Community is key

Name it to claim it.

Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition and Jay County Opioid Settlement Taskforce will be hosting a contest to determine the name of the recovery home — its potential location is expected to be announced in the next two weeks — coming to Jay County.

Since January, both groups have also laid more of the groundwork for the home’s policies and expectations of residents.

Sober living facility policies and plans for community engagement were just a few of the topics covered Thursday during the public forum on recovery housing at IU Health Jay in Portland.

Background

Kimbra Reynolds, executive director at Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition, noted Thursday that Jay County’s statistics related to drug use are significantly higher than the state average. Relatives of those who have died from overdoses, Reynolds said, had suggested creating a sober living facility for those battling drug or alcohol addiction. 

“Basically, the goal with a recovery house is to, you know, enhance access, reduce barriers and create hope for these individuals,” Reynolds said.

Jay County Opioid Settlement Taskforce preliminarily selected a Redkey house in December as a potential location for a sober living facility. Jay County Commissioners at that time approved a $35,000 request from National Opioid Settlement dollars to conduct a feasibility study on the home and put down earnest money. Commissioners later rescinded that decision in response to backlash from Redkey residents, who cited a lack of amenities and resources as well as safety concerns regarding the facility. The task force also pulled its offer on the house and has been looking for a different location.

The situation led to Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition seeking more community input in the process, hosting community forums Jan. 24 and Thursday, as well as a conversation with teenagers regarding addiction and recovery on Tuesday.

Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition hopes to announce the location it is considering in the next few weeks. The group will still need to conduct a feasibility study on the property to determine if it is suitable. 

Name it to claim it

“No good recovery starts without community,” said Jake Martz, a youth life coach and drug prevention leader with Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition. “If you want to do any kind of growth, you need to have community.”

That line of thinking, he continued, led to the idea of getting local residents involved in the process.

Martz explained that once the organization has officially selected a home in the next couple weeks, Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition will begin seeking surveys meant for suggesting names for the new facility.

The contest winner will receive $250 and their suggested name will be used for the new facility. Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition will then begin a similar competition for the facility’s logo design.

“We want the community to take ownership in this because while we’re going to have community inside that home, they need to have community support,” he said.

Plans and policies

Ally Raines, who is director of PAST (Peer Addiction Support Team) Recovery Services for Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition and in October celebrated five years of being drug-free, addressed some of the questions from the previous forum that had not been answered.

Plans call for a facility designated for males in recovery, serving between 15 and 17 residents in a roughly 5,000-square-foot building. That includes one house manager who is in long-term recovery and oversees the facility at all times.

The intake policy would include an extensive application, interview process, drug screening — each potential resident must be sober and have already detoxed — and, if accepted, a trial period.

New residents would have their rent supplemented by Recovery Works dollars through Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. Once employed, residents must pay weekly rent.

Residents would be expected to:

•Complete chore lists and keep their areas clean

•Eat meals together as a group

•Meet with a peer recovery coach at least every other week

•Follow a curfew, for which a time has not been designated yet. (Overnight passes may be earned over time.)

•Schedule and attend their own appointments (the facility will provide transportation if needed)

•Sign in and out of the building for appointments and other obligations

Raines said the facility will partner with area organizations to offer classes, trainings and other opportunities to residents. (Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition is looking for a yoga instructor willing to donate their time.)

Regarding neighbors with issues, added Raines, they will be given contact information to the person in charge, who will follow up with their concerns. Noice, loitering and parking complaints, as well as rude behavior and other complaints, will be taken care of immediately, she noted.

“We’re wanting to give (the residents) a sense of responsibility, and social cues,” Raines said.

She also talked about a discipline policy, which would identify infractions in varying levels depending on the severity. After a certain number of infractions, residents will be dismissed.

The recovery community organization’s board of directors will approve policies and procedures for the facility. (Per law, recovery community organizations boards must have at least 50% of their members in recovery. About 80% of the local board fits that criteria.)

As long as residents are abiding by the rules, they may stay at the home indefinitely until ready to seek other opportunities.

Public input

Among various questions addressed Thursday, building trust with the community was a key aspect.

Martz pointed out strong feelings about those in recovery are going to continue.

“They have been negatively affected by people in active use,” he said. “The effect is happening, so when people in recovery grow … those sober people are helping the community to recover from an epidemic they’ve had for a long time.”

Jay County resident Michael Keller, who said his home had been burglarized by three people struggling with addiction, noted he’s not alone in having experienced trauma.

“There are people that have experienced very traumatic things by the drug picture,” he said, noting it will take years to break down those walls.

Also Thursday, Jay County natives Dustin Louck and Ashley Franklin shared their stories with recovery.

Franklin, a local resident in recovery who is currently pursuing her master’s degree in social justice, talked about her focus on advocating for the vulnerable. She mentioned family of those struggling with addiction.

“Even if the drug pandemic may not affect your everyday life, think of those that it does,” Franklin said. “The mom who had bury her 15-year-old son due to drugs or the son who spent all his life wondering why his mother loved drugs more than she loved him.”

She also noted the facility will be focused first on Jay County residents in recovery.

Louck, a Redkey resident in his 40s, has spent a majority of his life battling drug and alcohol addiction. He lived in Salvation Army Harbor Light Center’s transitional housing for an extended period of time and noted the usual 28-day rehabilitation process would not have been enough for him.

“There has to be that time, that I’m in a controlled environment with a little bit of freedom, where there’s enough rules that somebody’s telling me, you’ve got to be home at this time, you’ve got to pay bills,” he said.

“I would be dead, if I had to come back to Redkey straight from rehab, I would be dead,” continued Louck. “There’s no question because, you know, I come right back to what I’m used to. If that’s all I know, that’s all I know, until somebody teaches me different, somebody walks me through how to be a normal person again …”