Rich & Wendy 0:00
Welcome to a special episode of Conversations with Rich Bennett. This is a part of our part of our recoveries. 12 days of hope. Our mission to raise money for raise against addiction. My co-host Wendy Beck and I will be sharing powerful stories of addiction, recovery and resilience to help break the stigma and show that hope is always possible. Your support helps raise against addiction, provide life change and resources, and you can donate right now by visiting our GoFundMe link in the show news. We are so grateful you've joined us on this important journey. Now let's get into today's conversation.
Rich Bennett 0:38
Today we're kicking off the polythons for recovery, 12 days of hope. We're doing this to raise money for an organization that Wendy knows very well, you could say, and one that is doing life-changing work. Rage against addiction. But before we dive into the incredible programs they offer, I want to provide some context for our listeners. The numbers in this country tell a powerful story about why organizations like rage against addiction are so necessary. According to the latest data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 48.4 million people aged 12 or older in the United States had a substance use disorder in 2024. That's a staggering number, representing over 16% of the population. And despite these numbers, about one in five people who need treatment actually receive it, and it's a gap that highlights a massive need for resources and support. Wendy, as the founder and executive director of rage, you've seen this struggle firsthand. And can talk to our listeners a bit about the organization's origin and what its core mission is?
Wendy Beck 1:58
Yeah, sure. Thank you for letting us do this because it's always a pleasure. And I'm really excited about this series that we're doing. But I founded rage against addiction in 2014. I had a teenage daughter that was struggling with-- --Heroine addiction, which I knew nothing about. It hit our family really hard.
Rich Bennett 2:24
Right.
Wendy Beck 2:24
She started young and she was immediately addicted. It didn't start with heroin, but it progressed very quickly. At that time, I had another child. She was young. She was a baby. So I had a teenager and a toddler at the same time. And so you're trying to navigate being a mom to a teenager and then doing the potty training and the daycare
Rich Bennett 2:48
Right.
Wendy Beck 2:48
and all that kind of stuff. So you're
Rich Bennett 2:50
in a
Wendy Beck 2:50
lot of different directions. At first I didn't know what was going on with her. I thought she was just growing up, experimenting, trying different things, never thought it would be anything to that magnitude.
Rich Bennett 3:06
And you already started rage during that time?
Wendy Beck 3:10
Well, no. I had
Rich Bennett 3:14
Okay.
Wendy Beck 3:14
not started rage at that time. So when I finally figured out what was going on which took a while. It honestly did. It was very good at hiding it. I didn't know what I was looking for. But when everything came to light, I was trying to figure out ways to help her. At that time, back in 2013, '14, there wasn't a lot of resources.
Rich Bennett 3:36
Right.
Wendy Beck 3:37
I know now that there were some resources in the county, but they were not readily available or readily known to me personally. I was just a mom working full time with her two girls and I was married. And when your kid starts to show signs of something that you've never experienced, you really don't know what to do. But anyway, fast-forward, I know that she's addicted...
personality, who she was, you know, prior to this. It was totally different. She was turned into someone that I didn't even know anymore. But I still, of course, wanted to help her. She know, at that time, like I was just so in love with her and it was just hard to watch this. And I decided to start a nonprofit. I didn't even know what I was going to do. I was just like seeing the options that she had with sober living. What treatment looked like at that time? You know, at this time in place, you know, if you didn't have a lot of money, you weren't going to the more prestigious treatment centers. And the other ones around here, you know, people were saying giving you advice, you know, like get her out of here, do this, do that. So she would, you know, had gone to a treatment center that was a little bit farther away. And I was like, relieved, thinking, yeah, this is going to be it and not understanding the disease of addiction at the time. It's not this one time thing where, you know, you go away and you come back and everything is okay. Because it definitely was not okay. So during that time, I decided to start the nonprofit organization with a goal of having better resources. And one of those was sober living. The house that she had gone to after treatment, which she only stayed for a very short time, was not a place that you would really want to send anybody that you loved.
Rich Bennett 5:32
Wow,
Wendy Beck 5:33
So I was like, wow, this is, this is what we're doing to help people that are struggling. And again, I didn't even understand
Rich Bennett 5:40
right.
Wendy Beck 5:40
what was happening. So, you know, she would talk the talk and I would believe her. And, you know, the cycle would start all over again. We got to a place where she had gotten on methadone, which was maintenance. I didn't know anything about that at the time. I was just like, well, why would you want to do that? Like, why don't you just, you know, not do that and just stop doing that? But the cravings and the addiction was had a hold of her. And it was beyond my control. So what I did for me was I tried to learn as much as I could about the disease. And in that, I started rage against addiction. And I often tell the story of like why I called it that because I was angry. I was really angry.
Rich Bennett 6:28
So it wasn't because you liked the band.
Wendy Beck 6:30
No, I didn't even know that wasn't even my thing.
