Push is on to help women in recovery find work
CHESTER » A program aiming to help women in longterm recovery from heroin and opioid addiction was granted an additional boost Tuesday from Second Chance Employment, announced it would go to bat for individuals looking for work.
Focused on clean and sober people who at one time may have committed petty crimes in order to feed an addiction and now find themselves unemployable due to their record, the Delaware County Heroin Task is aiming to break the stigma of addiction, officials said at the event at the Educational Data Systems Inc. headquarters.
“These are men and women who have worked hard in a recovery program and want to get back to the work force and become positive and health members of our communities,” said Delaware County Councilman David White, who co-chairs the Heroin Task Force with District Attorney Jack Whelan. “They are motivated to get back to work but the opportunities just aren’t there.”
Working alongside the Office of Workforce Development, Educational Data Systems, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, the county agencies have partnered with MVP Recovery, a program that provides safe, sober and structured community for those in long-term recovery.
“These women are mothers, these women are educated, these women are sober, and these women deserve a second chance at life,” said Female Program Director for MVP Recovery Chrissie Corson. “By supporting these women, Jack Whalen and Dave White have given tangible hope to people.”
The Workforce Development Board has allocated $50,000 in federal funds to help 13 women currently enrolled with MVP get jobs. Corson said some of the stories of women trying to get back into the workforce are “heartbreaking.
“If somebody isn’t giving someone else the time of day to even call them back for a second interview, that can really start to get to a person,” Corson said. “People on unemployment are more likely to relapse.”
The American Addiction Centers said that almost twice as many people who are unemployed struggle with addiction than those who are full-time workers.
The Office on National Drug Control Policy reported that in 2007, drug abuse and addiction cost American society close to $200 billion in health care, criminal justice, legal, and lost workplace production and participation costs.
“On the back end, if we can keep people in longterm recovery and if we can overcome these obstacles and get people working it’s going to reduce the cost of recidivism, it’s going to reduce the health care costs,” Corson said. “The research shows that not having a job pushes you toward addiction or a relapse if you have a history of addiction.”
Whelan praised the efforts of drug treatment officials as well as those who complete rehabilitation programs.
“We’ve seen through the criminal justice system and through our drug treatment court the great success that we’ve had when multiple disciplined agencies come together and work together,” Whelan said. “We know in the drug treatment court that the success of those individuals is over 80 percent.”
However, for many women, the employment opportunities are often fewer, and to have misdemeanors or minor felonies due to drug addition further impairs their ability to find employment. In addition, the National Center for Biotechnology Information reported that women are more likely to “use substances to cope with the pain associated with abuse at the hands of family members and partners, and users are subjected to more violence by their partners than are non-users.”
Trish McFarland, the president of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, said they will “educate the members and the businesses of Delaware County.
“These women have taken the steps to better themselves and their families and prove they have beaten this addiction and they’re on their way to getting better,” McFarland said. “Our mission at the chamber is to educate our businesses and them that these women and they chance.”
MVP Recovery will offer services that both vouch for the women in the program, as well as “proactively” covering the upfront costs of drug testing.
“We are able to tell employers that we run a very strict, very structured program,” Corson said. “Our residents would sign off on a waiver that we could speak to the employers.” to show are great deserve a