Helping schools become where students turn first.
Robert "Bob" Faghan, MLADC · Founder, Live Free Adolescent Recovery
Most schools already notice when a student is struggling — the hard part is what happens next. I build the frameworks, tools, and training that turn informal awareness into a clearer, safer, and more reliable adult response.
The Where Students Turn First resource ladder
Four resources, one path: understand the problem, diagnose your building, learn the framework, install the system. Start anywhere — each one stands alone.
The Prevention Paradox
What crisis mode quietly costs our schools — and how to break the cycle. A 7-page white paper for leadership teams.
Free download →The Readiness Review
A 25-item team self-assessment: find out where your identification-and-response process is reliable — and where it runs on goodwill.
$12 →The Toolkit
The 12-page practical implementation guide — built for planning conversations, readiness reviews, orientation, and implementation meetings.
$19 →Implementation Templates Pack
Six editable Word documents — the flow map, capture form, agendas, and protocols that make the system real.
$39 →Best value: The Complete System
All three paid guides — the Readiness Review, the Toolkit, and the Templates Pack — in one download. $70 of tools for $55.
Live trainings — delivered to your school or agency
Every training is live — in-person or virtual, never a recording. Booked directly, delivered by LFAR. Each listing is a free booking request — checkout sends the request and LFAR follows up within two business days to schedule. PO/invoice friendly.
Relational Infrastructure Training
The web of student relationships is the most powerful early-warning system in your building. Three hours that give your whole staff the lens and the build: why peers know first, and the four components of relational infrastructure — recognition across all staff, a shared calibrated response, disclosure handled to protect trust, and connection to MTSS, SAP, and counseling. Your team leaves with a design for your own building.
Free booking request → Live · In-person or virtualWhere Influence Lives 90 minutes · IntroductionWhere Influence Lives
The 90-minute front door: why students turn to each other first, the four reasons early intervention arrives late, and the reframe that changes what your building does next — peer influence as infrastructure to be guided, not just a risk to be managed. Includes the Five Strategic Questions live self-assessment and the Six Fundamentals framework.
Free booking request → Live · In-person or virtualClosing the Awareness–Response Gap 3 hours · Schools & agenciesClosing the Awareness–Response Gap
The young person in trouble is known — to a friend — long before any adult. This session names the awareness–response gap and builds the answer: why concern stays inside the peer group, the bounded peer role — observer, connector, bridge — and the five safeguards that make structured peer support safe. Ends with an early-intervention pathway mapped for your own setting.
Free booking request → Live · In-person or virtualGrowing Our Own 3 hours · Workforce pipelineGrowing Our Own
The behavioral health workforce shortage has a supply line hiding in plain sight: the young people already showing aptitude for this work. Three hours to build the Credential Ladder — HS Peer Leader → College Peer Intern → Agency Apprentice → entry-level role — and the MOU, supervision, and funding infrastructure that carries it. Participants map a one-page Pathway Blueprint for their own setting.
Free booking request → Licensed CertificationSchool-Based Peer Recovery Model™ Delivered live and in-service · Full 6-hour or condensed 3-hourSchool-Based Peer Recovery Model™ Trainer Certification
The model structures the peer influence already present in your building — with training, defined roles, clear boundaries, and adult oversight. Peer leaders are trained student connectors — not counselors, not therapists. Adults stay in charge, and your district builds the capacity internally and owns it: no ongoing external dependency after certification. Certification covers six modules — foundations of the model; trainer role, scope, and safety; peer leader training and supervision; risk identification and escalation; program fidelity and implementation; and legal, ethical, and documentation responsibilities. Completion is competency-based: all six modules, demonstrated safety-protocol competency, a passing assessment, and a signed Trainer Certification Agreement. Licensed program materials — the trainer manual, appendices, and forms — are provided under the license.
Free booking request →Books
In print and ebook — from Amazon and Lulu.
Where Students Turn First
Clinician and recovery advocate Robert Faghan draws on decades of experience with adolescents to rethink early intervention — how peer relationships shape the earliest stages of student struggles, told through powerful student stories and leadership insight.
Buy on Amazon →Where Students Turn First — paperback
The same book, paperback direct from Lulu — a second ordering route for school purchasing.
Buy from Lulu →101 Quotes for New College Students
101 quotes to guide, inspire, and uplift students through the challenges and triumphs of college life — from first steps on campus to the final year.
Buy on Amazon →101 Quotes — paperback
The paperback edition of 101 Quotes for New College Students, direct from Lulu.
Buy from Lulu →Student Reflection Journal
The guided companion to 101 Quotes — structured reflection prompts and space to think, built to pair with the quotes collection through the first year of college and beyond.
Buy from Lulu →Written from inside the building
Robert "Bob" Faghan, MLADC, is the founder of Live Free Adolescent Recovery and the developer of the School Based Peer Recovery Model™ — a Master Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor in New Hampshire and Maine with more than 27 years of clinical experience.
Bob works where the problems actually live — inside schools — serving as a contracted clinical provider at Dover High School and partnering with districts across New Hampshire.
- His peer recovery model became a pilot program for Anthem/Blue Cross NH
- Collaborator with the UNH Center for Disabilities on youth peer support
- Presenter at regional, national, and international conferences
- Author of Where Students Turn First: Rethinking Peer Influence, Early Intervention, and the Architecture of School Support (2026)
More at livefreerecovery.com
Where Students Turn First: Rethinking Peer Influence, Early Intervention, and the Architecture of School Support
The full framework behind every resource on this page — why students turn where they turn, and how schools can build the relational architecture that catches needs early.
Partner with Live Free: the QR Support Pathway
A visible front door. A defined staff response. A closed loop. A customized, school-controlled pathway that helps students reach the right adult — with year-round human support behind it. For public, charter, private, and alternative schools serving grades 6–12.
- LEVEL 1Supported Access & Family Navigation$2,175 · renews $1,350
- LEVEL 2Enhanced MLADC & Peer Support$3,250 · renews $2,400
- LEVEL 3Comprehensive ImplementationCustom-scoped
Founding-schools offer: discounted first-year pricing for the first three New Hampshire schools to sign at Level 1 or Level 2.
Start a discovery conversation: 603-702-2461 · bfaghan@livefreerecovery.com — or download the full partnership catalog free.
See it working — free demo
Scan with your phone (or visit the link) for the district & staff demo.
Family Navigation Membership — for schools & districts
A separate, simple service: your school or district joins once, then sends any family in need our way — education, resource navigation, and next-step planning with an MLADC, all year, with no referral limit. Includes a family-facing introduction packet your counselors can hand out.
Get new resources as they're released
Practical tools for principals, counselors, and prevention coordinators — no noise, just the work.