Job training part of rehab

With prescription drug and heroin addiction so bad it prompted a visit to Atlanta from President Obama, one residential treatment center in Forsyth County is on the front lines of rescuing addicts from themselves.

No Longer Bound is a faithbased facility with about a dozen buildings on seven acres off Pinegrove Road where drug and alcohol addicts go to climb from the abyss of dependence using a regimen of behavior modification, spiritual guidance and hard work.

No Longer Bound supports itself through its industries. There’s a carpenter shop turning old barn wood into designer quality furniture sold at its Cumming business called The Boutique. Also a commercial print shop, web design business, a culinary program designed to train aspiring chefs and to feed the residents, a garage to refurbish donated cars as well as a successful thrift store.

Each resident is required to work and train in one of those industries.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, NLB must be doing something right. Each year it serves just over 80 men, is always at capacity and has a waiting list for the 12-month program. One reason for its success might be that many of the staff, including Executive Director Edward Bailey, are themselves graduates of the program.

With so many poignant individual stories of addiction, struggle and success, my allotted space limits my ability to tell them all. One standout is Logan Shaw, who works in the wood shop.

He says it’s therapeutic. “We spend as much time talking about our problems, our past and our pain as we do building furniture. I’m proud of where I am in life today.”

Surprisingly, Shaw is one of the many program graduates who choose to stay on another 10 months as an intern using his experience to help men now in treatment.

In fact, facility chef Alex Cook, a native New Yorker and a 2007 NLB graduate, returned last year as a paid staff member. Cook, who has worked in some of the finest restaurants in the country, now dedicates his talents so residents may acquire skills they can eventually use when they pursue life without the bottle, needle or pill.

It’s a highly regimented atmosphere for the residents. No TV, no smoking and limited contact with the outside world. During my visit, the staff was focused on the success of each individual seeking recovery.

With skyrocketing heroin deaths in suburban Atlanta, No Longer Bound is embarking on a capital campaign to increase its treatment capacity by 25 percent.

“Drugs are cheaper, deadlier and easier to get than ever,” Bailey says. With drug use and abuse permeating the culture, Bailey is preparing No Longer Bound for more challenges facing him and his organization.