Philadelphia Recovery Community Center organizing street cleaning on Jan. 21, 2013

VOLUNTEERSSOUGHT FOR MLK DAY OF SERVICE

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. —Dec. 12, 2012 — The Philadelphia Recovery Community Center (PRCC) seeks volunteers to help clean the streets of North Philadelphia on MLK Day, Jan. 21, 2013, a national day of service commemorating the life of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The cleanup is a community service project of PRO-ACT’s Amends in Action committee.

“For individuals in recovery, a day of service is an opportunity to make living amends by giving back to the community,” said Cheryl Poccia, volunteer coordinator for PRCC. “Our street-cleaning project is becoming an annual tradition here at the center, and we welcome community members to join us.”

Volunteer cleanup crews are deployed from the center, which is located at 1701 W. Lehigh Ave., Unit 6, in North Philadelphia. Last year’s cleanup efforts began at 8 a.m. and ran until 1 p.m.

The center also seeks donations of brooms, shovels, rakes, trash bags and gloves, as well as food items for the volunteers.

Interested volunteers should contact Stacie Leap, chair of PRO-ACT’s Amends in Action committee, at 215-385-3131 or email Stacie.leap@icloud.com.

About Philadelphia Recovery Community Center

Established in 2007, PRCC is a collaboration between Pennsylvania Recovery Organization-Achieving Community Together (PRO-ACT) and the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual DisAbility Services. Programs and services include peer-to-peer recovery coaching, life skills workshops, housing and credit information sessions, health and nutrition programs, discussion groups, drug- and alcohol-free social activities and more.  

About PRO-ACT

PRO-ACT is the regional nonprofit organization working to mobilize and rally individuals in recovery from addiction, as well as their families, friends and allies in a campaign to end discrimination, broaden social understanding and achieve a just response to addiction as a public health crisis. PRO-ACT is hosted by The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania.

About The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc.

The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc. is a private nonprofit prevention, education, advocacy, and intervention organization, providing a wide range of services to families, schools, businesses, individuals, and the community. Founded in 1975, The Council serves the Southeast region of Pennsylvania and is a member of a nationwide network of National Council on Alcoholism and DrugDependence Affiliates. The Council has offices and Recovery Community Centers in Doylestown, New Britain, Bristol, and Philadelphia. For help with alcohol, tobacco or other substances, or for information on the disease of alcoholism and addiction, call 800-221-6333, toll-free, 24-hours a day. For more information, visit www.councilsepa.org.

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He is now a growing husband and father, reliable employee, started seminary classes, and wants to leave his white-collar job and go into ministry. Alicia walked into school and quietly started cleaning out her locker. She didn't want her mom do it while overwhelmed after Alicia carried out her plan to commit suicide later that night. But while still in school, Alicia went to a school assembly and saw our unique documentary on behavioral health struggles many teens wrestle with daily, Shattered Silence. With new hope, Alicia went to a guidance counselor and is still living, encouraged, and getting treatment for her struggles. Martha and Henry from California, parents of a 30 y.o. drug addict, heard our new nationally syndicated You’re Not Alone radio program and realized help was available. After calling our helpline, our Care Guide offered options for their son, while Martha and Henry are now using our new Parent Coaching Service to help them heal and equip them to make healthy decisions to interact with their son in a better way after his treatment is over and he returns home. Comments about our Stepping Stones Daily Devotional, which reaches 15-20,000 people all over the world each day: Exceptional and Uplifting! …. AWESOME and very timely. … ministered to my heart …. powerful yet simplified ... thought provoking … I needed this today … It made me cry, the joyful, not the sad kind … God’s truths, but you apply them to help us grow Reflecting our tagline, Guidance through life’s storms, Lighthouse Network’s daily activity and mission is to help people whether they are experiencing acute storms, stuck in subacute choppy waters, or enjoying calm waters but are preparing for the inevitable next storm.Highlights of 2012 1. Our free national LN Addiction and Counseling Helpline served 6500 callers, a 25% increase from 2011. 2. Our average month, we directly get 55 into residential rehab or inpatient care, and 40 into outpatient treatment. 3. New professional website with free resources, videos, and helpful tips. Our web traffic is 3 times last year. 4. Creation of a one-minute addiction focused radio program heard several times per day on 242 Christian radio stations around the country. Listen to a couple at http://lighthousenetwork.org/ln-radio-short-features/ 5. Developed the first Christian Addiction Rehab in the U.S. that will take HMO Insurances. 6. In Gulu, Uganda, our team of 7 equipped and ministered to 483 children and their 50 mentors, victimized by Joseph Kony. 7. Developed several new topical DVD resources for counselors, treatment agencies, and ministries, to use in various ways. 8. Have 3 new books, 2 of them LN staff member’s transformation stories (see online: http://lighthousenetwork.org/books/ ) 9. Guest expert on many radio and TV programs bringing Biblical wisdom into social policy hot topics and problem issues. 10. Now have many resources for parents of addicts, including a coach to give telephonic weekly coaching to heal and equip. 11. Development of Shattered Silence, a documentary facilitating discussion about difficult issues teens face. Shown on GodTV to millions of homes and already and receiving life-impacting reviews. 12. Rewind Life, a streamlined online and computerized version of our decision-making curriculum geared to teens won a $10,000 grant to automate the resource which will allow more opportunities for it’s use. 13. Developed Weekly e-Newsletter to equip and inform our growing follower.  15% Budget growth in a depressed economy and difficult healthcare climate. Revenues from services, grants, and donors! Major Goals for 2013 (as well as maintaining our usual activities) - Help 7250 callers get answers to their desperate situations and pain. Monthly, help 70 people get to inpatient/residential treatment and 50 to outpatient services. Grow the radio program to over 300 stations per day and cover more issues like eating disorders, trauma, and suicide. Develop 2 more Christian residential addiction programs, one that will accept Medicare and one for adolescents. Speak and exhibit at 2 national Christian conferences. Continue to grow social media outreach to inform and increase Helpline awareness. Develop a monthly Christian Addiction Newsletter to educate, equip, and revolutionize addiction treatment. Growth in our volunteers and staff. You have been faithful and generous in the past and many struggling people need your support. 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Three More States to Consider Requiring Welfare Recipients to Undergo Drug Tests

