recovery management

dawn farmdawn farmFINDING RECOVERYFINDING RECOVERY

What we’ll try to accomplish today

“What it was like, what happened, and what it’s like now”

Tell stories

Importance of telling yourself the truth

Working in faith and not fear

Issues of trust with the community

A radical transformation

Small, simple actions

Dawn Farm was founded in 1973 by two recovering addicts

Gary Archie & Jack Scholtus rented an old

farmhouse on Stoney Creek Road in Ypsilanti• there was no state licensing• there was no public funding• entirely supported by charitable gifts

The original farmhouse

After some donated siding…

Dawn Farm - the early years

Dawn Farm began in 1973 using the combined incomes of

the two founders, along with charity from the AA community.

Utilizing the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous and

some borrowed ideas from a residential program in

Quebec, they rented the Farm on Stoney Creek Road.

The original Dawn Farm:Was long-term • Abstinence-focused • Treated all addictions alike

Believed in the value of hard work and communityTreated people without regard for financial condition

1994 – Significant transition

From 1973 to 1994, Dawn Farm provided

long-term treatment for young men and

women between the ages of 17 and 35.

The acquisition of a failed treatment program

had a profound and fundamental effect on

Dawn Farm’s culture. We overnight added:

• Detox Facility

• Women’s Transitional Program

• Short-term residential treatment

• Residential treatment for older

individuals

Our culture drifted into danger

• Became more and more hierarchical

• Became more protective of clients

• Became more rule-driven• Grew more isolated• Began blaming the client• Jekyll vs. Hyde• Excessive treatment focus• Increased focus on pathology

A challenge to our values

1999 brought the beginning of a culture

change that would produce a long-lasting

change in Dawn Farm:

• Declining outcomes

• Community antagonism/caution

• Self-importance

• Professional pride

• Fear vs. faith

The Chapin Street Project opened up our

understanding of the role of the recovering

community.

Challenging our BeliefsChallenging our Beliefs

• Internal struggles• Rules and regulations• 4th Step papers

• Family visits• The recovering community• Understanding barriers

A Fourth and Fifth Step…for Dawn Farm

A Public Stakeholders Meeting

Why are we here?Why are we here?

The goal of Dawn Farm is to assist addicts and alcoholics in achieving long term recovery.

Dawn Farm will identify and remove barriers that prevent addicts and alcoholics from joining the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

Each addict brings barriers: fear, denial, defenses, impaired perceptions. Therapy can help overcome these barriers.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

Individuals and institutions can become codependent and harmful, by protecting the individual from natural consequences or creating artificial consequences.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

There are many community prejudices about addiction. We can overcome these barriers through honest communication.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

The treatment field suffers from limited funding, managed care dilemmas, etc. Dawn Farm responds with free programs.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

The treatment field has prejudices: mistaken belief that addicts are sociopaths, untreatable, or just need meds.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

Individual caregivers have prejudices: is addiction willful misconduct? Is it a result of bad families or underlying issues?

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

Addicts need basic skills: they may lack education, job skills, cooking, budgeting, other basic adult needs.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Overcoming barriers to recoveryOvercoming barriers to recovery

Addicts and alcoholics may lack jobs, affordable housing, other basic community supports.

The recovering community potentially provides a welcoming, supportive connection - a long-term solution to the symptoms of addiction. When addicts and alcoholics fully enter this community and become members, their chance of long-term survival and happiness increase. By identifying and removing barriers, Dawn Farm can assist individuals as they attempt to join the recovering community.

Beginning to meet community needs

Increase in client outcomes

Treatment vs. Recovery support

Willingness to make mistakes

Organizational hope instead of fear

Creativity

Staff retention

New ways to help

• Expansion of transitional housing

• Shortened treatment stays

• Community Outreaches

• Trust in the recovering community

• Staff focus on removing barriers

• Recovery Coaches

• Recovery is Everywhere

• Staff as Community Guides

Community Guide PrinciplesCommunity Guide Principles

Community guides have a capacity to see possibilities and potential where others see problems. They focus on

strengths – not on trying to “fix” people..

CommunityCommunityCommunity guides are themselves well-connected to what might be called the "communities within the community."

Their strength is associational; their capacity to help grows stronger as a result of

their ongoing contribution to community life.

TrustTrustCommunity guides can make things happen

because they are trusted within the community rather than because they have letters or titleslinked to their names. Trust is derived from the

basic connectedness of the guide.

HospitalityHospitalityCommunity guides believe that the

community is a "reservoir of hospitality" that needs only to be tapped. They understand

that the community is ready and willing to care for each individual, if the individual wants

to join. The guide introduces the excluded person to community life, confident of the hospitality they will receive.

Letting GoLetting GoCommunity guides know that a person’s

real engagement with the community doesn'tbegin until the guide disengages.

The guide knows how to say good-bye.

A Constant Focus on OutreachA Constant Focus on Outreach

• Street Outreach• Detox Outreach• Jail Outreach• Education Series• Community Programs• Community Barn

Providing “low threshold” ways for Dawn Farm to connect with addicts and alcoholics

New outreaches & challengesNew outreaches & challenges

• Recovery is everywhereA unique attempt to reduce stigma and offer hope for people in recovery from addictions

• www.dawnfarm.org

A website that works to aggressively meet community needs

How are we different today?How are we different today?

• We have a strong sense of mission - driving all levels of the organization.

• We are enthusiastic and maintain a commitment to our clients.

• We are barrier removers: staff see themselves as problem solvers.

• We are values-driven, and make decisions based upon shared beliefs.

• We talk with one another and share our ideas and concerns.

How are we different today?How are we different today?

• We are committed to doing the best we can - as helpers and as an organization. We don’t settle for the bare minimum.

• We encourage creativity and new ideas.

• We are proactive, not reactive. We look for new opportunities to solve problems and try new things.

• We are not afraid of making mistakes.

• We embrace the idea of living in faith instead of fear.

You are in the right place.

You are with others like yourself.

We understand you and the world you come from.

We accept who you are and who you can become.

This is a place where magic (change) can happen.

William White

Pathways from the Culture of Addiction

to the Culture of Recovery