June 2006 Newsletter
Two Lives, One Man
Remembering Xavier Ballard
By Cecil Dunn
One day in 1994 in
Louisville,
a man found himself at the end of his life. That man was Xavier Ballard.
On his back and in his pockets he carried the sum total of material
possessions he had managed to accumulate in 40 years of living. There
wasn’t much. He was a drug addict, a drug addict who walked with an odd
gait. He had lost a foot one night while passed out on a railroad track.
Xavier knew it was time to surrender, and so he did. But he didn’t
surrender to death. Instead, he surrendered to a new life. He entered a
detox unit. He learned about Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps. He learned about Recovery Dynamics and peer
counseling where recovering alcoholics and addicts teach, mentor and help
other alcoholics and addicts still suffering in their addictions.
Xavier’s second life lasted twelve years, until last month when he died of
cancer. He spent ten of those years here at the
Hope Center where he
helped start our Recovery Program for Men. He was, while he was with us,
the heart of that program as he helped rescue hundreds of men from
addiction, degradation and death. As one man said at the service for
Xavier, “If it hadn’t been for Xavier, instead of his funeral, you would
have been attending mine.”
A man named Whitney also spoke at that service. Whitney was on duty as a
peer counselor the night Xavier entered detox. It was Whitney who started
Xavier on the difficult path to recovery. An addict himself, a few years
later Whitney relapsed. He came to the
Hope Center where Xavier
helped bring him back from the brink. Whitney said, “Xavier was an angel,
an angel of recovery, a vessel that God used. He is with God, and I
guarantee he’s still trying to help somebody.”
Many people spoke that day. All of them told stories from the heart of what
Xavier had done for them, of how he had saved their lives. In the end, they
loved him, despite the fact, as almost every one of them said, they didn’t
much like him when they first met him. The reason was simple. Xavier
always told them the truth, and the truth is the last thing active addicts
and alcoholics want to hear. But once they learned the truth from Xavier,
they thanked him for it. As one said, “He’s the only man I know who can
give you instant humility.”
That was Xavier’s
hallmark – brutal, honest, blessed, loving truth. If a client complained
about how difficult things were in the program, Xavier was known to say,
“There are no locks on the doors and no bars on the windows. If you want to
leave, then leave. We will gladly refund you your misery.”
Xavier knew that misery. He knew it firsthand. He also knew the joy of
defeating it, in himself and others.
On Xavier’s coffin were inscribed these words, “May the work I’ve done speak
for me.” The work that Xavier did doesn’t just speak, it shouts, and, what
is more important, it lives.
3 Hits and a Run to Applebee’s Park
The bases are loaded and there is only one place to go – Applebee’s restaurant and Applebee’s Park! The Hope Center and Applebee’s are teaming up for a pancake breakfast. Applebee’s on Richmond Road has graciously donated their facilities for a community wide pancake breakfast that will benefit the Hope Center.
The 3 Hits and a Run Pancake Breakfast will run for three Saturdays: July 22, July 29 and August 5 from 7:30am to 9:30am. Go to one of them, two, or all three!
Let 3 hits at Applebee’s restaurant for the pancake breakfast bring you to Applebee’s Park! On August 9th, the Lexington Legends will host the Colorado Catfish, and the Hope Center will be the Community Organization of the Night. The Hope Center’s own Randy Breeding, Chairman of the Board of Directors, will be throwing the ceremonial opening pitch.
1 Saturday $5.00
2 Saturdays $10.00
3 Saturdays $12.00
All proceeds from the 3 Hits and a Run Pancake Breakfast will go directly to the Hope Center. To reserve your ticket for the pancake breakfast and for more information, please call Stephanie Ramsey at 252-7881.
Summer Projects at the Hope Center
If you are interested in joining in with some of the summertime projects around the Hope Center, contact Katie Locklar or Audra Meighan at 859-252-7811. Possibilities include:
Edging the grass lines around mulched areas and curbs
Raking dead leaves from the perimeter of the property’s fence
Spreading and laying mulch.
Painting the basement to brighten it up and replacing burned out light bulbs
Painting the stairway to basement (only for a skilled and balanced painter who has the proper scaffolding)
Renting an aerator and aerating grounds around the Hope Center
Providing material equipment and spreading weed killer and fertilizer on the lawn Planting summer flowers
Trimming hedges and trees
And for those looking for something a little more ambitious: Replacing wooden locker doors by cutting and sanding new wood purchased by the Hope Center. To maintain a low budget for this project, it is preferable for the skilled volunteer to provide the use of his or her own tools and equipment (e.g., sawhorses, sander, saw, and so forth). This project involves upwards of 50 lockers and can be broken up by multiple groups if necessary. We recommend teams of 3 or more for such a task.
