Recovery Rides
Being ready to seek help marks a major and critical step toward recovery from addiction. When our fellow community members are ready to get drugs and alcohol out of their system and to tackle their addiction through intensive treatment, reliable community supports need to be there for them.
Recovery Rides will bring these supports at this critical time by providing fail-safe transportation and accompaniment from home to the mainland treatment (and back) for these fellow island residents who are seeking help.
Recovery Rides was conceived out of painful experiences where treatment was available and waiting for our and our community partners’ clients, but it was not received because timely transportation and/or qualified accompaniment was not accessible. Recovery in Community and our partners are determined that this will not happen once Recovery Rides is in place.
We are building a transportation network in our local communities and on the mainland to get these willing clients to treatment whenever it is available, and to have these clients accompanied by a fellow community member on that journey. Recovery Rides will also be available for the trip back home after treatment – another critical transition on the path to recovery and healthy reengagement with the community.
Click the button below to support Recovery Rides with a donation to Recovery In Community.
When using the donation form, please click the dropdown menu and select Recovery In Community. Donations are tax deductible.
What’s New?
Recovery in Community/Recovery Rides Has a New Partner!
Kaleidoscope Preschool and Child Care will become our new fiscal sponsor on January 1st.
We thank our founding fiscal sponsor, Orcas Community Resource Center, for their support of RIC and RR for the last three years. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Kaleidoscope is a great match for us! They have been an effective and trustworthy community partner in other collaborative projects with RIC founder Jim Connell. With their holistic approach to working with diverse children and families in our community, they are 100% committed to RIC/RR’s mission. Amber Paulson, Kaleidoscope’s executive director, is a dedicated Orcas Island RR Rider and Driver herself, as is her husband Justin Paulson.
We thank Kaleidoscope’s board for the confidence they’ve shown in our work and look forward to a productive partnership.
We’ve Completed Our First Recovery Ride!
At the crack of dawn, a RR Driver picked up the client. The RR Rider accompanied the client on the ferry to Anacortes, and the client checked in at the treatment center that afternoon. On returning to the island after a very long day, our Recovery Rider said, "I've never been so tired and so grateful at the same time!" Our client is now in treatment and doing well. We've also had some “almost” rides and have learned a lot from those as well.
Celebrating Our Riders and Drivers!
In our first two months of operations, 75 days across our three San Juan County communities were covered with Full Recovery Rides Teams of Driver and Rider! This is an extraordinary-but-expected response from members of our island communities, who see the need for Recovery Rides and have stepped up to be there for their fellow island residents with addiction challenges. BRAVO!
Meet Our New Coordinator!
We’re very excited to have Selby Lighthill as our Recovery Rides Coordinator. He follows Megan Neal, who helped bring Recovery Rides to its opening day September 1. Selby will focus on managing our technology tools and internal communications. He is generously volunteering his time for this critical task, so thank you Selby and welcome aboard!