Isabel Byon: 0:00

The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports, or OASAS, provides this podcast as a public service. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the agency or state. This is Addiction: The Next Step.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:22

Hey everybody, Jerry Gretzinger, your host for Addiction: the Next Step, and we are coming to you today from Elmira, New York, because we are doing one of our things where we're on location and this is exciting for us. We look forward to these types of things. Today we are visiting our friends at CASA- Trinity and again, we're out here in Elmira and a lot of good work being done by CASA- Trinity and I'm happy to sit down with Aaron Doyle and Emily Sindoni. The two of you do some great work that we're going to profile today, and I know we are in a clubhouse, right? So we've got the downstairs here, which works with adults, and upstairs like a youth clubhouse area, and I know it goes by the name AIR. Okay, so I'm going to say that much and now I'm going to turn it over to both of you to tell us about the clubhouse and what this AIR program is and how it's helping people who need these types of services.

Emily Sindoni: 1:10

Sure. So I will speak to the AIR program, the adult program. So AIR stands for Adventures in Recovery and it's pretty much exactly that. It's about finding adventure and trying new things and building your recovery support network. And so what we are? We're a sober, active recovery community organization and it's a peer program built by peers for peers and their families. We utilize the community's skills, talents, hobbies and kind of highlight that and help them facilitate groups so that way they can find their tribe and find their recovery path.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:49

And so, as you mentioned, the downstairs, here is one setup and I'm looking you can't see it right now but there's a whole gym set up over here that adults get to use. And we were at a hotel and I said, wow, this gym here is nice and they're at the head of the hotel.

Emily Sindoni: 2:01

Really it's great.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:02

It's a nice opportunity for the people to come out and be able to utilize that, and then upstairs is such a nice space for young people a little bit different there as well.

Erin Doyle: 2:10

Yeah. So the Air Youth Clubhouse is for 12 to 17-year-olds in Chemung County and we provide sober, safe socialization for those youth and skill building. So a lot of the youth that come to the clubhouse are high risk just by virtue of the areas of the city that they come to. You know from the schools they attend and then their family and socioeconomic situations. So the goal of the youth clubhouse is to try to ameliorate those risks for them, build in some protective factors and really give them a lot of supports working with the adults upstairs.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:48

All right. So I mean, let's, if you can break it down for me, you know, between the upstairs, the downstairs, the youth to the adults, who are the folks that are coming out here and saying, you know, I could benefit from being involved with something like this. And how do they get started? Are they referred? Do they your services out there? Are they word of mouth? I mean, how does all that happen?

Emily Sindoni: 3:06

Sure, For the adult program, we see just about everyone. They can just walk in. We have a drop-in community center as we're here, but they can also find us online and join us at one of our weekend events, because throughout the week we have a variety of mutual support meetings and then on the weekends we do an outdoor adventure. So really you can find us just about anywhere, no referrals necessary. The only requirement is 48 hours of continuous sobriety and that's just to make sure that they're in a safe and stable position in order to attend our physical events and just to maintain a safe space for everyone. So, yeah, they can pretty much just walk in and we introduce ourselves and get them signed up for the program. But we see just about everybody all walks of life through the store.

Jerry Gretzinger: 3:50

And when you say 48 hours of sobriety, that's before they commence a program. They come in and start.

Emily Sindoni: 3:55

For the most part, if somebody is struggling, we're peers on staff here, so if they're seeking support, we're able to connect them to any resources that they may need. It's just more so for the physical events. We just want to make sure everybody's safe. But yeah, we've been there so we can help them through just about anything.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:14

And so I want to ask you that too. So you mentioned adventures. Right, we do weekend adventures. Some people might be like what's a weekend adventure? What does that mean?

Emily Sindoni: 4:21

Yeah, so just about anything. Mostly we're hiking. We hike all around New York State. We're doing the Adirondacks in June. We go camping, biking, adventures, kayaking and then some indoor events like rock climbing or bowling, roller skating. Really we we really hone in on what the community wants. So if there is something that is suggested and we're able to facilitate that, we do it. But yeah, mostly outdoors and all through the wintertime too.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:54

Yeah Well, what would a great part of the state to be able to, you know, utilize the outdoors too right?

