Hopelessness to Hope

Families and people of all ages and circumstances are able to benefit from Freedom Life’s programs.

Completing GED certification and training in new job skills goes a long way towards becoming self-sufficient and a productive member of society.

Avery’s Programs to Combat Substance Abuse

From Hopelessness to Hope By Steve York

Feedom Life Ministries, an organization that helps rehabilitating addicts and criminal offenders proactively re-acclimate back into the community, is partnering with Avery County leadership to help serve our area’s needs.

What gift might be most valuable to you or a loved one this time of year? Something to enhance your personal, home, business, family, community or spiritual life? All of these have their place within the spirit of the season.

For way too many, the perfect gifts would be freedom from the mounting suffering of addiction and hope for the brighter possibilities in the future. Freedom…from something that has an unyielding grip on one’s life. Hope…to replace hopelessness. These two gifts combined in one community-wide initiative of care can be of immeasurable value. Value for those people in Avery and surrounding counties suffering from addiction and, consequently, destined for some form of criminal involvement. And equally of value for their families and loved ones.

But sometimes it takes illuminating a few tough and sobering facts to inspire this type of community-wide initiative. Facts such as…

An alarming percentage of crimes and subsequent incarcerations can be characterized by involving some level of drug use and abuse. According to Mollie Furman, Program Coordinator for and representative of Watauga LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion), a recent study by the Watauga County Detention Center of 50 inmates who had been arrested three or more times in that county indicated that “ninety percent of random offenses could be linked directly or indirectly to substance use.” That statistic reflects not only the extent of drug/substance abuse-related incarcerations but suggests a pattern of repeat criminal offenses and resultant inmate recidivism.

According to Avery County Sheriff Mike Henley, “The number of local jail inmates who are connected to either drug abuse or other drug-related offenses may average around 40 percent. Other surrounding counties may report similar or, in some cases, higher averages.” Henley also notes that those rates were measurably higher during the peak COVID pandemic period for a myriad of obvious reasons regarding both economic and mental health factors.

Another core issue of increasing concern is the type of drugs in circulation and in use. Opioids—both prescription pharmaceutical and illicit—rank at the top of current national drug trafficking, use and abuse statistics, with various forms of fentanyl rising to the top of the list. Those drugs are generally smaller, thus easier to manufacture, disguise and package in large quantities. They are also increasingly fatal, even with only limited use. And the major drug cartels in Mexico, China and India have long since found access via the main U.S. trafficking channels.

Most alarming is the fentanyl factor. Specifically, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more so than morphine. Currently, it is the deadliest drug facing the nation and a rising threat in the High Country.

These statistics represent the sad reality that no community—large or small; urban, suburban or rural; north, south, east or west; or of any cultural, political and economic status—is free from this problem.

As Avery County Manager Phillip Barrier, noted, “For any type of drug crisis, prevention and rehabilitation to work, it’s going to take the entire community working together as a single organized team. We have many great local agencies and organizations to draw from. But, in the past, they’ve been limited to what they can do from their individual silos of influence.”

Now here’s the good news: The Avery Country Drug Crisis Roundtable—along with its affiliated law enforcement and

Freedom Life Ministries helps train their staff to serve both their rehabilitating clients and their local communities.

Emily Capps, Daymark Director / Phillip Barrier, Avery County Manager / Samantha Knight, Avery County Paramedic Photos byWJS Creative Group via Freedom Life Ministries.

community organizations—are pulling together in a broad and comprehensive effort to tackle and produce positive outcomes for the Avery drug addiction problem and for the community at large.

Led by Avery County Manager Barrier, regular Roundtable meetings have assembled an impressive group of area leaders in the fields of drug addiction awareness, treatment (including structured availability of NARCAN for emergency drug overdose use), rehabilitation, mental health, spiritual support and re-entry into the community as productive citizens. And, with the benefit of a first payment from the county’s $1,713,063 opioid settlement fund, Avery has been able to make concrete commitments to furthering their drug crisis plans and programs.

Several of the participating groups include the local Health Department, Cannon Memorial Hospital, Alcoholics Anonymous, Daymark Recovery Services, Vaya Health, and Celebrate Recovery (a Heaton Christian Church ministry), along with other local church and civic services, Avery County’s commissioners and contributing support from neighboring county groups. (A full list of local services can be found near the bottom of the Avery County government agency’s home page at www.averycountync.gov; click on the “Know Someone

By Steve York

Who Needs Help Fighting Addiction?” link.)

