The Recovery Review: September 2018

IH Happenings

As some of you may know, September is Recovery Month. Recovery Month promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for mental and substance use disorders, celebrate people in recovery, acknowledges the contributions of treatment and service providers, and promotes the message that recovery is possible. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover.

For us at Isaiah House, this is what we get the blessing of doing each day; to celebrate people in recovery and to provide tangible proof through transformed lives that treatment is effective. However, when there is a special time set aside on the calendar that highlights recovery, I find my heart overflowing with renewed gratitude for all of our supporters that make treatment possible. Each person who prays and financially supports our ministry plays a vital role in saving lives. To each of you I extend a heartfelt thanks!

I am very excited to announce that we are now a certified best workplace as determined by the Best Christian Workplace Institute. For the past two years we have used BCWI to survey our employees to determine the culture of our workplace. Our employees’ anonymous responses to the following eight factors were analyzed and scored: Fantastic Teams, Life-Giving Work, Outstanding Talent, Uplifting Growth, Rewarding Compensation, Inspirational Leadership, Sustainable Strategy, and Healthy Communication. We look forward to continually growing together as a family and becoming more like Christ in all that we endeavor.

I also want to extend an invitation to pastors and church leaders to come to our first ever Pastor’s Symposium, October 18th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at our new facility in Chaplin, Ky. This will be a great opportunity for learning about ministering to families and other ministry opportunities. There will also be a question and answer time hosted by a panel composed of professionals, pastors and those who know the pain of losing a loved one to addiction. People in recovery need to find home churches that will continue to love, encourage and disciple them. If you would like to be included on the list of recommended churches we share with clients looking for a home church, then this will be a great opportunity. Please plan to join us for this very special day and tour our new facility. Lunch will be provided and the event is free. Please R.S.V.P. to assist us in planning.

Lastly, I invite everyone to join us for the Grand Opening of our two new centers. The opening of the Jake Kuertz and Greg Bowen Centers provide 32 additional beds for treatment! This grand celebration will take place on location at 100 Broadway St, Chaplin, KY on Monday, October 29th from 11 a.m. to Noon. We will have some very special guests that will be joining us for this ribbon cutting ceremony! I look forward to seeing many of you in the coming weeks. Be blessed and know there is real hope for those in addiction.

Sincerely,

Mike Cox, M.Ed., NCC, LPCC-S
President
Isaiah House, Inc.

Isaiah House Chosen for New USDA Pilot Program

Isaiah House Treatment Center is the first in the nation to be chosen for a new USDA Rural Development initiative that will provide transitional housing for recovering addicts and their families.

The pilot program was announced Aug. 31st at the 2018 SOAR Summit in Pikeville by USDA Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett and Kentucky State Director Hilda Legg. The partnership with Isaiah House enables USDA to sell vacant, foreclosed homes at a discount to provide housing, treatment, job training and other key services for people in drug treatment and recovery.

Under the agreement, Isaiah House is purchasing two USDA-owned homes in Kentucky’s Hart and Rockcastle counties. Clients will renovate the homes through Isaiah House’s job training and employment program, which is part of its wrap around treatment model that strives to address every area of a recovering addict’s life that may impact their ability to stay sober.

“Over the years, we have found that clients who can function in the workplace are far more likely to maintain sobriety over time,” said Mike Cox, Isaiah House president. “Financial stress and inability to meet personal and family needs is a leading cause of addicts returning to old behavior. The employment program provides our clients with the opportunity to acquire new job skills and gain work experience.” When the renovations are complete, the homes will be converted to transitional housing for Kentucky residents in addiction recovery and their immediate families.

Founded in 1999, Isaiah House is one of Kentucky’s largest nonprofit addiction treatment centers. In 2017, residential and outpatient treatment were provided for 378 Kentucky residents from 76 different counties. Isaiah House is dual-licensed by the State of Kentucky and nationally accredited by Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community services such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas.

USDA Grant Expands Isaiah House Employment Program

Chaplin, KY – Isaiah House Treatment Center is expanding its job training and employment program, “From Crisis to Opportunity” thanks to a $150,000 grant and a low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program is part of the USDA’s Community Facilities Initiative to combat the opioid addiction crisis. Grants support innovative solutions that best address substance abuse in rural communities. According to the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, 1,565 Kentuckians died from drug overdoses in 2017, a 40 percent increase in the past five years.

