Steps to Recovery Homes is in the process of creating an intensive outpatient program to offer additional services to the community.
Steps to Recovery is a nonprofit organization that offers transitional housing and a safe environment to help those struggling with substance use disorder. The program provides resources to help them stay clean, learn job skills and better their lives going forward.
Through the new IOP, Steps to Recovery will be able to provide additional therapy for both residents living in a Steps to Recovery transitional house as well as offer its services to other eligible members of the community, Executive Director Damien Browning said.
“It’ll help our clients maximize their success rate to actually look at the core issues of why they use, why do they self-destruct,” he said. “By being able to address why do they self-medicate, what’s the core issue. … What is burning deep inside that makes you act these ways or want to check out and not be in reality.”
The program will be open to anyone in the community that needs therapy for substance use disorder. While the organization does have some stipulations regarding who is eligible, Browning wants to offer help to anyone who’s serious about recovery.
“The way I want to do it, because that’s who I am, is if somebody’s willing, how can we get them help,” he said.
Browning said his desire to open the IOP stems from a growing need for resources to help those struggling with substance use disorder. While there are multiple IOP programs in the Verde Valley, such as those offered at Desert Foothills Counseling and Spectrum Healthcare, there aren’t enough to keep up with the growing demand.
Over 93,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a nearly 30% increase from the year before.
“The need for help for people with substance use disorder is growing, and the resources aren’t. Especially for people that don’t have the money,” Browning said.
The nonprofit hopes to be able to get in-network with insurance plans such as Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to better support low-income clients. Any profits made by the IOP will go to help pay for staff, scholarship funds, additional transitional living houses and any other resources it needs to run its nonprofit operations.
The nonprofit has had plans to create an IOP for several years but has lacked the funding. The organization recently received a $200,000 grant from the Health First Foundation, which will cover staffing and initial costs for the first six months of the program and allow it to get started.
“By being able to get a grant to hire our initial staffing has just made it possible for us,” Browning said.
The organization is still in the early stages of making the IOP a reality. Browning said the organization is still in need of additional funding, staffing and a location for the program before it can open.
While the $200,000 grant is an excellent start, it is in need of an additional $300,000 to $500,000 to be able to open the doors of its new facility. Not only that, but Steps to Recovery is currently in the process of trying to get a loan to purchase a new 15,000- to 20,000-square-foot building in town to house all of its services under one roof, including the new IOP, the Miracles Happen Resale Store, its warehouses and offices. It’s hoping to move into its new building and open the IOP in the next six months or so.
“It would be more self-sustaining in the long term, and instead of paying somebody rent, the organization would be paying for something that they will own,” he said. “And it will help us focus more on the clients.”
For more information about Steps to Recovery Homes and the services it provides, visit steps to recovery.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the donor of the $200,000 grant as the Northern Arizona Healthcare Foundation. The organization that made the donation was the Health First Foundation.
