Western Maine Addiction Recovery Initiative
Mollyocket Motel/Crosstone Restaurant
August 2, 2017
6:10 Welcome and Introductions: Jessica, Brendan, Allie, Nancy, Michelle, Tonya, Jason, Chris, Janice Davis
6:05 Financial Report: Matt is unable to be here. The bank account is the same as last time. Matt asked Brendan to share that there have been a few Narcan saves, including one last night. It took 7 Narcan doses to revive the person last night. This brings up the concern about the increase in potency of the drugs in our area and the prevalence of Fentanyl.
Dave Preble has not been able to make meetings because the hospital board meetings are on the same night. as WMARI meetings. His last meeting on the board will be in October. Chris believes that David intends to start coming back to our meetings beginning in November.
David has been chosen for an award by the Maine Pharmacy Association for previous work in fighting drug addiction. The award is to be presented to him in October and comes with a $500 donation to a 501c3 charity of his choice. He would very much like to donate it to WMARI . He will be able to do this by sending it through the River Valley Healthy Communities to qualify as donating it to a 501c3 (Contact person there – Allie Burke). We will happily accept this donation. Also, Congratulations Dave!
6:10 Subcommittee Report Outs
Recovery Coach committee: Brendan recently met the peer support coordinator for BARN, the Bangor Area Recovery Network. They will be having recovery coach training coming up and will share that information with us. They also hope to bring a Train the Trainer workshop to their area and will also let us know if they are able to do that.
Darren, who did the training for us, said that you must go to Connecticut for the C-car Train the Trainer workshop. This may not be the case?
Chris shared that Erik Martin from Naples has had the Recovery Coach training. Once he gets his certification, he will let people know that he is certified so that he can be another resource in western Maine. He might come to the next meeting.
Tonya expressed an interest in becoming a coach and Jess asked her to contact her directly to get the information that she needs to get started. Others interested in the training should also let Jess know so that she can contact them when the training becomes available next. Janice and her husband Glenn are also interested in the Recovery Coach training and it might be possible for them to open their home as a place to do the training. They have a large home with 3 breakout rooms for use.
Classes are typically 5 days: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then Saturday and Sunday the following week. The cost is $2500 and we must have 15 people to run the training.
Recovery Rally: Jessica will be taking care of letters sponsors for tax purposes. Meeting at the 11:00 on September 9.
Daddy-O’s donated $500 toward the rally.
The next meeting is at Common Ground Counseling at 2:00 tomorrow, August 3rd.
Education/MeHAF:
The education subcommittee decided on a graphic designer for a logo and brochure for WMARI. We intend to try to make it more clear what WMARI is and separate it a bit from Project Save ME. We would like to have one panel highlight Project Save ME as one of WMARI’s projects. Perhaps we could have a tear off panel for Project Save ME, so people could have the resource. By using the Graphic Designer we chose, we should have enough money left to spend on updating/refreshing our electronic presence. We’d like to try to get this complete before the Rally, but we will be cutting it close.
6:40 New, Project Save ME & Other Updates
We should make a decision about the possibility of having Dr. Kassel come for a speaking engagement. We talked about having it in October and to talk it up at the recovery rally. Another idea is to have an evening presentation as a lead in to the Alcohol & Addictions conference in December. This would give us more time to publicize the event. We would hope to have it at the auditorium at the high school. Perhaps ask him for two evening presentations – one on Wednesday night (29th) and one on Thursday (30th) night – one at Oxford Hills, one at Mountain Valley in Rumford. We should consider a local speaker prior to the event to tie in the fact that this is a local issue even though the speaker is not from our area.
Chris will reach out to Dr. Kassel about potential availability during the week before the conference and will let Nancy and Allie know what he learns. Nancy will contact Oxford Hills for the availability of space, and Allie will contact the Mountain Valley.
7:00 Spotlight: Janice Davis, Teen Challenge Maine
Teen Challenge is a national and international Christian faith-based program. David Wilkinson, a pastor in Brooklyn, wrote the Cross and the Switchblade began the program many years ago. There is a teen challenge home (18 & up) in Windham. There are currently two homes. One home now has 24 men, 4-6 men in each room. There is a second home that is being renovated which will have room for another 45 men. It costs $750 to fill out application, $750 per month to reside in the program. If people can’t afford it, and are committed to the program, there are scholarships to cover the cost. There are work requirements as part of the program and the men are also part of the choir. One visit per month from family. People are immersed in the program. The men do work projects in the community. The program is a 15 month program. 87% success rate for those who complete the program. Although there are people who do not complete the program. There is a teen challenge home for women in Massachusetts. There is a new home – Bloom – for girls.
It is a 501(c)(3) program. There is a Maine philanthropist who will match up to $100,000 of donations specifically to the Maine Teen Challenge program. Golf tournament every spring. A banquet in Waterville every year, this year it will be October 6th. $35.00 per person, $25.00 per person if you sign up a table of 10.
For more in depth information, you can visit the website. Teen Challenge wants to get the word out that this a resource for people in our area who are struggling with addiction.
They also have a multimedia presentation for young people. When they talk in schools, they do not talk about the faith-based part of the program unless they are asked questions which bring that out.
One questions asked of Janice: Does 2-1-1 have the information? It would be important for Teen Challenge to contact 2-1-1 to ensure that the referral program has this resource listed.
7:40 Adjourn
Next Meeting: September 6, 6:00 – 7:30 pm, Mollyockett Motel