Pir2peer Recovery Center

Discussion in 'Member Websites' started by Ken Anderson, Nov 28, 2019.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    My wife has not been in the forum much because she has been busy. With two others, she is founding an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center here in Millinocket. They have a building and the promise of state and local support but are waiting for the money to actually go through before physically opening their doors. Michelle has been busy traveling from one town to another, meeting with various health services, police departments, and others, drumming up a network of support for the work they hope to do. The Pir2Peer Recovery Community Center will serve, not only Millinocket but the surrounding towns as well.
     
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    Last edited: Nov 28, 2019
  2. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I really wish her the best of blessings!! I respect people who care enough to do something meaningful for others.
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Thanks. One of her co-founders, Velma, is the woman who sits for Ella while we're away and is the most amazing catsitter, according to Ella.
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Journey Magazine published an article about Pir2peer.

    pier2peer.jpg
    Velma -- Michelle -- Ginger

    Although she may not consider it to be the epitome of her life's work, Velma is our cat sitter and, of course, that's my wife in the middle. I think I can steal the photo from the magazine article since I took it.
     
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    Last edited: Dec 31, 2019
  5. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    @Ken Anderson , Michelle has my highest admiration. No one is more qualified to help those who suffer from any kind of addiction than those who have been to hell and back.

    God bless her, her friends and their work.
     
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  6. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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  7. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Good for her!!

    From the site, I gather that the use of a 12 step program isn’t the first thought on the list of ways to recovery and also gather that it isn’t necessarily a faith based recovery program either. It’s a given that there are a lot of secular recovery sites throughout the U.S. and world that seem to work so I am not biased when it comes to giving someone a hand up toward being a clean and functional person so long as it does indeed help the individual.

    Just curious though.......
    As far as you know, what type of program does it entail? Is it a in-house program whereby those in recovery stay for a limited amount of time or does it serve as a sort of hub which ties all the other agencies together.....or both?
    Is it going to have a support system between those being treated such as the example set by the Hebron Colony in N. Carolina? Yeah, there are other support systems but Hebron seems to have one of the best records so far as I know. In that system, everyone who has gone through recovery can connect to another at any time day or night for those times when they need support. Kind of like the AA/NA sponsor thing but on steroids.

    Like I wrote, I’m just curious because I didn’t get a whole lot of information from the site. I’ve experienced a ton of programs like AA / NA, New Creation, Overcomer's, New Life, etc.
    Surprisingly, Arizona has a state funded 90 day program in Phoenix that is doing some excellent work as well.

    Again, good for Michelle and the others and do pray that everything they are shooting for comes to fruition in a most magnificent way!!
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The 12-step programs will be supported but the idea is to be a center for varying types of programs with a similar goal. In other words, space will be available for any 12-step program that wants a home but it's not restricted to the 12-step programs. State-funding has something to do with it, perhaps.
     
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  9. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Yeah, state or even United Way funding is a little rough on 12 step programs since one of the tenets of Most of them is the coming to terms with the idea that one is helpless without a higher power. Now if that higher power has been denoted as God, well, that blows the secular trust I guess. Matter of fact, AA beat the whole precept by deleting God from their “Big Book” and placing “higher power” in it’s or rather, His stead.

    The Downtown Rescue Mission here in Huntsville has a sort of 12 step program based on the book, A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren but of course, the program is solely sponsored by faith based organizations and the Feds nor the state will give up a dime for that kind of a program.
    They kind of circumvented the Federal stance by feeding and treating the transient population (homeless) which the Federal Government will help out a little bit with. Food is food no matter if it’s the transients or program people who are being fed.

    It’s a hard avenue to travel when it comes to helping those who need help with their bad habits but if even one of a hundred comes out sober and clean and stays that way, it’s all worth it.
    To me, there is no greater ministry than the one your wife is pursuing. I’ll be watching the Web site to see how things are developing and as a matter of fact when SS hits this Friday I’ll probably throw a few bucks her way. It won’t be much but I’ve seen how far just a few dollars will go toward helping to free those addicted to alcohol and / or drugs.
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Fox News Bangor interviewed my wife and her partners today. Actually, another news station did too but their's isn't up yet. Oh, here's a Bangor News article on Pir2Peer.
     
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  12. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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  13. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I pray that God will Bless this endeavor and that what they are doing will help many, many people who so badly need help with addiction.
     
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  14. Michelle Anderson

    Michelle Anderson Veteran Member
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    I think perhaps when we were first beginning the center, we weren't very clear when we described what we do.

    We are not a treatment facility. We are a recovery center, which is to say that we are sort of like a hub for the recovery community in the region.

    We provide recovery coaching, resources, we are the first place that manyt local people come to find out what they can do to help their loved ones to get into recovery, and the place their loved ones frequently come to find out how to change their lives. We are a safe place for people in recovery as well as those our expanded recovery community can come to talk and to socialize, but also to just "be" here, because as long as they're hanging out here, they're not getting loaded,

    We also provide rooms for meetings and -- since COVID -- an entity that will host virtual meetings. Most of our people who hold meetings here also host them online.

    The use of a 12-step program is always encouraged. But so are other types of meetings, like SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), to mention a few. We I endorse faith-based programs as well as secular ones. Whatever works for individuals in recovery is good for me.

    I got clean in a therapeutic community called Delancey Street, which used to shave your head when you entered and yelled at you a lot and made you wear signs like "I'm a baby" around your neck when you acted like a baby. There were no meetings; just what were then called games, and dissipations, neither of which I won't get into now because I would be typing for a week about those. It was a 2-year residential treatment facility, and I was sentenced there by a judge with a 27 year suspended sentence. I stayed five years because I thought at two years, "Surely I can get loaded on paydays..."

    I celebrated 32 years ago last month, and I know that therapeutic communities can work too.
     
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  15. Michelle Anderson

    Michelle Anderson Veteran Member
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    I look at recovery as a sort of a smorgasbord, where you go through and fill your plate with everything you want to eat. Then you get to your table and start eating, which is when you discover you don't really like the shrimp that much, so you leave that on your table for the waiter to take away and go back and get maybe some fried won ton.

    If you want to try one method of getting to your recovery goals, we will help to facilitate that and if you find it doesn't do what you need, we can help you find something else.

    We work hard at not judging. We believe that you're in recovery, you're in recovery. So if you come in as an opoid addict who drinks, and you say you want to quit drugs but keep your wine, we don't judge that. Not out loud, anyway. :) Generally speaking, that all works itself out on its own, and we're kind of a lifeguard until you get there.

    And do pray that everything they are shooting for comes to fruition in a most magnificent way!![/QUOTE]
     
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