Mission Statement
Strengthen the resilience and self-efficacy of people in addiction recovery.
We are an IRS-determined 501(c)(3) public charity organized as a Nevada corporation.
Tax ID: 46-3308204. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of law.
Your Opportunity
Let's face it. People fund projects and causes that touch them personally, and in which they believe their money and/or time will actually make a difference to individuals, and to society at-large. This is one of those "big picture" projects. The odds are you know someone personally who has or is suffering from addiction. And if you do not, you definitely know someone who does.
Funding Sober Living Enrichment provides you an opportunity not just to change the lives of 35 individuals, and but to vastly improve the lives of people in their orbit: children, spouses, partners, families, friends, co-workers.
Your support also means you are lending a hand in creating real solutions to bending the healthcare cost-curve down. We are changing the model of substance abuse "rehabilitation" in ways that positively impact chronic relapse rates, delivery, duration, and cost-effectiveness of dollars invested. Today's model is too expensive, too exclusive, and too complex.
Keep this in mind: approximately 30 million Americans suffer from substance addiction. Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. (47,000 deaths including 78 daily from opiate use alone. CDC, 2014.) The dollar cost to society exceeds more than $600 billion annually (NIDA, 2012).
Executive Summary
Living Free Health & Fitness (LFHF) developed a program for sober living environments designed to enhance the potential of keeping addicts in recovery for the critical first 12 months. This is a milestone at which the chances for life-long recovery double! Nearly 70% relapse in the first 90 days. Only 34% of people will ever relapse again if they reach that 12-month milestone (Dennis, Foss, Scott, 2007).
The organization conducted a two-month beta program in Las Vegas May 21, 2016 to July 16, 2016. The results were quite promising. While the beta program was conducted with a women-only facility, the project for which we seek funding will serve men and women - with a predominant participation percentage of minorities and members of the LBGTQ communities.
The Sober Living Enrichment Program consists of education, fitness, nutrition, and life skills modules, and also offers group and one-on-one counseling. By teaching the skills and lifestyle changes necessary to staying sober for life, our practical approach aids the recovering addict’s transition from a group living environment to integration into a traditional, independent-living situation.
The benefits of the LFHF approach are that it enhances existing sober living programs by adding clinical and lifestyle-skills education and practice, and serves to protect previous medical and therapeutic investments made in client treatment. At less than $300 per person, per month, the cost to deliver this program is significantly less than the cost of traditional relapse rehabilitation and medication management approaches.
According to Koob (2014), creating new complex habits takes 90 days or more. Yet, providers offer (expensive) treatment of limited duration (typically 5 – 60 days). Their business models (cash flow) are vested in relapse, not long-term abstinence. Our approach offers inexpensive, continuing care with a heavy emphasis on lifestyles and life skills changes traditional providers fail to teach, and/or cannot reinforce sufficiently, in limited treatment episodes.
The goal of this project is to provide life-changing support for up to 35 individuals, and to demonstrate the efficacy a solution that leaves no one behind.
In an era of unremitting overdose deaths, tighter budgets, ballooning healthcare costs, and chronic relapse, we believe our program is precisely the type of solution all stake-holders are seeking. It is an equitable approach that breaks down the barriers of income, costly insurance and co-pays, and socio-economic disadvantage. And it provides individuals with the ongoing support and skills necessary to living a lifetime of staying stopped!
Why Fund This
- The benefit of our approach far outweighs the cost. Upside potential is huge in terms of lives and dollars saved, and macro-benefits to individuals, families and society.
- Simple approach to a complex problem.
- Scalable nationwide.
- Can be monetized through licensing, accreditation and private/public funding.
- Has the potential to be leveraged in recovery high schools and among other high-risk populations.
Beta Program Insight
Click the link Beta Program Activity Blogs for a better understanding of the kind of day-to-day activities in which participants engage. Clicking "next" once on the page will take you through a history.
Testimonials
From Family of Participants
“It’s a daily intervention that allows her to break the cycle and helps her self-esteem and allows her to be the true (person) she is. All because of your personal service she now has a route that will lead her to live in a conscious mind of wellness and recovery. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. She is inspiring me to kick it into gear. How the tables have turned! Thank you!”
“Because of this health and fitness intervention you have provided, my sister has the opportunity and choice to do something healthy and productive with her down time that will feed her mind, body and soul. She is on an absolute natural high and thinks about, and plans – yes, plans – her next visit to the gym. I’m just in tears. Her goals, her concentration and her focus is on her food choices and her next personal challenge at the gym. Like ‘Whoa!’ LOL”
From Participants
I really enjoy (the) ideas and explanation on topics related to independence and self-sufficiency. These are things I need to learn about! Thank you so much for all you do!
