David Upshaw, a retired pastor and a supporter of the recovery program, speaks to the graduates at Saturday’s celebration.
By Daniel Sherrier
Editor
Eleven people have done something extraordinary. With the help of family, friends, sponsors, and the Caroline County Recovery Community Program, and aided by their own strength of will, they’ve kept themselves sober for a full year.
The Caroline Recovery Community Program celebrated its newest graduates during an afternoon of food and fellowship under the picnic shelter at St. Asaph’s Church in Bowling Green Saturday.
The recovery program began in 2011 as an alternative sentence to incarceration, and it’s also a program that someone suffering from a substance abuse disorder can enter voluntarily. The Caroline Recovery Community Program is a day reporting program in which participants report to a center daily and take part in multiple meetings, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. The program also teaches life skills to participants, who are required to have sponsors.
The idea was developed by Caroline Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer and John Shinholser, president of the nonprofit McShin Foundation, which manages the program.
To achieve graduation, a participant must have maintained sobriety for one year.
“It helped me be a productive member of society, have a better relationship with my mother, my father, and spend more time with my kid,” said graduate Travis Tillman. “It gave me the principles and the tools to adapt to society.”
Tillman said it’s not a one-day program that can be completed and brushed aside. “It’s a program where you got to develop the skills over time. … I got to keep it in my life from here on out,” he said.
Before the program, Tillman had never held a job for more than six months, he said. Now, he’s been in his current position for over a year.
“It’s basically a wake-up call,” graduate Darius Lewis said of the program. “This program gives you the tools, and it’s up to you to use them.”
The key was “changing people, places, and things,” Lewis said, and as a result, “I’m not the same person. … Back then, I was out on the streets. Now I’m basically a homebody (going to) work (and) school.”
“It’s helped me to learn more responsibility and get a grip on my life,” said graduate Phillip Harris. “I learned that the problem wasn’t the drugs. The problem was in me.”
Harris added, “I’ve actually accomplished a whole lot since I’ve been in here during the last year, as far as my business, my home, and my family, everything, all the way around.”
The program has helped Harris achieve a life of “less worries, less problems, no drama.”
In order for the recovery program to work, “you have to want it,” Harris said. “When I kept doing the same things over and over, going back to jail, getting in trouble, I finally realized that I had a problem.”
Trea Houston, another new graduate of the program, said, “It’s really helped me change a lot of things, turn my life around. Once I got off the drugs, I got my first taxpaying job, and now I’ve moved on from making $7.25 all the way up to $24 an hour.”
Houston said he still has “some things he needs to work on,” but the recovery program has “given me a great relationship with my son, and it’s really just helped me to move on in my life, where I was sitting stagnant before.”
Jamie McKinney, who’s 11 months sober and expects to be part of the next graduating class, said, “It has planted the seed in me and shown what recovery is about. It’s given me the tools. You’ve got to want it as a person, a different way of life.”
McKinney reiterated what several graduates mentioned—that part of recovery is helping others.
“It’s only so good to you unless you give it back to somebody else,” he said.
McKinney said that encouragement from the community inspires him to keep up his recovery.
“If you know someone that’s in recovery, give them a little pat on the back and tell them they’re doing a good job if you believe so. That’s a big part of it, and it gives them inspiration,” he said.
Program director Frank Brewer invited each graduate to share a few words about their experiences.
“Look where you’re all at,” graduate Veronica Queen told the group. “Everybody’s having fun.”
Queen continued, “Being in this program helps you to change your way of thinking so you can become that better, productive member of society, so you can be part of that number that grows and excels, and not that number that keeps relapsing and failing. I’m having fun. I know you all are. Keep it moving. Keep going forward.”
If someone slips up, however, “we’re going to catch you, because we’re not going to let you hit the floor. We’re going to help you back up,” she said.
Brewer challenged the graduates to remain involved with the recovery program.
“By you doing what you’re doing and continue to do today, you’re going to make a pathway for others to follow,” he said.
For more information about the Caroline County Recovery Community Program, call (804) 632-6015.
For more information about the McShin Foundation, visit www.mcshin.org.