(June 30, 2016) The third meeting of the Worcester County Warriors Against Opiate Addiction last Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church in Ocean City focused on faith-based recovery and featured guest speakers from Teen Challenge in Seaford and Stand Fast Recovery in Snow Hill.
Teen Challenge Executive Director Bob Carey claimed an 86 percent success rate with the program, which boasts more than 1,000 locations in 106 different counties around the world.
Rehabilitation at Teen Challenge lasts one year and focuses on solving addiction issues “through a relationship with Jesus Christ.” The average age of people in the program is 28-32, but Carey said the name is still used because of its brand visibility.
In Seaford, Teen Challenge is working on adding two new dormitories for women, including one for women with young children. The nonprofit is largely supported by donations and grants, and Carey said Teen Challenge rarely turns anyone away for inability to pay.
“We have a $500 entry fee and/or $500 a month, [but] if somebody doesn’t have any money or their family doesn’t, we still take them,” Carey said. “We don’t let money deter us from taking anybody in.”
Snow Hill native Daniel Freeman modeled Stand Fast after a program he attended in Bangor, Maine that helped him overcome heroin addiction. For now, Stand Fast runs regular Thursday evening meetings in Snow Hill, although Freeman said he would like to increase that to include additional meetings in Pocomoke.
Eventually, he wants to be able to offer a yearlong residential rehabilitation program.
“We’re going to need help. It’s not easy to do that,” he said. “It’s something we’re trying to get going down here in Maryland.”
Jim Freeman, vice chair of the Drug & Alcohol Council, a program of the Worcester County Health Department, presented Worcester County Warriors with a check for $2,000 during the meeting.
Sen. Jim Mathias was also present, and pledged his support from a legislative standpoint.
Mathias said he recently spoke to Gov. Larry Hogan about the heroin epidemic in the state. Hogan revealed that his first cousin died of an overdose while in Ocean City, when Mathias was mayor of the resort.
“I recall then that the oddity was to hear [about] heroin,” he said. “We really thought our real challenge and concern at the time … was inviting our graduating high school seniors here, allowing them to be here and returning them home safely to their parents.”
That, he said, had clearly changed.
“We’re not going to arrest our way out of this,” he said. “We’re going to converge on this in every possible way to bind it. We’re not going to allow it to ravage our county – we’re going to allow it to ravage our Eastern Shore.”
The next regular meeting of the Worcester County Warriors Against Opiate Addiction will be held on July 21, at 6:30 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church at 1301 Philadelphia Avenue in Ocean City.
In the meantime, “Warriors” cofounder Heidi McNeely said several subcommittees of the group would continue working in specific areas, including education, awareness and resource navigation.
“I think our subcommittees are so important, because they’re what is allowing us to go and do something,” she said. “These [regular] meetings are wonderful and we want to provide a format for speakers and information, but the committees are really the meat of it.”
For more information, email McNeely at heidi@wocowarriors.org, visit www.wocowarriors.org, or search “Worcester County Warriors Against Opiate Addiction” on Facebook.
Teen Challenge Executive Director Bob Carey claimed an 86 percent success rate with the program, which boasts more than 1,000 locations in 106 different counties around the world.
Rehabilitation at Teen Challenge lasts one year and focuses on solving addiction issues “through a relationship with Jesus Christ.” The average age of people in the program is 28-32, but Carey said the name is still used because of its brand visibility.
In Seaford, Teen Challenge is working on adding two new dormitories for women, including one for women with young children. The nonprofit is largely supported by donations and grants, and Carey said Teen Challenge rarely turns anyone away for inability to pay.
“We have a $500 entry fee and/or $500 a month, [but] if somebody doesn’t have any money or their family doesn’t, we still take them,” Carey said. “We don’t let money deter us from taking anybody in.”
Snow Hill native Daniel Freeman modeled Stand Fast after a program he attended in Bangor, Maine that helped him overcome heroin addiction. For now, Stand Fast runs regular Thursday evening meetings in Snow Hill, although Freeman said he would like to increase that to include additional meetings in Pocomoke.
Eventually, he wants to be able to offer a yearlong residential rehabilitation program.
“We’re going to need help. It’s not easy to do that,” he said. “It’s something we’re trying to get going down here in Maryland.”
Jim Freeman, vice chair of the Drug & Alcohol Council, a program of the Worcester County Health Department, presented Worcester County Warriors with a check for $2,000 during the meeting.
Sen. Jim Mathias was also present, and pledged his support from a legislative standpoint.
Mathias said he recently spoke to Gov. Larry Hogan about the heroin epidemic in the state. Hogan revealed that his first cousin died of an overdose while in Ocean City, when Mathias was mayor of the resort.
“I recall then that the oddity was to hear [about] heroin,” he said. “We really thought our real challenge and concern at the time … was inviting our graduating high school seniors here, allowing them to be here and returning them home safely to their parents.”
That, he said, had clearly changed.
“We’re not going to arrest our way out of this,” he said. “We’re going to converge on this in every possible way to bind it. We’re not going to allow it to ravage our county – we’re going to allow it to ravage our Eastern Shore.”
The next regular meeting of the Worcester County Warriors Against Opiate Addiction will be held on July 21, at 6:30 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church at 1301 Philadelphia Avenue in Ocean City.
In the meantime, “Warriors” cofounder Heidi McNeely said several subcommittees of the group would continue working in specific areas, including education, awareness and resource navigation.
“I think our subcommittees are so important, because they’re what is allowing us to go and do something,” she said. “These [regular] meetings are wonderful and we want to provide a format for speakers and information, but the committees are really the meat of it.”
For more information, email McNeely at heidi@wocowarriors.org, visit www.wocowarriors.org, or search “Worcester County Warriors Against Opiate Addiction” on Facebook.