COLUMBUS, Ind. — A group of women who at one time had been incarcerated at the Bartholomew County Jail completed a one-year program with the hope of providing higher quality lives for themselves and their families.
After completing the “Women Recovering with a Purpose” (WRAP) program Wednesday, 10 female graduates join a total of 227 women accepted into the intensive one-year program since March 2011. The goal of WRAP is to help women with substance abuse disorder turn their lives around, maintain sobriety and refrain from additional criminal activity.
More than 70 people gathered Wednesday in the Cal Brand Meeting Room at Columbus City Hall for the WRAP graduation. Later the same day, a separate ceremony was held for three men who have completed the “Recovery Enables a Life for Men” (REALM) program.
WRAP and REALM are both comprehensive, evidence-based addiction treatment programs, according to Bartholomew County Director of Community Corrections Rob Gaskill. For the first six months, participants are housed in an 82-bed residential facility maintained by Community Corrections separated from the jail, he said. During this first phase, they attend classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week, Gaskill said.
At this time, Community Corrections has five different curriculums used in the men’s program, and four in the women’s program. If participants successfully completed the six-month residential portion of the program, they are placed in after-care services located in residences within the community. During that time, staff members check in with participants three to five times a week for the remaining six months.
In the WRAP program, success is rooted in the ability to get at the deeper issues affecting each woman’s behavior — often physical, sexual or childhood abuse that has not been addressed.
“Recovery starts with the realization that your life is in shambles, and you have to change it,” Gaskill said.
For more on this story, including more photos, see Friday’s Republic.
