A.R.M.: Changing lives by ending addiction

Feb. 21--Soozy Stone has a heart for helping people whose lives are mired in addiction. She has lived through it as the mother of a meth-addicted son.

It helps motivate her to help those people, and their families, fight through their addictions and put them on the path of hope, with a bright future to live for.

"It happened to my baby" said Stone, the new volunteer executive director for Addiction Recovery Ministries. "He is doing well. We survived and made it to the other side. I wasn't going to let it win."

She went through the entire process of learning all about addictions, how they happen and work, and how to overcome them. She went through the stages of blaming herself, and even her now late husband who passed three years ago, but not before his son promised him he would slip back into an addiction lifestyle. It is a promise that has been kept.

"There's a lot of shame in addiction on both sides," said Stone.

Stone is now operating in the role of ARM's founder and visionary pastor Ted Oliver, who passed away Dec. 28. While she said she could never fill his shoes, she hopes she can help the non-profit's unpaid staff and board of directors continue ARM's mission of Christ-based recovery, training and education.

"We are going to remain Christ-based," said Stone. "It is all about Jesus."

Stone continues to work for Weatherford College as an educational talent search coordinator with secondary schools in the college's service area to find and help advance under-served students. It is her educational background and knowledge of educational programs and job-training grants and funding that she is putting to work for ARM, now based out of Mineral Wells Center of Life, 200 S.W. 5th St.

In fact, that is what led her to the organization about a year before Oliver passed, when he asked her to develop a client-based career readiness curriculum for ARM to help them obtain a GED, a trade certificate or associate's degree. Successful clients of the educational and job skills programs are able to achieve something they once thought impossible -- walking across the stage to receive a certificate or diploma.

"That is what I bring to the program," Stone said. "Education skills. I am quite busy with my college job but Ted felt like I'd be a good fit for ARM and so did the people who work here. I have a heart for the people of Mineral Wells, to see that they have a better life."

Doug Stone, who has volunteered at ARM for the past decade and is one of its early success stories, said Stone is bringing exciting changes and a new direction for the agency.

"She is awesome, to see the things she is doing," Stone said. "She brings a fresh face and the heart for it, a heart for God. That's what God is about."

While ARM no longer operates a men's shelter, or a women's and women with children shelter at Wolters Industrial Park, Stone said hopes are that, once the industrial park property sells, ARM will re-establish a women's shelter. She said at present there are no plans to again operate a men's shelter.

With more than 100 clients currently, ARM is offering 12 classes -- the 12-Step addiction recovery program; parenting course; anger management; household budgeting; one-on-one values certification; adult life choices; image enhancement; domestic violence; career readiness with Weatherford College certification; hallucinogens and life experiences; spiritual disciplines of 12 Steps; and a class on children and choices.

Clients can be assigned ARM classes as part of court-ordered probationary requirements, or people can come on voluntarily for help.

She is working with county officials to develop more programs -- some focused on juveniles involved with drugs or alcohol. She also wants programs to help families learn about addiction and help them better deal with and help a family member undergoing recovery.

Stone believes -- and has statistics to back her up -- that education is a key to reducing the risk of recidivism among criminal offenders. She cites stats showing that 66 percent of offenders return to prison within three years, but that if employed they are 10 times less likely to reoffend. The percentage of repeat offenders who earn an associate's degree falls to 14 percent, and just 7 percent if they earn a bachelor's degree. For those who go on to receive a master's degree, they statistically do not reoffend.

Stone this is important because of the costs of incarceration and programming, which combined can cost taxpayers around $76,000 annually. Stone it is far less expensive, and far more productive, to give those people job training and life skills to put them on the right path and lower their risk of making the same mistakes.

"It changes families," she said.

Despite Oliver's passing, Stone said the agency is continuing to move forward and carry out Oliver's mission of saving and changing lives.

"We're just going to go where God leads us," said Stone. "We think the vision Ted had for ARM is where we want to go. It is about the kingdom of God."

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(c)2017 the Mineral Wells Index (Mineral Wells, Texas)

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