Emily Sindoni: 4:58

Yes.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:58

I mean a lot of options.

Emily Sindoni: 4:59

We're very fortunate.

Jerry Gretzinger: 5:00

Yeah, all right. So we talk about the adventures, and I know a lot of the adults might be involved with some of those hikes and stuff like that. Let's talk about what the youth do upstairs and the options for them.

Erin Doyle: 5:14

All right. So upstairs we have laid out just about everything that probably a teenager could want in terms of activities. Gaming stations, which are very popular. They have an Oculus VR, again very popular. Have to limit time on all of those for them. And then we have pool table, we have foosball, we have air hockey, we have arts and crafts, we have games, we have books. So we have a variety and lounging areas up there so that they can kind of, because they come to us after school.

Erin Doyle: 5:39

lot of them are pretty much tuckered out by the time they get to us so it gives them an opportunity to kind of chill out, be with friends. They get snack, you know two snacks and then a hot snack during the time they're with us. Then we do off sites for them as well in the community to try to expose them to things that they might not otherwise be exposed to. So they go to places like Community Arts during the summer, which is coming, we go to the Meals on Wheels site locally and we do gardening over there. They invited us to do that last year and that was a great experience. The youth love doing that. They do a lot of the same things hikes, walks, usually one amusement park during the summer, one big trip, and they have to earn that ability to go through behavior and through participation, attendance, those types of things.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:22

So I know we talked to you about the adults and the required of 48 hours of sobriety before going on some of those adventures. The youth who get involved in the program where are they in the scheme of things as far as when it comes to substance use and the message you try to share with them?

Erin Doyle: 6:37

So obviously, because we are funded through OASAS, we do work with them around substance use, but not more in general terms in talking about the dangers and the hazards and the risks. Sometimes we have had youth come that were you know that might have things in a backpack or something along those lines but we do let them know it's a zero tolerance policy here. Do not bring those things to the clubhouse if you're going to participate with us. But we do work with them. If we find out that they are struggling in some way with some type of use whether it's alcohol, whether it's cannabis or nicotine, whatever it might be, vaping, we do work with them around that and try to plan individual interventions to help them deal with those things. And staff are trained in using things like teen ravines so that they're able to sit down with them and establish that relationship and then hopefully work them through whatever might be going on.

Jerry Gretzinger: 7:27

And so that's my next question. So I'm sure a lot of what happens. It helps to drive prevention with the young people so that they can avoid the incidence of going out and participating in substance use. Do you find many that have experimented and have utilized it and have said, okay, I want something to replace that in my life, and maybe that's why they're here.

Erin Doyle: 7:49

They don't typically say that directly, but our guess is, in working with a lot of them, that they are using or experimenting outside of here. So anything that we can do to help change their minds about that, to help them understand the risks, to help them make better choices for themselves and their health and wellness as they grow talking about things like brain development, talking about peer pressure, talking about why you don't want to go down that road and what that can mean for you in coming years.

Erin Doyle: 8:20

So, we do a lot of that. It's more peripheral to what we do, but it's there. It's obviously built into it.

Jerry Gretzinger: 8:28

Well, it's great to have a program that speaks to that age group, right? Can bring them in early, while they're young, and if they are experimenting or they are using, at least they have this, this positive place to go, this safe space.

Erin Doyle: 8:40

Right and an adult that really can build resilience in them. We had a. We had a youth engagement training yesterday and one of the trainers main points was talking about how you need to. It just takes one adult working with a youth who's struggling to build resilience and to help them avoid a lot of these pitfalls that are out there.

Jerry Gretzinger: 9:01

And so when we talk about the programs and how long people are involved in it, when you see the adults come down, right, so how long do you feel like most people are involved? Or, once they're in, do you feel like they're in for good and they come out and they're out on the weekends doing the adventures, or is there a certain amount of time that people seem to put in and then they're like, hey, you know what, I'm good, I got other things I'm ready to go do now.

Emily Sindoni: 9:23

I think it just varies. Yeah, usually, if we can get them on a weekend hike and they get to experience the magic, they're hooked. It might take a few visits for them to get comfortable here, but I have a few guys once they started using the gym they come pretty consistently, which is really great. So it all just depends, but usually the weekend events is where the magic happens.