One specific neighboring county organization called Freedom Life Ministries out of Marion, NC, in McDowell County has become a model for what is being named Freedom Life Avery. “We heard about their successful program and are very pleased that we will be their first stepchild, so to speak, with a Freedom Life branch here in Avery County,” noted Manager Barrier. “And our new Director for this operation will be Milana Ward.”

With this template as an organizational model for Avery, a next step is the creation of a place to help rehabilitating addicts and criminal offenders proactively re-acclimate back into the community. As Barrier has emphasized, “We can offer some support hope while a person is incarcerated. But, as soon as they are released, that’s where drug/ criminal rehabilitation can fall apart. We need a follow-up and follow-through plan or that person is left out in the cold with no bridgeway to help them work their way back into society. So, we applied for and received a community development “re-entry housing” block grant with the help of the High Country Council of Governments.” A comprehensive construction, budgeting and long-term funding plan are in place to work in partnership with the county’s CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE Winter 2022/23 — 97

Freedom Life Avery program to staff and operate an Avery County Re-entry House for short-term housing on Mollies Branch Road occupying a portion of the old State of North Carolina Prison camp property. Along with providing safe housing and access to various community support services, Mayland Community College will offer help with obtaining GEDs, resume preparation and job search assistance.

To state the obvious, helping someone transform their behavioral patterns from destructive to constructive and from hopelessness to hope is a combined win/win for the individual and their community, and far less costly to a community than an endless cycle of repeat offenses and incarceration. That win/win, as they say, “is the gift that keeps on giving.” And that gift is the goal and commitment of our Avery County Drug Crisis Roundtable, its Freedom Life Avery operation and their many affiliated community groups. The gift of hope…in the true spirit of the season.

Romeos and Juliets

By Estelle Brewer

Norman Rockwell’s Freedom from Want

Doesn’t the mention of these names bring thoughts of undying love to your mind? Two of Shakespeare’s most famous characters loved so passionately that they were willing to die for that love. To be named a Romeo or a Juliet is to be complimented on your loyalty and love for your spouse. While this is often true, there is another meaning which can be attached to those time-worn names in today’s era. ROMEO is the abbreviation for Retired Old Men Eating Out. Yes, we have a great number of ROMEOS here in these mountains. And what about Juliet, you ask? Our JULIETS represent Just Us Ladies Informally Eating Together.

We will no doubt see many ROMEOS and JULIETS soon through the holidays and into the New Year. We JULIETS of a certain age are exhausted from the tasks required of us to ensure everyone’s peak experiences through the holidays. Many of us still welcome our families home during this time of year. How wonderful! Yes it certainly is, IF you are not too exhausted to enjoy the family time. The cleaning, straightening, decorating, wrapping presents, buying groceries, and making everyone’s favorite holiday dish often leave us overtired for the arrival of family and the much-awaited celebrations.

Even if your family has begun the tradition of celebrating at your children’s homes, much is still required of the cherished matriarch. I can just imagine the conversations at the homes of our adult children…

“It will be so much easier on Mom and Dad this year since everyone is coming to our house for the holidays. I’ll tell her to bring her famous (insert labor intensive dish here) and that will make her feel better about coming to our house. Oh and I think I’ll ask her to bring (another labor-intensive dish) because I don’t think I will have time to make that and now that she is retired she will have more time to make it.”

“Good. Are we going to have __ this year?”

“No. I thought I’d make __instead.”

“Oh. OK.” (obviously not thrilled with the menu change).

“Well if you really want that I guess I could ask Mom to make it and bring it with her.”

“Yeah. She likes to make it. “

It is truly wonderful to be appreciated and invited to spend the holidays with our busy adult children. And to have our family traditions observed by our adult children make us feel validated as older parents. Perhaps the key element here is time. While it is true that as retired folk we have more available time, it also takes us more time each year to complete the same tasks. As a young mother I recall visiting my parents for the holidays and noticing that my mother retrieved many of our favorite dishes from her freezer, even her famous homemade chocolate cake. Now I understand that she began her holiday cooking weeks in advance and in doing so expertly budgeted her energy for family time.

Please don’t misunderstand my sentiment here. The holidays are a joyful time. The days are full of love and memory-making. However, the holiday cooking whirlwind may disrupt a household’s eating routine. There is no time for regular meals when the oven is being used to bake holiday goodies. After all the holiday gatherings, we may desire a bit of informal time, a.k.a. down time. We may need a break from meal planning, cooking and “closeness,” even from our Romeos. Time with girlfriends to swap stories of inlaws, grandchildren, and children is just what is needed. Each chapter of life holds its own pleasures, as well as responsibilities. This truth is explained excellently by a friend of mine who recently told her husband of many years: “Robert, I married you for better or worse, but not for lunch!”