Saturday, July 25, 2015
Friday, July 24, 2015
The Addict's Mom Lights of Hope - Volunteer State Coordinators Needed
Thanks to so many volunteers, we have almost achieved our goal of having a state contact person in each state to help us light up the sky on September 13th. September is National Drug Awareness Month and we ask our Mom’s to 1) light a white candle for those in recovery,2) a red candle for those loved ones still living in addiction and, 3) a black candle for those who did not survive the illness of addiction....
Being a state contact is so easy, yet so crucial to our overall success. 1) We ask that the state contact person be our "go to" person for Mom's in their state. 2) State contacts reach out to TAM sisters in their state (a state map with the location of members is available to you) to find out where gatherings of candle lightings are being held and report back so that we can include these gatherings on our TAM LIGHTS OF HOPE map. 3) State Contacts may be asked to forward information to Mom’s in their state on the event (all materials will be provided).
Can we count on your help to ensure that 2015 will be the year that TAM Mom’s throughout the United States celebrate, memorialize and love those affected with the illness of addiction?
The Following States still need a state contact person for the Lights of Hope
-Illinois
-Iowa
-Kansas
-Mississippi
-Missouri
-Montana
-Nebraska
-North Dakota
-South Dakota
-Utah
-Wyoming
Please volunteer to be the contact person in any of the states above. We need your help, we 11 States away from having completing our volunteers. Won't you please help? It matters so much!! If you are willing to help please email me at Barbara@theaddictsmom.com put Volunteer in the Subject Line
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
**********PLEASE R.EAD**************************************
Are you an addict's mom in need of treatment for your child or do you know another addict's mom who needs help. If so please share this VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE,
To be eligible for the August 2015 Addict's Mom Scholarships please join the Addict's Mom closed group
Here is the story of our June Scholarship Recipient Kassidy Vaughan.
Kassidy Vaughan is an addict and thanks to being a TAM Scholarship w.inner, she is currently in treatment at New Beginnings. But that’s only part of her journey to get help. The rest of the road to get to where she is today is nothing short of a miracle. A miracle made possible by her Mother, Christy Lynn Vaughan’s love and tenacity. A miracle so strong that if Kassidy completes her treatment and stays clean, could change the laws and open the doors in Texas to allow those with the disease of addiction to go to rehab rather than jail. If enacted, this law will be called the “Vaughan Rule” after Kassidy.
The Vaughan’s are from Corsicana, Texas, a small town 60 miles south of Texas. Corsicana is a part of Texas that believes they have no drug problems; drugs are only found in the big cities and mysteriously stop at the boundaries of, in this case, Corsicana. Drug courts, etc. are unheard of – you have a drug issue, you do hard jail time, period. Since Kassidy’s step-mother had cut her off from I.nsurance, rehab wasn’t even a viable choice.
You see, Christy Lynn Vaughan worked 5 years for the Texas Dept. of Criminal justice on the second worst unit in Texas for men. She’d seen the signs of drug abuse, she knew all about it, but yet she didn’t see it in her daughter who was a functional addict – good in school and played sports and just seemed a little sleepy now and then. Like many of us when our child first displays signs of addiction, we want to hang their behavior on any star other than addiction. We want to believe that having taught our children the very real dangers of drugs would have stuck somewhere in their brain. Simply put, you just don’t want to believe it can happen to your child, but it happened in Corsicana, Texas to Kassidy Vaughan.
In early December, Kassidy’s boyfriend stopped by to give her a pack of cigarettes and then left immediately. Police patrolling the area thought this was suspicious activity and pulled her boyfriend over. Although he was taken to jail, he told the police that the drugs were Kassidy’s. The police went to Kassidy’s house and found drug paraphernalia, and she admitted to using in the past. They charged her with possession under 1 gram and child endangerment. CPS immediately followed the police and did drug tests on Kassidy, which were positive. She was told that she would be sent to Substance Abuse Felony Punishment (6-9 months incarceration, 3 month halfway house, followed by 1 year after care) and that her child must be removed from the house.
On Christmas Eve 2014, knowing that Kassidy was severely depressed and using heroin, Christy rushed her to the closest thing possible to a rehab she could find. They were told that out-patient rehab could best suit Kassidy’s disease of addiction. Her mother was astounded that this was their response to the illness of a young girl on heroin.
Kassidy’s only option was Substance Abuse Felony Punishment, a program her mother knew from being a prison nurse, was an awful place and had a very low success rate.
Determined and driven, Christy researched the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website and found documentation that the SAFP was only 56% effective. She immediately wrote the Judge and Probation Officer in Kassidy’s case, giving them the statistics that she had found and begged them to send her to rehab (because at the time, Kassidy had already won the TAM Scholarship). The Judge ruled that Kassidy would be allowed to go out of state to attend New Beginnings. He went on to tell her that if she completed the program successfully, the “Vaughan Rule” would be enacted.
Currently Kassidy has completed 30 days of New Beginnings and has been given an extension of 60 more days. Her current plan is to go into sober living once she has completed the rehab.
Christy Vaughan is now on a mission to bring drug awareness to Texas – watch out Texas!!
Written by Chance Ashman-Galliker !
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)