Imagine a place where recovering substance-abusers can go late at night or on weekends to attend a 12-step meeting, receive holistic treatments such as acupuncture, or to find a sympathetic shoulder to lean on.
Multiply that times three, and you have Threshold to Recovery, a network of three community centers - Dee's Place, Recovery in Community, and Penn North - that help Baltimore City residents with current or past drug addiction stay on a healthy path to recovery.
What makes this effort unique is the strong collaborative support of local funders to strengthen this critical but often overlooked part of the substance abuse system, as well as their tireless effort to partner with local government to provide stable funding for these centers.
The Zanvyl & Isabelle Krieger Fund, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Abell Foundation, and France-Merrick Foundation worked together to secure a half million dollar matching grant from the Local Funding Partnerships program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help fund Threshold to Recovery. Other funders who support the individual centers include the Herbert Bearman Foundation, Associated Black Charities, Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and the Marion I. & Henry J. Knott Foundation.
"We seek opportunities to partner with local grantmakers to fund creative, innovative solutions to health problems facing vulnerable people in their communities," says Curtis Holloman, deputy director of Robert Wood Johnson Local Funding Partnerships.
They also garnered critical city support by placing the project under the auspices of Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, the quasi-public city agency that oversees the Baltimore addiction treatment system.
"This program offers a critical window of support for people who have no place else to go," notes Karen Kreisberg, executive director of the Zanvyl & Isabelle Krieger Fund. It is very non-traditional and is just starting to be seen as part of the continuum of substance-abuse services, thanks to the vision of our City Health Commissioner and others in city leadership."
For the 2,400 people frequenting the Threshold to Recovery network of community centers each year, this is great news. Besides receiving free peer counseling, 12-Step meetings, and treatment referrals, participants enjoy Tai Chi, yoga, recreational activities, and receive HIV/AIDS education. More than 70 percent of visitors come in at least once a week, and many come daily.
