The Fellowship Center is planning
new facility in Oceanside
By: North County Times (MARGA
KELLOGG - Staff Writer)
Monday July 30, 2007
NORTH COUNTY ---- If you talk to the
men who live at The Fellowship Center recovery facility
in Escondido, nearby residents and police, they'll tell
you the center is a good neighbor.
They'll also tell you that a second center planned near
the San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside will not threaten
nearby elderly mobile-home owners and schoolchildren with
crime and violence, as some residents fear.
Oceanside residents who live near the property at 4152
Mission Ave, where the new center could house 59 men in
a mission-style compound, have protested in a petition
to City Hall and have held rallies near the proposed site.
But some who live and work around the Escondido center
say the fears are unfounded.
Toya Reece, who for more than 10 years has owned a home
at 701 E. 2nd Ave., across the quiet residential street
to the south, said having the men as neighbors has "been
very pleasant."
The entire neighborhood has benefited from having them
there she said, pointing to the center's night patrol
program, in which a team of men patrols the neighborhood.
She also noted that the men work at community events such
as Escondido's First Night at New Year's, Cruisin' Grand
and street fairs.
"When there's work to be done in our yards, or the senior
citizens need help, we can call on them, too," Reece said.
Founded in 1963 by an attorney who started meetings at
one of the facility's dozen or so buildings, The Fellowship
Center has given hundreds of men struggling with alcohol
and drug abuse a second chance at life. Its program is
based on the principles that experience is the basis of
authority and responsibility for recovery lies within
the participant.
While recovery facilities such as Alpha Project/Casa Raphael
in Vista offer short-term help for those addicted to alcohol
or drugs, The Fellowship Center is the only state licensed,
long-term residential recovery center for men in North
County.
"I've been here for eight years and I've never been aware
of any criminal problems or violence there," said Victoria
Jones, director of North County Serenity House, a women's
rehabilitation compound just east of The Fellowship Center.
Steve and Henry
On a quiet afternoon last week, about a dozen of the Escondido
center's 117 residents gathered for one of their regular
support meetings. Among them were Steve Arevalo and Henry
W. Scribner.
While both are in the same place, they arrived by very
different roads. Scribner is a former city manager and
aviator with the U.S. Air Force, while Arevalo has been
in and out of institutions since he was 13, first a boys'
school and then prison.
A common thread is their love for the center, the people
there, and their commitment to recovery. "I've started
having dreams again. You know, how, like when you're a
kid," said Arevalo, with tears in his eyes. "The most
important thing is this place has given me a whole life."
Arevalo, 48, has been at The Fellowship Center for two
years. He has been reunited with his family, his two daughters
and is working for a moving company.
Scribner, 74, and a great-great grandfather, is retired.
He said he found The Fellowship Center while riding a
bus.
"I met a man on the bus who had connections to the center,"
he said. "I was trying to find out what was available."
"I think you come here with the mission of trying to heal
yourself," he said. "Once you make that commitment, you
think you have an obligation to see it through. Some have
been here two years and gone on to be model citizens.
There are an awful lot of brains here."
With confidentiality being a cornerstone of the program,
the men volunteered to talk about their experiences because,
they said, the center has given them the structure and
freedom to be successful in pursuing their own recovery.
The program
Bounded on the north by commercial businesses, including
Clinica Medica/Las Palmas and Dr. Travis Westermeyer's
office for foot and ankle surgery, the quiet, manicured
group of buildings includes Robinson Hall, Cronin Hall,
a library, a volleyball court and several detached independent
living buildings.
The men who live at the center in central Escondido at
737 E. Grand Ave., seek treatment voluntarily and are
accepted only after rigorous interviews and a criminal
background check. No one with a history of sexual offenses
is admitted, said Paul Savo, the center's executive director.
Those needing treatment involving methadone or other such
drug therapy are not served at the center and are referred
to other appropriate services. As well, those with severe
mental health disorders or who pose a threat to themselves
or others are referred out.
Residents in the early stages of recovery live in the
main buildings and sleep in bunks or single beds. Those
who have successfully established a foundation in the
community, have a support group, or are employed, have
an opportunity to live in what are called "exit" homes.
The homes are part of the center, but separate from the
main buildings.
"Once you're in those exit homes, it's about as independent
as you can get," said Savo. Savo said the 52 people on
a waiting list to be admitted are the most he's seen since
he began working with the center in 1984. The wait is
three to four weeks, maybe longer.
"There's always a waiting list," he said. "That's why
we need another facility."
Speaking from experience
Jones, the director of Escondido's Serenity House, calls
the men at The Fellowship Center "the best neighbors we
could have."
"I love having them next door and I respect the program,"
Jones said. "If something were to happen, we could call
on those men in a second."
An important part of the program, Savo said, is that the
center be in a residential area so residents can become
involved in the community.
Escondido police Lt. Craig Carter called the center "very
well controlled."
"It's not an area of high calls for service," he said.
"I'd venture to say most people don't even know it's there," he said.
Carter said Escondido police and fire fighters have responded
to a total of six calls at the center in the last year.
Four were police calls, he said, and two were medical
aid calls involving chest and abdominal pain.
Of the police calls, one was The Fellowship Center reporting
a vandalism in progress in the area, another was from
the center reporting what they thought was a person driving
drunk in the neighborhood, and a third was a suspicious
person report, Carter said.
He said the only one he could directly link to the center
was a call about someone at the center who was disturbing
the peace.
"The officers got there to find out what was going on
and the subject was gone," Carter said. "I can't even
say whether that was a person with the Fellowship."
Concerns in Oceanside
While neighbors in Escondido say having the center nearby
is a plus, some residents of the seniors-only San Luis
Rey mobile-home park in Oceanside and parents of children
who attend a nearby Montessori school and elementary schools
are not convinced.
One parent, Loucel Bugawan, who has a child attending
the private Old Mission Montessori School near the site,
said in an e-mail that she "doesn't know of any parent
that would allow their child to attend a school right
next to a drug and alcohol recovery center."
Still others have said they are worried about crime and
a possible drop in property values if The Fellowship Center
builds the two-story, 16,591-square-foot recovery center
on the lot it owns.
Sitting at the Escondido center, Arevalo said concern
about a facility such as the one he lives in is "normal" because most people don't know much about the situation.
"If people would ask more, they would understand a lot
better," he said. "It's what you do when you get here
that matters," he said.
Arevalo is taking classes to become a counselor and a
specialist, someone who supervises men at the center.
"Here, you have that second chance. I'm grabbing onto
it with two hands, and there's nothing that's going to
stop me," he said.
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