If a personnel manager read the resumes of our staff he’d be appalled. Sprinkled among our thirty or so managers are all types - with one thing in common: each is a recovering addict or alcoholic.
Probably 95% have been arrested for drug or alcohol offenses. Many have been in jail or prison for drug-related crime. Few have college degrees. Several are military veterans. Many have health issues, including hepatitis C, back problems, arthritis and other ailments. A couple are classified as seriously mentally ill, a condition they control with daily medications. Yet, somehow, they manage one of the largest recovery programs in the Southwest United States. And they do this without public funding.
There are no psychiatrists or medical people on TLC’s staff. There are staff members with counseling certifications, but those were obtained long after TLC started.
We’re sometimes asked how we make TLC work. I'm not sure about other programs, but a key factor is that our volunteers care about other addicts. They pass on their sobriety to ensure their own recovery.
In a recent business meeting a manager explained that we can teach nearly any addict the mechanics of how to run our program. But it’s difficult to teach compassion and care for others. Compassion must come from one's heart. We’ve had managers who couldn't do the simplest kind of accounting. Or who haven’t had the writing skills to fill out reports. But they have a good heart and good intentions - so we have worked around their deficiencies.
Compassion and love for others goes a long way.
No comments:
Post a Comment