Jerry Gretzinger: 9:50

And I know we say that recovery is not a destination, right, it's a journey that just continues. So to have this always available to them, I think, is a huge benefit as well, and the kids. The age range for the youth goes from.

Erin Doyle: 10:02

12 to 17.

Jerry Gretzinger: 10:05

And at 17, do you have some of them come back when they're 18, 19 going? Can I use that VR thing?

Erin Doyle: 10:14

We would love to develop more of the older youth into a leadership or mentoring role where they come back and they work with the younger youth that are here. So that's something that's definitely a goal. A lot of times after they leave us, obviously, they go on to work or onto the military or onto college, and so we don't necessarily see them. But we would love to cultivate that and have more of them come back and say hey, can I just volunteer to work with the youth? I remember being in the clubhouse and what an experience it was for me.

Erin Doyle: 10:39

So that was something we'd really like to do and we'd like to actually we've talked a little bit about doing some joint summer events, maybe a camping outing or something I don't know how we would set that up, but something with the adults so that they can kind of experience what the adults do here and yeah, Invite family members, whatever might work, Well, maybe those will be our next podcast topics that we're out here talking about. Yeah, meet, us in the Adirondacks and we'll tell you how it's going.

Jerry Gretzinger: 11:04

Yeah, you can join you for one of those adventures and see how the magic happens, right, yeah, exactly, all right so let's do this. Why don't we let people know if they're interested in finding out more what they need to do?

Emily Sindoni: 11:14

Sure, so they can go to our website. That's where all of our forms are. They can be found and filled out. It's www. casa-trinity. org. They can find us on Facebook. Our tag is at air adventures in recovery and for the clubhouse it is yes, I do not. I believe it's at air? Yes, Chemung youth clubhouse.

Erin Doyle: 11:42

I believe so.

Jerry Gretzinger: 11:43

Great, great, lots of options for people to look into. Yeah, and you know, as as we get ready to close, here too, I just want to mention I know some of the dollars that are supporting the recovery program come from the Opioid Settlement Fund and a lot of times people want to know okay, what's the money going towards? What sort of impact is it having? Is it the right way to spend the money? People ask that question specifically, let's say, about this program. How do you answer what

Jerry Gretzinger: 12:08

So, we've you say so?

Emily Sindoni: 12:08

We've been able to build everything that you see here. You know we do have a gym, we have a library, we have just a safe space for people to come and hang out and it's comfortable and it's peaceful. So we've been able to build that and it. You know we're able to have staff and peer supports here to support the community and it pays for our events. All of our events are free. You know, if we have somebody that wants to go hiking or camping, and it pays for our events, all of our events are free.

Emily Sindoni: 12:31

You know, if we have somebody that wants to go hiking or camping and it's their first time and they don't have the equipment which, honestly, most of our members don't necessarily have the proper equipment we're able to provide that for them so they're able to still go on the adventure and and still experience that. So I would say it's well worth it. Our numbers just keep increasing every single month and people keep coming back and it's if they were to experience and see the magic of an individual that comes in and they're struggling, and to watch them progress with the help of treatment, with the help of the recovery services. It's well worth it. They would see that for sure.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:11

And you know it's interesting, as you were saying, you keep seeing your numbers increasing right. I just think about how we keep talking, about how we see the number of overdose deaths in the state decreasing, even across the nation. So there's, an obvious, tie there you know the more that people are involved in programs like these, we're seeing that play out in more people, you know, not overdosing, not experiencing an overdose death certainly. So, yeah, I would agree. It's a good investment of those dollars.

Erin Doyle: 13:34

For sure.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:35

Emily, Erin, t hank you both so much for sitting down and chatting with us today on the podcast. We appreciate it and we'll have you back when those new programs are ready to roll.

Emily Sindoni: 13:41

Of course.

Erin Doyle: 13:41

Great. Thank you.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:42

Thank you, ladies, so much. And hey, thank you for joining us for this edition of Addiction: The Next Step. I'm your host, Jerry Gretzinger, and until we see you next time, remember you can always reach out to the HOPEl ine 877-8-HOPE-NY, and you can go to oasas. ny. gov and search out all the services and supports that are available throughout the great state of New York. Until next time, be well.