It is the mission of Dawn Farm to identify and remove barriers that prevent clients from joining the recovering community. Implicit in this mission statement is the belief that the recovering community has greater healing power than Dawn Farm and that facilitating integration with this community will be the most effective strategy for helping most clients initiate and maintain recovery. 

To this end, we seek to provide active linkages to the recovering community wherever possible. Some examples of the active linkage include:

• Transporting residential and detox clients to meetings,

• Welcoming (formal and informal) volunteers from the recovering community into all programs,

• Linking clients with peers from the recovering community,

• Involving clients as volunteers for recovering community events,

• Designating staff  as "community guides" to link clients with sponsors and supports,

• Directing clients to meetings that offer enthusiasm for recovery, active linkage to sponsorship, opportunities for service work, examples of long term recovery, and a solution orientation.

In addition, time spent with members of the recovering community is considered and integral part of treatment. Clients are strongly encouraged to get to know people in the recovering community, get a sponsor as well as other “supports” with at least six months of recovery. Residential treatment clients are required to get visits from these supports. There are also procedures for clients to arrange for supports to pick them up to go to meetings. They also spend time away from the treatment milieu with these supports. Their excursions increase incrementally, four hours, eight hours, then two full days with Saturday night spent at the facility, and, if appropriate, they may spend an entire weekend out. 

At Spera, visitors from the community visit daily to participate in drop-in groups, provide support, and demonstrate that recovery is possible. Volunteers also cook meals for clients and help maintain the facility. This community involvement not only addresses many individual needs, it also addresses the anomie commonly experienced in cultures of addiction at individual and group levels. Recent research on ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) also finds that community capacity and having multiple sources of support are related to resilience and recovery from ACEs.

We believe strongly that addiction is a chronic illness and that recovery requires lifelong maintenance. All of these activities become the foundation of natural, nonhierarchical, reciprocal and enduring peer relationships and, for many of our clients, a transition from an identity organized around a culture of addiction to an identity organized around a culture of recovery. 

Since Dawn Farm’s founding in 1973, these practices that enmesh clients into the recovering community are most responsible for our success. Therefore. it is critical that any measures implemented to protect clients from the community be weighed against the potential to create barriers between clients and the healing power of the community. 

We have responsibilities to maintain a safe environment and to reduce barriers between clients and the healing properties of the recovering community.

Procedures

Visitors come to Dawn Farm for many reasons - to inquire about services, buy merchandise or eggs, see our animals, visit clients, attend 12-step groups or open meetings, volunteer, etc. Since we are a private treatment center whose primary concern is the welfare of our clients, it is imperative that ALL visitors to any facility check in at the office. Only visitors with legitimate business will be allowed to remain on the premises. 

• Each treatment site will post clear directions at entrances to sign/check in.

• Each treatment site will maintain a sign-in/sign-out binder.

• Each treatment site will require that all ride-out volunteers need to check in with staff when the pick up a client, then check in again when they drop the client off. (We know a lot of our volunteers. If there is any question about the appropriateness of a volunteer, we can talk with them and/or the client, and can choose to not allow the ride-out, if necessary.)

• Each site will announce tours so that clients can choose to remain in a private area during the tour.

• Each program coordinator will limit facility entry points to maximize monitoring of visitors.

• The client handbook encourages clients to report anything they feel uncomfortable with immediately.

• Program staff will provide a copy of Dawn Farm’s Guidelines for Supports to every support.

• When there is a known threat to a client’s safety (e.g. - A stalking ex-SO), the information will be shared with the rest of the program staff via a day book, staff bulletin board, or email.

• Dawn Farm maintains a current list of banned members of the community with timeframes and processes for reviewing bans.

Procedures specific to the Spera Recovery Center

• Weekly formal volunteer orientation

• On-the-spot volunteer orientation for visitors new to Spera

• If any current Spera client is uncomfortable with a potential volunteer for any reason, the potential volunteer cannot come to Spera until the current Spera clients completes treatment at Spera

Procedures specific to Transitional Housing

• Visitors require approval from house manager.

• Lock replacement if there is a clear risk that a former resident has key and is considered a risk to property or safety.