This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
It has been said that everyone is recovering from something; substance abuse, broken relationships, family dysfunction, domestic violence, financial failure, etc. Longmont residents are no exception. Many of our friends, neighbors, and family members are recovering, or supporting those in recovery, every day.
Longmont, however, is not like every other community when it comes to supporting individuals in recovery. Longmont’s Public Safety Department is implementing initiatives that divert individuals, who might otherwise end up in the criminal justice system, into recovery programs. A new nonprofit organization, Recovery Café’, provides services that leverage and fill gaps around what our Public Safety Department provides.
- What is Longmont actually doing?
- Why is Longmont doing more than most communities to support individuals in recovery?
- What are these people recovering from?
- Why should money be spent to support individuals who can’t “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” or out of downward spirals of substance abuse?
- Why should it matter to the community if some number of Longmont residents are “in recovery”?
- No matter how successful recovery efforts are in Longmont, won’t we always have some percentage of our residents recovering from something?
(Host: Tim Waters with guests Mike Butler, Lisa Searchinger and David Barker)
