My Nonprofit Reviews

This is a work program which means that most of the people who go there cannot afford treatment and have nowhere else to go. Many are court mandated and face return to jail if they leave or are discharged. They wield this power like a weapon for the abuse of the clients to make them do anything they are told to do, no matter how difficult or degrading it may be. They use many tactics to wear these clients down. They deprive them of sleep frequently, the associates who have spent more time in the program are given the responsibility of creating treatment plans, (what without a license you say?) They have one group every week where all associates sit in a circle while observed by staff as they take turns telling each other all the things they think are wrong with them, which more often than not becomes harsh and humiliating. The biggest problem is that if staff likes you, you get to say what you want any way you want, but if they don’t like you, they will interrupt you and “shut you down”. There are certain people who they decide they are not willing to help, so they antagonize those people until they believe they can’t do well for whatever reason. If you get an infraction they put you on the move, which means between contract jobs and household work, you will be on your feet for 16 hours per day. If you are not one of their “pets” they will look for more things to extend your move time, inventing infractions if they need to. The contract jobs that every associate works without pay are told to us so that we can pay our way through the program, but every single edible thing that goes into the houses come from the local food banks for free. What do they do with the food stamps they made us apply for upon arrival? Everything that the program provides for the associates are also donated, so where does $10+ per hour times 50-60 hours times 30 associates go?? Well the director seems to be doing very well financially, remnicient of Jennifer Warren, the previous director. It’s disheartening how little they seem to care about recovery as they do finance. This is how my personal termination went: I got 6 days on the move while in transition then moved to the next phase, one week later, they sat me and 2 other associates who they showed open disdain for in a “clean up” which is where they separate the associates from the rest and tell them to write detailed accounts of any rules they have broken and any rules they have seen others break. They will not tell the associate why they are there or anything. Apparently as a rule they reject the first report and tell the associate to keep writing or receive an undetermined amount of move time for not “cleaning up”. This gave us all 23 days of move time, and then they added 6 days to mine just because they could. After that the scrutinized my every move and gave me more days for anything they even thought I may have done. They even at one time gave me days for something that there was no possible way I had done it. This all led to a “restart” of the program, which is usually reserved for associates who relapse. This restart strips the associate of any privileges they have earned, and any hope of them being restored for 75 days. They treated me as if I were a disease to the community who was to be avoided. After going nearly 30 days after the restart, they gave me days for something that nobody ever gets in trouble for, and then I broke two rules by taking Tylenol while working a contract job. Meanwhile, I had been participating fully in every recommended aspect of my treatment plan and honestly expressed my desire to do better and affirmed my commitment to not break any more rules. They let me go over an entire week, trying very hard to do well and waited until I felt better about myself and began to believe that I could do it. Then one day after I worked all day, doing a great job, then took me to the office and bluntly told me they were terminating me from the program. It was obvious that they were fully enjoying my shock and that they were getting rid of me. I had to go to jail, and upon my release from jail I was simply put out on the streets of Asheville on New Years Eve, homeless and destitute, on a day where any resources were not going to be available for two more days. In desperation, I went with a stranger and was introduced to another group of strangers with whom I had to stay for a week until my parents could come pick me up. Where would I be had any of those people been a psychopath with rape and murder in mind? They didn’t care, let alone provide a bus ticket to get me home. I’m sure they will not return the $300 deposit they paid for my entry to the program. I never could figure out what that money went toward, especially considering that we began working on our first day in the program. Now I have to figure out how to get into another rehab before I am arrested again for pre trial release violation for being terminated, though I never had any desire to leave the program and didn’t commit a single infraction that involved relapse or threatened the safety of any associate in the program. I am more lost today than I was when I was shooting heroin and meth while in active addiction. If you want recovery, I would highly recommend not choosing to enter this program. There is First at Blue Ridge and Healing Transitions that so far seem to be more of an actual therapeutic community. I’m very discouraged by how they relished in the failure of an addict who really wants recovery, while professing to being passionate about helping desperate dying addicts find recovery. They talk about how much love the associates give new women in the program, but I didn’t ever experience any love from anyone, only condescension and status. I can see how much of what we went through in the program will teach us lessons that we can apply to our lives to counter our addiction, but there simply has to be a better way that treats everyone with compassion and respect that they deserve as human beings. I think their success rate speaks for itself. Less than one third of the associates who enter the program will go on to graduate. What that says to me is that two thirds of the associates who enter the program will be bullied, ostracized, and abused until they either gave up, ran away, or were dumped out on the streets like garbage, regardless of the serious threat to their personal safety. It’s sickening to me and I will tell anyone who ever thinks that RVC may be the solution to their problem that it more likely will become a living nightmare. Do not send anyone to this place if you love them, not with the odds stacked so highly against them to begin with