By Join Together Staff | December 10, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs & Legislation

Lawmakers in Ohio, Virginia and Kansas say they will introduce legislation that would require welfare recipients to undergo drug tests before receiving benefits, according to MSNBC.

In Ohio, the proposed law would establish drug-testing programs in three counties. If applicants disclosed they had used illegal drugs, they would have to submit to a drug test. The bill would allocate an additional $100,000 for drug treatment programs.

In Virginia, a drug-testing law that previously was rejected has been revived. The earlier version failed after the state concluded it would cost $1.5 million to implement, but would save only $229,000.

Kansas State Senate Vice President Jeff King, who introduced a drug-testing bill in his state, said it is not intended to punish welfare recipients. “If folks test positive, we need to help them get help and help them get the job skills they need to kick the habit to get a job and keep a job,” he said.

Last month, Texas Governor Rick Perry called for drug tests for residents seeking welfare or unemployment benefits. Perry and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst want to expand a bill that will come before the state legislature next year that would mandate drug testing for “high-risk” welfare applicants, and would ban them from using public funds to purchase alcohol, tobacco or lottery tickets. Perry and Dewhurst want the rules to also include those applying for unemployment benefits.

A Florida law that required welfare applicants to undergo drug testing was halted last year after the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida sued the state to stop it. About 2.5 percent of the 4,000 adults tested before the program was stopped tested positive for drugs. Almost 2,500 people refused to take the drug test.

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Men and Women Are Helped Differently by Alcoholics Anonymous

By Join Together Staff | December 7, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Alcohol, Research & Treatment

Men and women benefit in different ways from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a new study suggests.

Men benefit more from avoiding companions who encourage drinking and social situations in which drinking is common, according to Health24. Women benefit from the program by having increased confidence in their ability to avoid alcohol when they feel sad, anxious or depressed.

“Men and women benefit equally from participation in AA, but some of the ways in which they benefit differ in nature and in magnitude,” lead researcher John F. Kelly, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Addiction Medicine said in a news release. “These differences may reflect differing recovery challenges related to gender-based social roles and the contexts in which drinking is likely to occur.”

One-third of AA’s members are women, the article notes.

The researchers studied more than 1,700 participants in AA, 24 percent of whom were women. They were enrolled in a study called Project MATCH that compared three alcohol addiction treatment approaches. The study tracked participants’ success in maintaining sobriety and whether they attended AA meetings. It also evaluated specific measures, such as participants’ confidence in their ability to stay sober in certain situations.

In both men and women, AA participation increased confidence in the ability to deal with high-risk drinking situations, and increased the number of social contacts who supported their recovery efforts. For men, the effect of both of those changes on the ability to stay sober was twice as strong, compared with women in the study. Women were much more likely than men to benefit from improved confidence in their ability to stay away from alcohol when they were sad or depressed.

The study appears in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

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