Recovery Supports for People with Substance Use Disorders
ATR UPDATE | February 2019
A message from ATR Project Manager Rebecca Starr
The Massachusetts Access to Recovery (ATR) Program Continues to Grow and Improve
Now in our 9th year, we have enrolled over 22,000 individuals and have provided millions of dollars in critical services to help them on their paths to recovery. Our ATR team members are relentless advocates dedicated to improving the quality of people’s lives and their sense of self-worth.

ATR promotes the recovery, resiliency, and independence of the people we serve. Our client-driven/client-centered program emphasizes the dignity of the individual, which means that ATR participants are offered choices in the services they receive, and they are empowered to decide for themselves, at each step along their journey, what ATR services they want to use. ATR coordinators work with participants to identify recovery goals and support them in implementing the steps to achieve these goals.
When an individual becomes involved in ATR, it is often a real turning point when they realize that they not only have a champion who advocates for them and believes in their ability to learn new behaviors and succeed, but also provides access to non-traditional services and supports. Some use ATR to obtain critical basic needs items such as, a winter coat, work clothes, or hygiene products. Some use ATR to obtain an official state identification card or driver’s license, or to get transportation passes; some want to work individually with a recovery coach; some participate in our Career Building Initiative (CBI) as a way to ready themselves to enter the workforce. We know that ATR changes people’s lives.
ATR UPDATES
NEWEST ATR STAFF
Please welcome the newest member of our team, Ian Lisman. Ian joins ATR as a senior program associate and will be focusing on the Career Building Initiative (CBI): building it out, getting new training providers on board, and working on long-term retention and data collection and reporting.

Do you have a program/provider idea for Ian? Feel free to email him.
Funding
Since our inception we have received funding through various grants. Our latest funding stream is from the federal SOR (State Opioid Response) Grant.

Eligibility Criteria for ATR
With the onset of the SOR grant, we have changed the eligibility criteria for the ATR program. Effective January 12, we no longer accept referrals for individuals who have been through ATR in the past. This means we will only enroll individuals who are new to ATR.
 
Once participants are enrolled in the program, they have one chance to take advantage of the range of recovery support services that ATR provides; so we hope they make the most of it! Please see our new ATR REFERRAL FORM for the revised eligibility criteria and information on how to refer someone to the ATR program.
This is a brief interview with a Community Servings Graduate who is now the the Women's Lunch Place Food Service Manager. He discusses the impact of ATR services on the growth of his employment skills.
ATR helped me through a difficult stage in my life… I was awarded the apprenticeship, at the Women’s Lunch Place. Six months later, I now work here full time as a Kitchen Assistant."
Nelson Vega
If you know of an ATR participant that would like to be featured in these updates, or if you'd like us to highlight your program, please let us know.

NEW PROVIDER
Choice Recovery Coaching is a non-profit organization dedicated to coaching recovery. Born out of the necessity for recovery education and supports in the Greater Springfield area, Choice Recovery Coaching is now providing recovery support for participants in the ATR program and anyone else in need of recovery coach services. We are a peer agency led by peers with well over 100 years of combined recovery experience. Our focus is to explore what recovery means to individuals while removing barriers and walking alongside them. With a positive attitude and contemporary perspective, we believe that all individuals have the ability to recover.

 -  Paul Alves , Recovery Coach Supervisor  
Welcome to Collaboration Cafe
We will pose a question; you provide the answer.
We'll post your responses in our next update.
Here is the question:

What is one little-known resource you use that has been surprisingly effective with the clients you work with?
Federal government funding agency
State government funding agency
Administrative services organization that implements the ATR program