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Committed Caring Faith Communities, the Mid-America Addiction Technology Transfer Center, the Missouri Department of Mental Health Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the St. Louis Airport Marriott Hotel, and the Missouri Institute of Mental Health are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 2008 regional faith-based substance abuse conference. The conference is October 17 in St. Louis, Missouri. There will be a pre-conference summit October 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on recovery support services. For additional information, download the conference brochure from the Events Page of this website.
The Story of How CCFC Came To Be
December 7, 1995 was like most other cold winter days in St. Louis. The wintry weather coupled with the impending holiday season did not make it the best time to convene a meeting of faith leaders, particularly when the meeting was to focus on a topic that was considered “taboo” by many clergy. The topic was substance abuse. Of the 15 faith leaders invited to this gathering by the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, only four showed. Nevertheless, as a result of this meeting, the wheels were set in motion for the formation of what became St. Louis’ faith-based substance abuse initiative and what ultimately evolved into Missouri’s statewide substance abuse faith initiative. Who would have guessed from that small gathering of committed citizens in 1995 that a coalition would evolve that would eventually lead Missouri’s statewide effort to unleash the power of the faith community to address addiction?
The impetus for the creation of the coalition, which is now a not-for-profit organization called Committed Caring Faith Communities (CCFC), was the realization by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) that the faith community represented an enormous under-utilized resource in efforts to help the suffering addict find the path to recovery as well as to prevent young people from falling victim to addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Unlike other faith-based coalitions that were cropping up in different parts of the country under CSAT’s Target Cities program, CCFC decided not focus on delivering direct service to addicts and their families. Rather, CCFC chose to fill a void by providing substance abuse education and training to faith organizations who would in turn serve the addicts and their families. At that time in Missouri, there were no educational opportunities in substance abuse tailored specifically for the faith community. Seminary-trained clergy verified that they did not receive training on substance abuse as part of their studies. CCFC has always believed that the faith community possesses the vocabulary, the influence, and the spiritual acumen to be a primary force in organizing efforts to help the suffering addict, to prevent the future addict, and to support the recovering addict. Acting on this belief, the interfaith coalition set out to help the faith community mobilize its existing resources for recovery and prevention and to provide new wells to draw upon for the healing of wounded souls.
CCFC’s mission is to empower and support faith organizations in their substance abuse prevention, treatment, recovery, and related services. It stands in the gap to empower faith organizations to lead the charge for wholeness in families and communities by promoting spirituality, creating awareness, and providing education and training. In other words, we seek to educate the faith community and bring it to the table in efforts to address alcohol and other drug abuse. Our plan included first creating greater awareness among faith organizations about the problem, then showing them how they could help, and then providing education, training, and support to those who were courageous enough to accept the challenge.
The strategy that CCFC adopted involved a four-tiered approach consisting of:
- Creating greater awareness about the magnitude of the problem of substance abuse and related issues
- Providing education about substance abuse and related issues and the role of the faith community in addressing these issues
- Conducting training on the implementation of specific activities and programs (some of which were created by CCFC)
- Providing ongoing support in the form of technical assistance and facilitating networking opportunities among faith leaders and between faith leaders and treatment agencies and prevention specialists.
Although the plan seemed simple and straightforward, the stigma and denial associated with alcohol and other drug abuse was so horrendous in the faith community that few faith leaders were ready or willing to join us in our effort to change the world. It literally took more than five years to penetrate this denial and fear that had a stronghold on our community’s houses of worship.
Plans for Creating Greater Awareness
The awareness component consisted of an initial series of workshops for clergy called In Your Face that began November 7, 1996 and ran through April 17, 1997; the annual presentation of The Faith Works Award to acknowledge and recognize the contributions of individuals or faith organizations to faith-based substance abuse ministry or programming; the securing of media coverage to acquaint the faith community with the coalition and its activities; the production of a newsletter that featured faith organizations actively addressing substance abuse; and the compilation and distribution of various religious denominational policies on alcohol use.
Over the years, many faith leaders admitted that substance abuse was indeed “in their face” and that they knew of congregation members who struggled with addiction. Their tentativeness in dealing with the issue was related to not knowing what to do or how to help. What CCFC learned anecdotally during its early days was confirmed in a 1999 report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University and through a 1998 survey of St. Louis’ faith organizations by the Family Support Council. In a survey of 320 clergy, CASA found that 94% of respondents recognized substance abuse as an important issue among family members in their congregations, yet only 36% preached a sermon on substance abuse more than once a year, and only 12.5% had completed coursework related to substance abuse during seminary training. When the Family Support Council surveyed 200 congregations in St. Louis, it found that although 96% provided some type of social service, only 2.5% provided substance abuse treatment services. Services related to substance abuse were extremely low on the list compared to others such as emergency shelter, food, or clothing. National statistics were showing that 1% to 3% of congregations offered substance abuse services.
