Hi all, my name is Gino and I work for Horizon Human Services in Payson Az. I've called the Hotline and nobody seems to know what area covers us here in the mountains, so I figured I'd post on here and see if I get a response. I am a behavioral health technician and we work with a lot of substance abuse. There is only one NA meeting here a day and the pickings for female sponsors is pretty slim. I have been working the steps with some of the men who come through here, but I can only get the females started. I won't work with them past step three, and would prefer to have them working with a female from the start. I've sent them to meetings and asked them to look for a sponsor, but they all seem to come back with the same story... "I have more clean time than they do" There is a real need for sponsors in this area. There is a strong opiate abuse sub culture as well as meth and THC, and being a small town, there are not a lot of places anyone can go without bumping into old using buddies. Without a strong foundation, I'm afraid our relapse rate is very high. So I'm reaching out to any Women out there who live in this area, or the Phoenix area who wouldn't mind working with some of these women over the phone and perhaps driving up to the beautiful town of Payson from time to time. Hope to hear from someone,
there are quite a few woman here who have alot of clean time maybe some of them could do some online mentoring or exchange numbers i come from a small town in florida and we have a few old timers who can maintain a sence of decorum and have been a temp sponcer to women as well as men
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some of us win some of us lose with god and this program i will be a winner
I appreciate your suggestion Rocky. Absolutely, if there are any women here on the forum who might be interested in something like this it would be a great start for some of our people here. Unfortunately, due to histories of abuse, I'd really rather have them working with women. The only reason that some them have allowed me to get them started is because of the trust that I have built up with them over the period of their treatment. Although I know there are men out there who can and would conduct themselves with the utmost courtesy and respect, I highly doubt that the women we serve would trust them. As it is, when I work with some of these people, I leave my office door open for their comfort even after knowing and working with them for several months. This is not a knock on any men out there who would be willing to be a temporary sponser for a woman, it's just the reality of the people I work with here. But again, I do thank you Rocky for the great suggestion. And I look forward to hearing some more from the wealth of knowledge here on this forum.