Join us for a Live Virtual Teach-In

Join us as Carolina Ayala shares her life experiences at the intersection of trauma, substance use, mental health challenges, incarceration, and ultimately, recovery. In this conversation, she will share pieces of her own journey and how those experiences led her to found The Happier Life Project, Riverside County’s first Recovery Community Organization.

About the Virtual Teach-In:

Together, we’ll explore the differences and connections between mental health and substance use systems of care, the unique challenges faced by people living with both, and why community, peer support, and belonging are so essential to healing. More than anything, we hope people leave with a deeper understanding that recovery is possible, hope matters, and every person deserves the opportunity to build a life they love.

Speakers:

Carolina Ayala is the Founder & CEO of The Happier Life Project, a California-based Recovery Community Organization (RCO) rooted in the Inland Empire. She is a social impact leader building community-driven systems of care for individuals and families impacted by substance use, incarceration, and systemic inequities.

A woman in long-term recovery, Carolina leads with lived experience bringing a trauma-informed, culturally grounded, and community-rooted approach to healing. As an Indigenous Latina and Spanish-speaking leader, she is a fierce advocate for equity, dignity, and access to care for historically underserved communities.

Under her leadership, The Happier Life Project has developed a continuum of services that includes peer-led recovery support, recovery coaching, reentry services, transitional and supportive housing, peer-run respites, overdose prevention and education, and Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce development. Her work prioritizes creating career pathways for people with lived experience, strengthening the behavioral health workforce, and expanding alternatives to crisis response.

Carolina partners with counties, schools, and public health systems to advance peer-led infrastructure, crisis diversion models, and integrated care aligned with Medi-Cal and statewide behavioral health priorities. She is recognized for bridging grassroots innovation with systems-level change—designing scalable, culturally responsive models that move people from crisis to stability and long-term well-being.