During its early days, CCFC also noted the loneliness and isolation of the few faith leaders in St. Louis who had established substance abuse ministries or programs in their churches or synagogues. These leaders had no idea that their colleagues were running similar substance abuse programs. Everybody was doing his or her own thing. By featuring faith-based programs in its newsletter, compiling a directory of faith-based substance abuse programs, and hosting workshops and conferences where like-minded members of the faith community could come together, CCFC helped to create camaraderie and reduce the isolation, loneliness and fear. This was taken to a statewide level with the formation in November 2002 of the Missouri Faith Community Substance Abuse Resource Network. Members of the faith community involved in addressing substance abuse were able to come together quarterly to exchange ideas, support their colleagues from different parts of the state, and learn how to become more active in the state legislative process. Collaboration between rural and urban faith-based substance abuse initiatives emerged as a result of the Network.
CCFC has also created greater awareness among faith leaders and congregation members about the religious denominational policies that exist on alcohol use. CCFC found that many members of the faith community were unaware that these policies existed. It has compiled a list of sample policies that it distributes at workshops and conferences to help congregation members realize that substance abuse is such a significant problem that most of the major religious denominations have a written policy that either advocates abstinence or use in moderation.
Efforts to Educate the Faith Community
Education primarily consisted of conferences and workshops. Since its inception, CCFC has hosted 11 conferences that began as city-wide in St. Louis, expanded to state wide throughout Missouri, and eventually became regional in nature when CCFC worked with Arkansas to coordinate conferences there. These conferences have been co-sponsored by CSAT, the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Mid-America Addiction Technology Transfer Center, and others. Among the conference themes have been Faith Communities in Action: Will We Take the Challenge?; Spiritual Poverty and Drug Abuse: Solutions that Work; Healing the Heart of a Child: Approaches to Address Addiction; Restoring the Body, Mind, & Spirit: New Governmental Initiatives and Faith-Based Addiction; Prevention: A Proactive Approach to Addiction-Free Living: Building the Community’s Faith Toward Recovery; Faith & Science: Partners in Recovery from Addiction; Spirituality: The Foundation of Recovery; Standing in the Gap: Linking Faith with Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention; and When Neighbors in Need Come Knocking at the Church Door, Community Healing Workshop. These conferences have been held in St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, Sikeston, Boonville, and North Little Rock, Arkansas.
In 2005, CCFC coordinated a faith-based track that was added to the Missouri Department of Mental Health’s annual Spring Training Institute. This training is attended by mental health, substance abuse, and correctional facility professionals from across the state. The faith-based track was so well received that CCFC has been invited back each year to coordinate the track.
Plans to Provide Training
The Addictions Academy, which is a 32-hour course for the faith community on substance abuse that was first piloted in St. Louis in 2002, is now CCFC’s major vehicle for training and education. To date, over 1,000 members of the faith community have completed the Addictions Academy. CCFC is eternally grateful to Don Cuvo of the St. Louis Mental Health Board for providing the initial funds needed to get the Addictions Academy off the ground and for his continued support. Academy classes include Addiction 101; Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Challenges and Responses for Faith Leaders; Science-Based Prevention; Setting Up a Faith-based Substance Abuse Program; Co-Dependency and Family Dynamics; Finding Help for the Helper; Licensure & Certification, Screening and Referral; How to Approach the User; and Twelve Step Interpretation and History. At the request of graduates of the Academy, in 2006, CCFC offered its first Advanced Addictions Academy.
Training has also been provided on First Step, a pre-treatment educational support group developed by CCFC and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse of St. Louis. In addition, training has been provided on Wise Up, a tobacco awareness program developed by CCFC. A manual has been developed to teach faith organizations how to implement one of CCFC’s other programs called Camp Family Re-Union. The camp was designed for recovering parents and their children to help strengthen family relationships, enhance spirituality within the family, facilitate the establishment of healthy rules and roles, promote effective communications and conflict resolution skills, and show participants the therapeutic value of families playing together. An article about Camp Family Re-Union was featured in the Winter 1998 edition of SAMHSA News. Furthermore, training in various parts of the state on Footprints Alcoholics Victorious recovery support groups has been coordinated and supported by CCFC as well as workshops for faith organizations on grant writing, program evaluation, fund development, capacity building, and organizational development.