“This program has provided a different dimension of support.
It’s building a connection between peers – it’s more than just living
together!"
Our Proposed Solution - Details
We propose our continuity of care model as the better and more common-sense approach to the “do something” demands of a nation reeling from the current opiate epidemic and pervasive drug/alcohol abuse problem. We seek to empower individuals with the tools they need to stay sober, relying on personal responsibility, action and consistency as hallmarks of forging long-term abstinence. Early recovery is fragile. The "trick" is not in getting people to stop using drugs; it's in them Staying Stopped!
Value proposition
- Promotes self-efficacy versus dependence
- Insures the investment of public / private treatment dollars
- Improves the physical health of the individual
- Instills personal responsibility and self-care
Cost / Efficacy
(for more information on the costs of addiction relapse see the footnote images below)
For approximately $285 per person per month (roughly $10 per day), the program will deliver:
- Licensed professional counseling
- Certified fitness training
- Life skills training and practicums
- Subsidized full-gymnasium memberships
- Evidence-based, proprietary educational materials
- Companion text book
Scalability
Our programming is
scalable from traditionally-sized (7-12 resident) sober living homes, to larger institutionally-sized venues such as the Salvation Army rehabilitation centers. However, as many of the larger group-home models
such as Salvation Army have a component of therapeutic and life skills training in its programs, LFHF sees the Program’s most significant impact in more traditional sober living environments, where clinical quality and licensed/certified personnel are much less common.
- The role of the Program for large (>25 resident) groups
- Delivery of missing components, such as fitness training
- Robust proprietary library of educational material including worksheets and treatment plans
- Augment existing program
- Employee education
- Turn-key
- The role of the Program for traditional (<=12 resident per house) group homes
- Implement full program
- Continued operation
- Coordinate business to business relationships with gyms, community centers
- Robust proprietary library of courseware included
- Turn-key
- Train-the-trainer
Monetization
Sober living proprietors
- Improved client outcomes
- Differentiation from competition
- Stable census means lower operational costs and steadier cash-flow
- Higher fee-revenue per bed
- Potential for private/public grant monies
Living Free Health & Fitness
- Renewable accreditation facilities and agencies implementing the program
- License courseware
- Implement programs for turnkey continuity
- Operate programs – ongoing
- Staffing and training
- Continuing education
- Public / private grants and gifts
- Business-to-business
agreements with insurers, fitness and nutrition companies, large
corporations, colleges and primary educators.
Who we are
Shelley Poerio has been in active recovery since September 5, 2001 and is founder and president of the organization. Shelley is also chairman of the board. Additionally, she is a masters-prepared licensed alcohol and drug counselor-supervisor, master addiction counselor and certified fitness trainer. She has been a clinician since 2009. She has previous experience as a brokerage principal and registered representative, and possesses extensive experience in the management and daily operation of small businesses. Shelley holds a BA in communications from Stanford University and an MA in professional counseling from Liberty University.
Catherine "Casey" Jones has been focused on positioning companies and entities for positive change, typically growth (revenue and start-up base) and/or acquisition. Additionally, Casey possesses university teaching experience, is an accomplished speaker, published writer and patent holders. She holds a BA and MA from Stanford University and an MS(MBA) from Carnegie Mellon University. Casey serves as our outside business advisor.
Neil Conway is currently and account manager and creative director with Salter, MItchell, Inc., and serves as an instructor to medical students at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Neil holds a BA from Stanford University, and MA in journalism from the University of Maryland, and an MA in film and video production from American University. Neil is a member of the board and the executive vice president.
Anthony "Tony" Cox is a retired physicist. Tony has had an eclectic career and first started at Oxford using high-intensity synchrotron X-rays to investigate the structure of petroleum catalysts. In Hamburg, he expanded the technique to look at glass ceramics. At Stanford, he worked on the structure of proteins. A study of the machines that produce X-rays, and the challenge of stability, led him to leaving academia. For 20 years, Tony has been a consultant, advising (and occasionally solving) complex control and data analysis problems for the defense and manufacturing industries. He has a strong personal interest in adapting fitness and nutrition techniques to combat degenerative neurological disorders. Tony is a member of the board and serves as the treasurer of the organization.
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Footnotes
(c) 2016 LIVING FREE HEALTH & FITNESS, A NON-PROFIT CORPORATION
The material contained herein may not be copied or used without expressed written permission, and is intended only for members of the public evaluating this project for the purpose of funding.