Rich Bennett 6:32
Okay.
Wendy Beck 6:32
You know, but
Rich Bennett 6:33
no, it makes sense.
Wendy Beck 6:34
Yeah, no, I just like, I'm going to rage against addiction. And at that point, I was like, I didn't even know what I was going to do. So I went on and I created a domain name under that. And that was the first thing I did. I had no idea where it would go from there. And she continued to struggle. And as she was struggling, I was doing things to educate myself, created a mission to provide awareness and support. That struggled from drug and/or alcohol abuse, including the families, because at that time, I was the family. I was the family who was trying to shout from the rooftops. We need to do something about this. This is not okay. And at that time, and I've said the same million times, there were other peers in her community, meaning her friends, that were doing the same things that she was doing, except no one would talk to me about it. Their parents didn't want to hear from me. You know, I would call and I would say, hey, you know, like, is she there? Oh no, she spent the night at your house. They were, and they weren't. They were, they were off. They were at raves. They were doing all of these things that were not something that you would really, was not your typical 16-year-old. Like, it was like big stuff. There was like no fear. She was just, she was, she went rogue. You know, she
Rich Bennett 7:59
yeah.
Wendy Beck 7:59
She was like, beyond my ability to capture her attention. And of course, that's devastating. It's so devastating to see someone that you love so much go through this. We would have moments of clarity. We would have moments where, you know, we came up with a plan and she went, you know, she went here, she went there. But ultimately, we never got there. She did pass away in 2015. I had started the organization in 2014. And at that time, that was when the opioid crisis was really
rearing its head in like the suburbs. Like, it used to be a city problem. It used to be, but to seep into the county, we've got a fairly affluent area. So, you know, we've got these big houses and privileged kids that are, you know, dressed in expensive clothes and they're behind closed doors. They're I just kept doing what I could do because I could not control what she was doing. It was hard. It was a hard road, but, you know, I went a fast forward, which is like, you know, 2014. So what were 11 years? Later, where she'll be gone 10 years in December. We have three sober living houses for women, and our program is outstanding. It's because of the woman women in recovery that have, you know, stood up and helped us, our program director, the house managers that step in. And so, you know, we're a nonprofit that provides housing to women in recovery. And even though she never got there, I know she would be really proud. I really do. And some point along the path of this journey that we were both on, like, we were intersecting, and I would tell her, you know, what was going on with the organization, you know, hey, we're going to
Rich Bennett 10:19
at
Wendy Beck 10:19
have a walk. Hey, we're funding people into sober living and this always makes me cry. But she said to me, mom, you're really doing it.
And those words
keep me going. Because there has been so many women that we have helped over the past, the first house was opened in 2018. So however many years that is, I'm not going to do the math. I'm crying. And with the help of the community, because nonprofits really are a labor of love. And, you know, we need those donations, we need those grants, we need those things because for a long time, I worked a full time job, and I still did this. And I still built it like I wasn't even our first employee. Like I was doing it for free for years until finally we had our third house. And I was kind of like, if I want to help make this grow, I have to make a decision. And that was a big decision. And when I did, I, I never looked back in regret because we have done so many awesome things. That's a, that's a long answer to that.
Rich Bennett 11:38
But, well, no, it's great because I think I mean, we've talked about rage before, but people need to understand why this podathon is so important. What are some of the, because when you originally started it, you were doing some things that you're no longer doing now. It's changed,
Wendy Beck 11:59
right? You have to remember, again, like I said, this was a time when the opioid crisis was like in
Rich Bennett 12:05
bloom.
Wendy Beck 12:05
full
Rich Bennett 12:05
Right.
Wendy Beck 12:06
You know, it was, it was getting attention, national attention. There was, the governor was talking about it. There was, you know, all of these things. So people were paying attention. They were paying attention. And there wasn't enough resources. So what was the question?
Rich Bennett 12:22
No,
Wendy Beck 12:23
Sorry.
Rich Bennett 12:23
because when you first started, you had some
Wendy Beck 12:25
Oh
Rich Bennett 12:25
programs
Wendy Beck 12:25
yeah.
Rich Bennett 12:26
in midnight.
Wendy Beck 12:26
So, okay. So I started the organization, which was just, you know, filing the paperwork, you know, had this mission. But what did that really mean? So we started fundraising, you know, loosely. We decided to, and she passed away during this first year of the organization. And at that time she wasn't the only one who passed away. There was There were tons of families that were, that were grieving because of the loss of their own kids. And so we decided to do a memory walk. And it was small. I mean, it was the first in the county of its kind. And that was generating some revenue for the organization. Now remember, at that time we didn't have any employees. So we're,
Rich Bennett 13:09
right.
