- Rotary Year: 2016-2017
- Application Date: 5/31/2016
- Club Name (Primary): Winchester
- Club Name 2: Clarke County
- Club Name 3: Frederick County
- Club Name 4: Front Royal
- Club Name 5: Warren County
- Project Name: The Providing Hope Support Program
- Project Total Cost: $18,200.00
- Grant Amount Requested: $9,100.00
- Describe the Project, its location and its objectives: Since 2012, our region has experienced a tragic increase in deaths resulting from drug overdoses. Between 2011-2015, 87 people in the City of Winchester and Counties of Clarke, Frederick, and Warren died as a result of an opioid/heroin overdose. 265 individuals suffered an overdose, but survived.
A group of concerned community stakeholders formed the Northern Shenandoah Valley Substance Abuse Coalition (NSVSAC). This grant would enable the NSVSAC to provide training to individuals, who have experienced a substance use disorder and recovery, to become peer recovery coaches. This training, recognized by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, is required to become Certified Peer Recovery Specialists. These counselors support peers by promoting recovery through advocacy, education, and services.
The Providing Hope Support Program would provide training to coaches in the City of Winchester and Counties of Clarke, Frederick, and Warren, improving responses to situations including:
• An individual’s overdose being treated in the hospital’s emergency department
• A pregnant woman, mother or a father suffering with a substance use disorder
• Law enforcement officers in contact with individuals with a substance use disorder
• Serving those incarcerated
• Attending meetings with Northwest Regional Adult Drug Treatment Court participants
The Providing Hope Support Program would:
• Provide hope to those in recovery, encouraging them throughout the process
• Assist peers with setting recovery goals, developing action plans, and solving recovery problems
• Serve as a liaison for individuals in treatment/recovery, securing services they need
• Better educate communities about recovering individuals and the discrimination they face.
This program would also provide incentives to include gift certificates, movie passes, and gas cards to Drug Treatment Court participants who are advancing through the phases of the program successfully by maintaining sobriety. These incentives would also be given to coaches for the time they have dedicated to helping recovering peers.
- Expected Start Date: 7/1/2016
- Expected End Date: 5/7/2017
- Expected Number of Beneficiaries: 25
- Describe how the project will benefit the community and/or improve the lives of the less fortunate: The Providing Hope Support Program will fill many voids in our community. The trained peer recovery coaches will serve as case managers for individuals in treatment/recovery. This program will connect individuals in the throes of addiction with people in recovery who know what it’s like to suffer with addiction. With a powerful message of hope and a “yes, you can” attitude, combined with the experience of success in their own recovery efforts, peer recovery coaches extend the clinical reach of treatment and go directly into the lives of people who most need them. This program will improve the lives of individuals struggling with a substance use disorder. Peer recovery coaches serve as life coaches. For example, when they respond to the hospital, they will coach the person struggling with addiction through the steps toward recovery, possibly suggesting they attend a support group meeting and offering to attend with them. They will then connect the individual with treatment facilities in our community that can help them move to the promise of recovery. When the individual suffers a craving, they can call on their peer recovery coach for advice on how to overcome the temptation. The peer recovery coaches will also monitor the progress of the individual, as they continue down the road to recovery, by calling them, sometimes on a daily basis. This program can help the individuals become successful, contributing members of society.
This program would have far reaching impacts on our community, not only benefiting the person struggling with addiction, but their families by decreasing:
• the incidence of substance exposed infants
• the number of children who end up in foster care as a result of having a parent with a substance use disorder,
• and the number of crimes committed by individuals who are in the throes of addiction.
- Expected Total Project Volunteer Hours: 1100
- Describe the Rotarian hands-on activities in the project (i.e. non-financial participation): The Providing Hope Support Program would provide Rotarians the opportunity to serve as mentors to individuals in treatment or recovery. These individuals would include participants of the Drug Treatment Court, as well as other persons in our communities who are struggling with the disease of addiction. As mentors, Rotarians would provide transportation for the person to get to and from treatment sessions, probation and parole meetings, job interviews, doctor’s appointments, and drug screenings. The mentors would also work closely with peer recovery coaches to provide items to meet basic needs, including personal hygiene items and clothing for court or an interview. Mentors could also assist the individuals with job coaching and interview skills, including:
• GED classes, testing
• literacy tests to determine reading and writing skills
• resume building and job training for employment
This opportunity meets the four-way test and would build relationships between Rotarians and our robust recovery program, serving the very communities in which they live. It would expand understanding of the complex disease of addiction, and empower Rotarians to direct those in need of this service appropriately. It would be rewarding to witness the progress that can be made as one progresses from active addiction to recovery.
- Describe the publicity plan to inform the general public that this is a Rotary sponsored project: The NSVSAC would facilitate a press conference to inform the media and the public about the Providing Hope Support Program. Rotarians would be invited to attend and speak at the press conference. The press conference would educate the community about the program and how the generosity of local Rotary Clubs made this program possible. A speaker at the press conference would include someone in recovery who benefitted by having a peer recovery coach. This person could speak to the significance of meeting the basic needs of a person in treatment so that they can focus on their recovery. In addition to the press conference, a press release would be distributed and posted to the Road to Recovery website, as well as the NSVSAC’s Facebook page. We would offer follow-up success stories to the media highlighting the positive impact this program is having on the individuals it serves. A dynamic pairing of a person in recovery with a Rotarian who is serving as a mentor may also result in a positive feature story.
- Cooperating Organizations – Please list each cooperating organization, if any: The Northern Shenandoah Valley Substance Abuse Coalition (NSVSAC) is a coalition of law enforcement, health care, substance abuse treatment and youth advocacy organizations and families impacted by substance abuse and addiction in the Winchester region. The group formed in May 2014 following a community heroin summit in Winchester convened by the Northwest Virginia Regional Drug Task Force. The Mission of the Coalition is to collaborate with community partners to take the lead in identifying and developing effective resources to ensure that the necessary continuum of care for substance abuse and addiction services are available to all members of the community.
- Letter(s) of Participation: Letter of Participation.pdf
- Project Expenditure Budget – list detail uses of funds for the project, or use the Budget Upload.See Budget Upload
- Project Funding Budget – list detail sources of funds for the project, or use the Budget Upload: See Budget Upload
- Budget Upload: Winchester Collaborative budget.xls
- Primary Contact Name: Don Butler
- Primary Contact Rotary Position: Committee Chair, Addiction Crisis Team
- Primary Contact Email: don@vpgwinchester.com
- Primary Contact Phone: 540-722-4500
- Financial Contact Name: Cary Claytor
- Financial Contact Rotary Position: Treasurer-Elect, Winchester Rotary Club
- Financial Contact Address:
2150 S. Loudoun Street Winchester, VA 22601 United States View on Map
- Financial Contact Email: crclaytor@yahoo.com
- Financial Contact Phone: 540-662-9000, ext. 231
- Project Authorization Form: collaborative grant authorization letter.pdf
- Supporting Uploads: newspaper article.pdf
- Grant Number1617-G
- Grant Award$9,100.00
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