Grant funds will be used to purchase a metal fabrication business, Howard’s Metals, located adjacent to Isaiah House’s new treatment centers in Chaplin in Nelson County. The business will be used to learn job skills, gain work experience and prepare recovering addicts for living successfully in the community. As part of its wrap-around treatment model, Isaiah House places a strong emphasis on education, job training, employment and financial independence for its clients.

“Recovering addicts often struggle with the stigma of addiction, criminal records and poor performance at previous jobs because of erratic, addictive behavior. Many have little job experience or training and almost all are unemployed by the time they seek treatment,” said Mike Cox, Isaiah House president. “But self-sufficiency, the ability to support their families and to make financial amends for the past are all critical to the healing process. Fortunately, residential treatment provides the time and resources to help them overcome employment challenges.”

In addition to Howard’s Metals, Isaiah House also operates an onsite vocational center, GED classes, college classes and other business enterprises to give clients job experience including Isaiah 58 Builders and Clean Cut Landscaping. Clients also earn wages to pay child support, legal fees, court restitution, and other treatment and personal expenses including establishing savings accounts.

I can live again! I can laugh again!

My name is Travis Allen Voils. I’m 31 years old and I grew up in Wilmore. My story begins at a young age about 5 when I remember my mother and father drinking or partying. My parents were separated so I never knew them together. I am the youngest of 4 children. I have two older sisters and a brother. They always called me “little big brother” because I was bigger than them all by the age of 12. I can always remember having to move because my mother struggled financially. Moving around all the time made it hard to be accepted and make friends as a kid.

I craved acceptance from people and the one place I got it was in athletics. My mother, poor as we were, signed me up for flag football and I became an instant star. I was in heaven! I continued to play sports throughout my childhood up until high school. I played football, basketball, baseball, bowling and tennis. In 8th grade, high school coaches told me I had what it took to be a star. I was big, fast, had wide hips, big hands and fast footwork.

At the age of 16, playing tennis at UK I blew my right knee out dislocating my knee cap, tearing my meniscus and a partial MCL tear. I would never play football again. I had surgery, was depressed and was sitting at home taking prescription pain killers. When I returned to school, my doctor took me off my painkillers and I realized I needed them to function. I began to self-medicate using acid, shrooms, cocaine, alcohol and of course, pain killers. I had totally fallen off. I dropped out of high school and went to an alternative school when I was a junior. I eventually graduated. By the time I was 18, I went to my first pain clinic in Florida. This became a regular thing for me until my daughter was born in 2008. I landed in jail and had to visit my daughter behind glass which was the saddest thing I had ever went through.

I turned to Suboxone to help with opiates. They say it’s a miracle drug but I was just replacing Percocet with another. Then I was introduced to methamphetamines and became a grade A meth cook. When I was high I didn’t have to think about all my problems I could suppress them deep down where they would never come back but I was wrong. I got deep into drug dealing, my relationships had failed, I was in and out of jail and my third child, Benjamin, was born with Truncus Arteriosus “blue baby syndrome” 1 in 33,000 are born with this defect. I have not seen him since he was 3. The guilt of not being there for my boy drove me deeper into my addiction. It just kept getting worse. I watched my friend get murdered in his driveway over a family feud. He died in front of his wife and two boys. I left Jackson County never to return. By the time I came home to KY in the winter of 2017, I wanted to die.

Life at this point wasn’t worth living. I hated myself. I had been introduced to the needle and I had officially hit rock bottom. I lost my family, my children, my possessions and a will to live. I was living on the streets. I completed a 30 day program, relapsed in sober living and overdosed on fentanyl laced heroin in January of 2018. I was dead for two minutes. I never told my family because I didn’t want to live.

I arrived at Isaiah House on January 18, 2018. Only by the Grace of God am I still alive today! I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and have laid everything at the foot of the cross!! On March 4, 2018, I was made new! The Lord has taken my troubles and my burdens away from me and has paved the way for me as long as I trust in Him and His plan for me! I am living proof that recovery is possible.

