It’s been a wonderful year at in2Action and I wanted to take a few minutes to thank everyone involved as well as provide readers some updates on what’s going on at in2Action. Our year started with a large donation from the Veterans United Foundation to cover rent at the Reentry Opportunity Center (The ROC) and also to paint and replace all the gutters on all our houses. A big thanks to Piper and everyone at VUF! The result is absolutely amazing…Russel and Amanda did a wonderful job painting. Please feel free to come by and look. We are located at the corner of Eastwood and Lakewood Drives. We additionally received funding awards from various local foundations including Boone Electric, Boone County Community Trust, and the Heinkel Foundation. Awards from these foundations allowed us to maintain and improve our properties by funding purchases such as tables/chairs, beds/mattresses, refrigerators/freezers, and washers/dryers to name a few.
The Missouri Department of Corrections renewed our contracts to provide housing support and wrap-around services to the people we serve including everything from phones and bikes to trauma counseling and SATOP fees for those who lost their driver’s licenses due to DWI’s. The Department of Mental Health awarded in2Action the 2021 Exemplary Recovery Support Provider for the State of Missouri in June. Then in September in2Action was awarded a contract from the Department of Mental Health to help fund the operations for The ROC. Additional ongoing support for The ROC is also being provided by the Missouri Foundation for Health and Boone County Community Services. A big thanks to Emily, Zach, Kristin, Rosie, Jesse, Terry, and everyone else involved in all these efforts.
As a Christ-Centered program, we also receive financial support from several churches that I would like to highlight. The Crossing has been a huge supporter from day one, and Christian Fellowship and Family Worship Center also supported in2Action financially in 2021. Woodcrest and Alive in Christ helped greatly with winter coat drives and numerous other churches have supported our efforts in many other ways. Shay, Mike, Tom, and Tim – WE LOVE YOU!
Resident highlights for 2021 include numerous activities which we consider to be central to the Social Model, otherwise known as experiential recovery. Residents went to Lake of the Ozarks for a 12-Step convention, they went on a float trip down the Current River and went to Branson to see a live show and enjoy a wonderful meal. These are just a few of the monthly activities and it’s these types of opportunities that help our men realize they can indeed recover and have fun while doing it. A huge thanks to Trey for investing wholly in coordinating these activities.
The ROC has also experienced a year of tremendous growth. As an innovative program, we expected some growing pains, but I am excited to report, we are better because of what we learned. Despite a couple of setbacks, we look forward to providing professional and effective services to everyone who walks through our doors from this point forward. A highlight for The ROC this year was the Grand Opening of our new location at 2501 Paris Road in September. Guest speakers included Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Anne Precythe, Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, Cheri Toalson-Reisch, Missouri State Representative, and Columbia Police Chief Geoff Jones. There were about 200 in attendance, and it was great to see the community show up to support the great work we do at the Reentry Opportunity Center. D’Markus, Amanda, and Anthony, we cannot wait to see the difference you will make in our community.
Our staff as well are absolutely worth noting. As an agency which started less than 10 years ago as a 1-man show, it’s crazy to think we now employ 15 people. We are so excited many of these staff are in2Action graduates including David Reed who serves as the Program Manager, John Coke is our Treatment Court House Peer, Jesse Buehler serves as our ICTS and Next Step Peer, Mike Montagna serves as our in2Action Peer, Trey Dawson serves as our Activities Coordinator, and Wille McCurry serves as our Resident Manager. We are so excited to be able to provide these program graduates with the professional opportunity to pursue a career they love. We are additionally very excited and pleased with all our other staff as well. Brian and Bob – we could not do this without you!
Staff highlights included our own retreat to Branson for a wonderful show, great food, and friendly competition on the putt-putt course. We were also able to attend several conferences in which we received some great training and were able to meet good people from around the country doing similar work. Nothing however is more important to our staff than watching and seeing the stories that are being written before our very eyes. To watch God, work in and through the people we serve is nothing short of amazing. It would take an entire book to tell the stories from just 2021. Please see the 2021 Video Christmas Card for one such story and a special Merry Christmas from in2Action!
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