Activities Designed to Support the Faith Community
Support has been provided in a number of ways and is tailored to the particular needs of the faith organizations with which CCFC works. It has involved face-to-face or telephone consultation with those wishing to set up substance abuse ministries. Technical assistance has involved pairing those with experience running substance abuse programs with those who are just beginning, conducting strategic planning sessions with care teams, teaching faith organizations where to look for funding, having treatment agency directors meet with and help educate the faith community about treatment, as well as keeping the faith community abreast of developments in the field of alcohol and other drug abuse. At one point, CCFC offered a support group for faith-based support group leaders. Quarterly informational meetings were held in St. Louis for faith organizations interested in substance abuse. Statewide support is provided through the Missouri Faith Community Substance Abuse Resource Network that was organized by CCFC with the support of the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
CCFC has played some role in the acquisition of some $27 million worth of grants that represent faith-based substance abuse endeavors in Missouri. Most recently, it wrote the faith-based section of Missouri’s Access to Recovery grant (ATR). Through this $22 million, 3-year grant that was awarded to Missouri’s governor’s office, 107 faith-based organizations have been brought to the table as paid providers of recovery support services. CCFC served as the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse’s liaison to the faith community for the ATR project. In that capacity, we help credential faith-based organizations interested in becoming recovery support services providers for the state. ATR has taken the concept of faith-based services to a new height in Missouri.
CCFC has primarily been an organization of hard-working devoted volunteers. CCFC only has two paid staff members. Much of its work continues to be done by volunteers. CCFC sits on the National Faith-Based Expert Panel of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. It has been called upon frequently by CSAT’s faith initiative coordinator to go to other parts of the country to provide assistance on how to establish a substance abuse coalition. It has conducted workshops at the national level at the Lonnie E. Mitchell Conference in Baltimore, Maryland and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America leadership forum in Washington, D.C.
CCFC began with seed funds from CSAT through its Target Cities initiative. Other Target Cities faith initiatives were also begun in the mid 90s in a number of other metropolitan cities across the country. CSAT has indicated that CCFC is the only faith initiative that has survived. What is even more remarkable is that CCFC has always consisted of a small group of volunteers. Currently it has 8 board members, 1 acting executive director, and 2 full-time staff. This gives credence to Margaret Mead’s famous quotation – Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Annually, CCFC reflects on how far we have come and reminisce about the time we almost had to call it quits just before the new millennium. We had reached the point at which we were overworked, overwhelmed, and we had lost many of our key members. We were unsure where funding would come from, and we had strayed from our mission and gotten bogged down trying to deliver direct service. We cried over the thought of dismantling CCFC during one of our annual planning retreats. But on Day 2 of the retreat, everyone came back to the table with a renewed commitment to do whatever was needed to carry on. Members say that there was Divine intervention that night after Day 1 of the planning retreat. Each person went back to his/her sleeping room and arose the next morning with a changed heart, renewed hope, and the resolve to continue.
Every December, CCFC gratefully marks another year of service with a celebratory small dinner for our board and staff. Our annual dinner represents a tribute to the miraculous work unfolding through Missouri’s faith community in the area of substance abuse. As we enjoy the food and fellowship, we celebrate the stories the faith community has shared with us of the lives that have been changed by faith-based substance abuse ministry. The dinner also represents an opportunity for re-dedication to our enduring commitment to the faith community and to the addicts and families they serve, for we believe as it is written in The Talmud: To save a single life – it is as if to save the whole world.
ADDICTION
What is Addiction?
Addiction is defined as a dependence on a behavior or substance that a person is powerless to stop. It includes mood-altering behaviors or activities. Researchers place addiction in two categories:
§ Substance addictions (which include drug abuse, alcoholism and smoking): It is estimated that by eighth grade, 52% of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 41% smoked tobacco, and 20% have smoked marijuana. In the United States, it is estimated that 25% of the population regularly uses tobacco.
§ Process addictions (which include gambling, spending, shopping, eating, and sexual activity): eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating affect over five million American women and men. Fifteen percent of young women have substantially disordered attitudes toward eating and eating behaviors. More than 1,000 women die each year from anorexia nervosa. A 1997 Harvard study found that an estimated 15.4 million Americans suffered from a gambling addiction; over half of whom (7.9 million) were adolescents.
Addiction is costly and increases in severity if not treated. Substance abusers often make many attempts to quit before they are successful. In 1995 the economic cost of substance abuse in the United States exceeded $414 billion, with health care costs for substance abuse estimated to have been more than $114 billion.
What leads to addiction?
There are many scientific reasons for one becoming addicted to substances which include: drug chemistry (some substances are more addictive than others); genetics (some forms seem to run in families); brain structure (the change in brain structure after repeated use of a substance); social learning (patterns of use in the family, peer pressure, or media influence).
There are other reasons why one gets caught up in addiction that include:
§ Seeking completeness through external devices that develop into internal destruction
§ Trying to satisfy our spiritual needs without seeking spiritual growth and development
§ Family matters, relationships, employment situations, stress, finances, and burnout.
§ Spiritual Distress or Crisis (suffering, an inability to find a source of meaning, hope, love, peace, strength connection; a feeling that God has abandoned them.
§
How Does One Overcome Addiction?
One must first recognize that there is a problem and seek help.