I have battled addiction since I was 17 and I’m 31 now. Two overdoses. Buried 17 friends. This is the longest I’ve been sober in 14 years. This is the happiest I’ve been in 14 years.

I was on the verge of death, but today I can live again! I can laugh again! I have the love of my family back, as well as their support. Today I have plans for my future. I am 1 of many but today I am 8 months sober and never looking back. If you or someone you know or love is battling an addiction to drugs or alcohol, reach out!! Recovery is available to anyone willing to work for it. Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your ❤ ” God loves all his children he left the 99 to save me. He will save you as well.

Denzil Hall is our “Five Star Employee of the Month”

Congratulations to Denzil Hall our September “Five Star Employee of the Month”! Denzil is our Kitchen Supervisor. He trains all kitchen staff, plans out weekly menus to be approved by our Nutritionist, inventories food, does weekly orders from a food service and also grocery shops at Sam’s Club for the remainder of the items. He teaches the guys to cook, but he also mentors them and lends an ear to hear when they need someone to talk to. He says, “We become like brothers in the kitchen.” The kitchen staff also transports food to our Chaplin campus and to Patricia’s Place on our Willisburg campus and prepare separate meals for clients who are diabetics and vegetarian. Denzil supervises a kitchen staff of 3 other men: Ronnie Couch, Adam French and Kevin Riley.

What do you like about your job?
“Best part of my job is being able to serve others that are recovering from addiction.”

What do you like about working for Isaiah House?
“I love my job and the people I work with…being a recovered addict and alcoholic and also coming through the program here makes me even more grateful for being honored with Employee of the Month. Isaiah House holds a special place in my heart. To be able to come to work and have the freedom to worship my Lord and Savior is an awesome feeling and then to have the opportunity to be able to cook for these guys that are currently in the program and see the changes they make in their lives helps me grow.” Denzil added, “I’d love to include my current kitchen staff because they deserve the recognition probably more than I do. I am really proud of them.”

We are glad to have Denzil as a part of our Isaiah House family.

Isaiah House Needs Vehicles

As we grow and expand to save more lives from drug and alcohol addiction, our needs expand too. We are in desperate need of vehicles. We especially need 15 passenger vans to transport the men to church, to their jobs and to help in our local communities. We also need small cars to take clients to appointments like the doctor, dentist, and court. And we need trucks for our businesses, Isaiah 58 Builders and Clean Cut which are also used  to pick up and deliver larger items such as donations and supplies. If you can donate a vehicle or help us locate a reliable vehicle, please call Andy Ayers, Vice President of Operations at 859-375-9200.

We are a 501(c) non-profit organization. Donations can be tax deductible.

Upcoming Events

Joel 2 Pastor’s Symposium– October 18, 10:00 am- 2:00 pm at Chaplin Center. 

Isaiah House Graduation Ceremony– October 27, 11:00 am at Asbury Methodist Church Campbellsville, KY. Pastor Jason Roop  will be our speaker

Grand Opening of Jake Kuertz & Greg Bowen Center- October 29, 11:00 am, Chaplin Center.

 Isaiah House, Inc. Businesses

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   Making it Simple To Help Isaiah House

As we grow and open more beds to provide addiction treatment for men in our communities, we have increasing needs for items ranging from vehicles and computers to bed linens and supplies for Patricia’s Place and Isaiah House in Willisburg, KY, and the Jake Kuertz Center in Chaplin, KY. We are a non-profit 501(C) 3 organization, donations can be tax deductible. We couldn’t do what we do without you. Thank you! 

To donate an item, contact the Public Relations Department by calling 859-375-9200.

Monetary donations can be made through our website by clicking the Donate Now buttons on our Newsletter.

You can support Isaiah House Treatment Center while you grocery shop at your local Kroger. When you enroll in Kroger Community Rewards®, you’ll earn rewards for Isaiah House every time you shop and use your Kroger Plus Card. To enroll your card just click on the logo.

.As you shop online on Amazon, use AmazonSmile and the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to Isaiah House, Inc. as the charitable organization of your choice. Choose Isaiah House, Inc as your charity and go shopping by clicking on the logo!

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Thank you for your support of Isaiah House Treatment Center