Getting a second chance at school

At addiction treatment center Jaywalker Lodge (Carbondale, Colo.), alumni have always played a large role.  Not only do they make up one-third of the staff, but they also assist with leading expeditions and outings, serving as drivers to the men in treatment, and holding alumni-directed counseling groups.  Bob Ferguson, CEO and founder of Jaywalker Lodge, and other staff members at Jaywalker began to notice that after graduating from the treatment program, a disproportionate number of their alumni were not leaving Carbondale.  He says they were clustering together in sober apartments, and coming to after-care programs.

Not only that, but Ferguson and others also noticed that the alumni were starting to attend classes on their own at the local community college, Colorado Mountain College (CMC).  The alumni relations manager gathered the names of recovering individuals who were enrolled either full- or part-time at the college and had recently come from Jaywalker.  This number ended up being 52 individuals over the past two years

Jaywalker then had a meeting with the dean of student affairs and VP for the Roaring Fork region.  When they referenced the list to the school officials, the dean knew who these guys were.  “These were some of their best students,” Ferguson says.   

Ferguson explains that the idea for proceeding to partner with the school on a program came from the inspiration of these alumni.  “If these guys had that much of an appetite for resuming their college education on their own, what might that look like if CMC and Jaywalker Lodge worked collaboratively to create a path for people in early recovery to get back to college? And that’s where Jaywalker U came from.  So, it wasn’t that we sat in a board meeting or had some focus group and on a blank piece of paper we constructed this.  What we’re doing is chasing our alumni and their energy because they’re already looking for ways to complete or continue college after treatment.”

The pilot program

Jaywalker U, which is offered by Jaywalker Lodge in partnership with CMC, currently has six “pioneers” taking classes during the fall semester 2012.  The six students have completed both Jaywalker’s extended treatment program (now a 90-day program), and the Solutions program, which is its transitional living program. 

Applicants to Jaywalker U must have six months of documented sobriety prior to starting college.  “They don’t need to have gotten sober at Jaywalker,” says Ferguson.  “All of them so far have come through Jaywalker, but they don’t need to.  They just need to have come from some kind of program where it is documented.” 

While this pilot program is under way, under construction is a building for students that will be completed in the middle of October and ready for the January semester.  In this 6,000-square-foot building is an integrated student center, which has staff offices, a student lounge, and what Jaywalker calls “the bull pen,” which is a study hall and classroom area designed specifically for 20 sober students to work.  The building also houses a dormitory-style residence hall that accommodates 15 students.  This building is also located on Main Street in Carbondale.  The main college campus where these students will be attending classes is CMC’s Spring Valley Campus, which is located six miles from Jaywalker Lodge.

Jaywalker helps to coordinate the students’ schedules, build in outings and expeditions, help them with transportation to and from the campus, and provide all of the continuing care and sober support services that they need.

The major difference between this program and what other treatment centers have done for college-age individuals, according to Ferguson, lies in the extent of the partnership. Colorado Mountain College has hired a full-time academic counselor whose responsibilities include providing guidance and assistance to Jaywalker U or any student/addict in recovery seeking to return to college.  “So, CMC has a team of five full-time academic counselors on campus, but one of those five is dedicated to any student coming from addiction and recovery,” he says. 

In addition, Jaywalker Lodge has hired a full-time college program director.  Her background is in higher education and substance abuse and prevention and her responsibilities include working with the students enrolled in Jaywalker U.  She will outline the curriculum for the classes that are taught by Jaywalker but accredited by CMC (“The Science of Addiction” during the first semester and “The Science of Recovery” in the second semester), oversee their goals and accountability both individually and as a group, and also assist CMC faculty, students and/or parents with questions about substance abuse.

 “There isn’t a campus in America that couldn’t use a resource specialist in substance abuse and there isn’t a treatment center that couldn’t use a resource specialist in higher education,” Ferguson suggests.  This method will provide benefits to the treatment center because Jaywalker won’t have to spend a lot of time providing academic guidance to their students, because CMC will take care of that. 

Jaywalker provides its services to its students independent of any financial relationship between the student and the college.  Ferguson explains that the price of ongoing treatment support plus the price the school charges for tuition comes out to about the same of what a person would be spending for a private, high-end, liberal arts school.  “If a family and a student are able to invest and take the steps they need to get six months sober, they can re-engage in college, at what college would cost even if they weren’t getting all these support services—that was our goal when looking at the pricing strategy.”

Jaywalker U is a one-year program, with the idea that the students will continue with school on their own as self-sustaining, sober, and successful students after that year of guidance. 

Back to the ‘scene of the crime’

This program is especially important because Ferguson says the typical Jaywalker profile is a man in his mid-20s with two to three previous treatments and two to three semesters of college under his belt. “For many of the jaywalkers, college was where the wheels fell off; some of their most horrific, addiction-related consequences took hold when they had absolute freedom and went off to college,” he says.

Ferguson recognizes that they are “basically taking these guys back to the scene of the crime” and there are some things that they need to address as safeguards for the campus experience.  Again, he talks about how important it is to have a partner such as CMC.  “The staff and faculty, because they’re a community college, are used to working with non-traditional students, they get it.  What gets their staff out of bed in the morning is what gets our staff out of bed in the morning, and that’s the hope and the promise of a restored life and a second chance,” he says.

Another way that Jaywalker U helps to get the wheels rolling again for these men is by helping them build academic momentum and confidence.  Some ways the men can do this are by:

·        Sitting in the front row in their classes,

·        Introducing themselves to the instructor on the first day,

·        Hanging out together at the lunch table,

·        Taking those 12-15 credits that they have in their tentative schedule and cutting it to 6 or 9.  “Let’s not try to take a full course load your first semester back,” Ferguson says, promoting the idea of academic momentum.  “Let’s just try for those straight A’s and take one or two fewer classes.”

He says that these steps will begin to create an identity that most people would connect with success and academics.  “They sound like simple strategies,” he remarks, “but it’s amazing how in their eagerness to restore the damage they’ve done in their addiction, guys will try to hit home runs before they hit singles. All we’re trying to do is have them successfully step up to the plate and not strike out.”

Hope for the future

Not only are programs such as these important for the participants, but also for those who are just entering treatment, Ferguson says.   Those new to the treatment center can look around and see what recovery can look like six months or a year from now.

 “Just assuring them it’s going to be different this time, doesn’t do nearly as much as sitting across the lunch table from a guy who’s taking Calculus and making an ‘A,’” he says.

 “I think there’s a shift under way in the treatment field from containment and damage control to achievement and reintegration in community,” Ferguson explains.  “Treatment isn’t about the drugs you’re not doing – it’s about the activities you are doing.”