge on so many different levels,” Reed said.
He works with the peer education program at ACR Health, where people that come from backgrounds of drug use and struggle, and they advocate for ACR Health to community members still struggling to stay clean. Peer educator Tracie Adams greatly appreciates the council she has received from Barone, and after serving two years in prison, he helped her adjust to life on the outside.
“When I went came home from prison, I went to talk to him, and he gave me his honest opinion,” Adams said. “He was a great listener and he helped me out a lot.”
Barone acknowledges he is not a model of perfection, which his peers and clients appreciate, making him a role model they can approach, whether they are doing well with their recovery or have had a moment of weakness, they know Barone will be there to speak to without judgement, according to Reed.
“It’s more than fulfilling, to know that I didn’t do it, but I helped somebody to save their own life,” Barone said. “It’s one of the most amazing feelings.”