Seek Treatment that may include both medical (hospital or inpatient detoxification) and social treatment (outpatient which may include a twelve-Step program).
Realize that as humans, we are spiritual beings whose spirits need to be nurtured and seek to find those who can and will nurture our spirits.
What is the role of spirituality in recovery?
Many recovering addicts recognize the role of spirituality in their recovery process. Their recognition and acceptance of a God who loves and forgives was a key component to their recovery process. Studies have concluded that people who are hospitalized and who have a spiritual connection, i.e. prayer or meditation, recover at a faster rate than those who don’t. Likewise, those who
What can the faith community do?
The faith community can begin by becoming involved in or setting up programs that advocate for prevention by educating the community about the harmful effects of mood-altering substances and behavior.
The faith community can help addicted persons by:
§ Helping them realize their self worth
§ Help them understand that healing comes from within
§ Help them recognize what led them to the addiction
§ Help them understand the power of forgiveness (of themselves and others)
§ Help them remember what makes them happy and brings them joy
§ Help them understand that their spirits need to be fed
§ Help them discover that which brings them peace
Resources
Internet: www.Answers.com/addiction
- Basic Addiction Academy - a week-long 32 hour basic course on substance abuse and addiction for the faith community held at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.
- Advanced Addictions Academy - a 20 hour, 3-day advanced course offered at Lincoln University.
- Conferences & Workshops - CCFC coordinates regional substance abuse conferences and workshops to help keep faith organizations up on the latest in substances abuse and related issues.
- Camp Family Re-Union - an educational family camping experience for parents who are recovering from addiction and their children.
- First Step - a pre-treatment program designed to help the faith community reach out to people on the waiting list for treatment.
- Wise Up - a tobacco and alcohol awareness program that faith community reach out to people on the waiating list for treatment.
- Credentialing for Recovery Support & Relapse Prevention Services - CCFC works with the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse to credential faith organizations that provide recovery support and relapse prevention services.
ADDICTION
What is Addiction?
Addiction is defined as a dependence on a behavior or substance that a person is powerless to stop. It includes mood-altering behaviors or activities. Researchers place addiction in two categories: Substance addictions (which include drug abuse, alcoholism and smoking): It is estimated that by eighth grade, 52% of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 41% smoked tobacco, and 20% have smoked marijuana. In the United States, it is estimated that 25% of the population regularly uses tobacco. Process addictions (which include gambling, spending, shopping, eating, and sexual activity): eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating affect over five million American women and men. Fifteen percent of young women have substantially disordered attitudes toward eating and eating behaviors. More than 1,000 women die each year from anorexia nervosa. A 1997 Harvard study found that an estimated 15.4 million Americans suffered from a gambling addiction; over half of whom (7.9 million) were adolescents.
Addiction is costly and increases in severity if not treated. Substance abusers often make many attempts to quit before they are successful. In 1995 the economic cost of substance abuse in the United States exceeded $414 billion, with health care costs for substance abuse estimated to have been more than $114 billion.
What Leads to Addiction?
There are many scientific reasons for one becoming addicted to substances which include: drug chemistry (some substances are more addictive than others); genetics (some forms seem to run in families); brain structure (the change in brain structure after repeated use of a substance); social learning (patterns of use in the family, peer pressure, or media influence).There are other reasons why one gets caught up in addiction that include:
Seeking completeness through external devices that develop into internal destruction
Trying to satisfy our spiritual needs without seeking spiritual growth and development
Family matters, relationships, employment situations, stress, finances, and burnout.
Spiritual Distress or Crisis (suffering, an inability to find a source of meaning, hope, love, peace, strength connection; a feeling that God has abandoned them.
How Does One Overcome Addiction?
One must first recognize that there is a problem and seek help.
Seek Treatment that may include both medical (hospital or inpatient detoxification) and social treatment (outpatient which may include a twelve-Step program).
Realize that as humans, we are spiritual beings whose spirits need to be nurtured and seek to find those who can and will nurture our spirits.
What is the Role of Spirituality in Recovery?
Many recovering addicts recognize the role of spirituality in their recovery process. Their recognition and acceptance of a God who loves and forgives was a key component to their recovery process. Studies have concluded that people who are hospitalized and who have a spiritual connection, i.e. prayer or meditation, recover at a faster rate than those who don’t. Likewise, those who What Can the Faith Community Do?
The faith community can begin by becoming involved in or setting up programs that advocate for prevention by educating the community about the harmful effects of mood-altering substances and behavior. The faith community can help addicted persons by: Helping them realize their self worth
Help them understand that healing comes from within
Help them recognize what led them to the addiction
Help them understand the power of forgiveness (of themselves and others)
Help them remember what makes them happy and brings them joy
Help them understand that their spirits need to be fed
Help them discover that which brings them peace
ResourcesInternet: www.Answers.com/addiction .