Things we need
Toothpaste
Deodorant
White socks (new)
Shampoo
Razors
Shaving cream
Small soaps
Large size shoes and clothes
Sun block
Sunburn gel
Band aids
Cough syrup (nonalcoholic)
Glucose strips
Calamine lotion
Combs (all sizes)
Sample cups
One or two lawn mowers
Weed eaters
Random notes on homelessness in America …
A survey last year of 202 homeless families with 370 children living in 14 shelters in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina showed that 42 percent of the adults are employed and 28 percent have never been on public assistance.
Ten
Years of Recovery
|The
Hope Center’s model for success
There are many causes of homelessness, including a general lack of
affordable housing, but among the most pernicious contributors is addiction
to drugs or alcohol. More than half of the chronic homeless population
suffers from addiction.
That is why the
Hope
Center began an intense Recovery Program for Men in August 1996. It has met
with tremendous success. In 2002, after urging from the community, the Hope
Center added a Recovery Program for Women. Later that year, the Hope Center
began applying many of its recovery principles in a program at the Fayette
County Detention Center. Now the Hope Center program and its physical
facility are being used as the model for Recovery Kentucky, a statewide
initiative in recovery with ten facilities to be spread across Kentucky.
These are some of the elements that have made the program such a success:
Long term
participation in residence.
The participants in the program typically spend seven to nine months in
residence at the facility. Some stay as long as 18 months. They are not
allowed to work outside the facility until the transitional phase at the
end. Instead, their full-time job is learning about their disease and
working on their recovery.
Peer-driven
community.
Under guidance from the professional staff, the participants themselves hold
each other accountable for maintaining progress on the road to recovery.
Consequences for inappropriate behavior are proposed and voted on by the
group in Community meetings. Participants undertake job assignments that
help the facility function, including laundry, kitchen duty and security.
People in
recovery helping people in recovery.
Those who are further along in their recovery serve as mentors for those
coming along behind them. They also serve as positive role models for those
who realize that joining the program could be the answer for them. Even
among the staff, most are in recovery themselves.
Program
content built around the Twelve Steps. Working the Twelve Steps of AA
and NA are at the heart of the program. In addition, the 28 lessons of the
Recovery Dynamics curriculum are taught. Additional classes are taught on
recovery related topics that include healthy relationships, anger
management, thinking errors, relapse prevention, family dynamics and health
issues.
Progress in phases. Each participant moves through the program by
phases: Entry level, where they learn what the program is about and what
will be expected of them; Motivational Track, where they must demonstrate
their readiness and commitment to enter the full program; Phase I, where
they enter into the heart of the program and gain the tools they need to
live clean, sober responsible lives; and Phase II where they begin the
transition to living outside the facility with life skills training and
assistance in the areas of employment and housing.
Assistant Staff. Participants ready for Phase II have the option to
defer that part of the program while they spend several months working as
Assistant Staff. In exchange for room and board and a stipend, these
individuals help the staff conduct the program. They are especially
effective as persuasive mentors for the newer participants.
The Hope Center Recovery Program has been an invaluable tool in the fight against homelessness. It is a beacon that is lighting the path for those suffering in the throes of addiction.
There passed this way …
Matt Layton is the coordinator for the Hope Center Recovery Program for Men. When Xavier Ballard fell ill last year, Matt recounted to the board events regarding hiring Xavier and Xavier’s impact on the program. This excerpt is adapted from that account:
We were invited to sit in on one of Xavier’s classes and decide if we thought he could help us with our program. There were about 50 clients seated noisily in the room. When Xavier entered there was an immediate hush as he demanded everyone’s attention without uttering a word. He was a small man in stature, about 5’8” and not an ounce of body fat on his frame, but he had a look about him like he meant business. As a social worker I had been in the field a long time and had attended multiple workshops and presentations conducted by countless professionals. But none of them had the presence that Xavier had in front of that class. The whole place was on the edge of their seats. Afterwards I asked Xavier if he was interested in a position at the Hope Center. He stated that he was and we hired him on the spot.
I would like to be able to say that the Hope Center Recovery Program was always the well-oiled machine that it is today. But that is not the case. In 1996, many Hope Center staff members were “old school” social workers who were used to the clients presenting their problems and the staff member working to solve them. Now they were being asked to implement a Recovery Dynamics program based on empowerment, fostering an environment where the client learns to help himself and his comrades. Moreover, in the beginning, Xavier’s no nonsense drill sergeant approach rubbed many of the staff here at the Hope Center the wrong way. The first year he had run-ins with everyone from Detox clients to members of management. There were times along the way when we didn’t think a hardcore program like this could work at the Hope Center. But after that first year, things started to gel. Xavier softened up a bit and we became a little tougher. (I can’t say for sure, but I believe that after two years I might have seen him smile once.)
It has now been almost ten years since the program began and 620 men have graduated the program with a 60% success rate over the life of the program. All of us are contacted on a regular basis by graduates who want to express gratitude for our help. They tell us how fantastic their lives are now. We have all worked very hard but the program would not be what it is today without Xavier. He held our collective nose to the grindstone year after year and would not let us waiver from the core ideals of the program. We all owe Xavier a deep debt of gratitude for his work and dedication to the Men’s Recovery Program.