Wendy Beck 13:10
we're making some money and we're like, okay, what are we going to do with it? So we started funding people into sober living. We decided, okay, we need to give this back to the community immediately. And so at the time houses would reach out to us and individuals that were entering sober living that needed funding. So we were able to do that for years. We would, we were making money from our donations and our events. And we were able to. gosh, fun hundreds of people per year into sober living. The ultimate goal was to open a sober living house for women because that's where I saw at the time. I really felt like there was needed to be something better than there was. Today, fast forward, we do have a lot of resources. There's been money from the government that has been offered for this kind of thing. And, you know, but we still have to, it takes a lot to run a nonprofit. It takes a lot. And I'm not trying to say that rage is any different because if you are trying to save anything, it takes all of your time. So, you know, we work tirelessly. I have an awesome board of directors. I have an awesome program director who's in recovery herself that I would not be able to do this without her. So we're a really good team and we have houses. And we really always are full. We are always full with women that are coming to recover with us.
Rich Bennett 14:49
How many
Wendy Beck 14:50
houses would you like to see
Rich Bennett 14:51
rage get up to?
Wendy Beck 14:53
I'm going to answer this question because my program director informed me yesterday as to what we were going to be doing in the future and her answer was five.
Rich Bennett 15:03
Okay.
Wendy Beck 15:03
I don't know. at three. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And housing, we're having a housing crisis right now. People cannot afford to live. So imagine you're trying to recover. You have basically, are basically starting over at all of these different points in your life. You know, some people who are young, some people who are middle-aged, some people who are really older, and you have to start over from scratch. And you are getting an entry-level job, not that they're not too humble. I mean, they're, they're humbly getting a job, but you can't afford to live on your own.
Rich Bennett 15:41
you
Wendy Beck 15:42
So healing truly begins with safe housing. And that's what I really like to stress in the recovery journey and what I have seen that when you get to a place where you're safe, you can begin to heal. It's, it's based on, it's evidence-based. We've seen it happen. We've seen it. Now, these rent is expensive. So you're, you're renting houses to house women. And it's not cheap. You know, anybody knows that.
Rich Bennett 16:13
Speaking of that with rent and everything, um, and I'm sure this could, some people may not know how this works. So when somebody's in one of the houses, they have to pay rent, right?
Wendy Beck 16:26
Yes, they absolutely pay rent.
Rich Bennett 16:28
Sure. Sure. If somebody comes in to, to, to one of the rage, rage houses, what did they have to do? This way people listening realized that they're not just going there to put their head on a pillow. No.
Wendy Beck 16:41
Now, I mean, not only do you say, does healing begin with safe housing, it also begins with structure. So, um, let's say, you know, we accept people from treatment. We accept people that are homeless. We accept people from jail. We accept people that leave their homes to come to us because they need a change. And when they come in, well, they'll do a phone screening with our program director to see if you're a good fit, um, which, you know, I don't really know like what makes you not a good fitter
Rich Bennett 17:11
Right.
Wendy Beck 17:11
of fit. I mean, but you get a bad you come in and you have your intake fee and your first two, two weeks of rent, which a lot of people don't have. So there's sources in the community that will provide funding. And so sometimes they will reach out to them. Most times they will reach out to them and they get their foot in the door. The first 30 days that you are in our several living houses, you are on blackout, which that means that your job is to sit with yourself. Your job is to find a job. Your job is to go to meetings. Your job is to take a breath because if you're not doing that, you're not changing any,
Rich Bennett 17:51
right.
Wendy Beck 17:52
So I always call it the first 30 days. Um, the first 30 days, it's a time to think about yourself,
Rich Bennett 18:00
um,
Wendy Beck 18:00
think about your network, think about a lot of things that you haven't even had the opportunity to think about in a long time. During that time, you will start to fall into place with the rules of the house, you know, we have chores every day. You have to be up and out of your room in a certain time, and you're seeking employment. As well as a sponsor and finding a home group, it's, it's a lot. And sometimes it feels overwhelming to the ladies, but once they get into the group of it, and then that 30 days has passed, you get to spread your wings a little bit. You have a little, you have a little
Rich Bennett 18:38
So
Wendy Beck 18:38
freedom.
Rich Bennett 18:38
yeah.
Wendy Beck 18:39
Umm, yeah, so that's what it looks like, but you have to remember. Yes, they do pay rent, uhm, it's- it's a reasonable amount of money. You really can't live anywhere else, even though you're in a shared space, uhm, for that amount. Um, and the house is
Rich Bennett 18:58
now,
mm-hmm.
Wendy Beck 19:04
water, there's Wi-Fi, there's a gosh, lawn care, anything that breaks,
Rich Bennett 19:12
All this
Wendy Beck 19:12
that we
Rich Bennett 19:12
stuff that
Wendy Beck 19:12
have to,
Rich Bennett 19:12
you would have for,
Wendy Beck 19:13
yeah, in a real house.
Rich Bennett 19:14
uh, then,
Wendy Beck 19:14
Sure, absolutely. So we have, and we take care of it. We
Rich Bennett 19:18
yeah.
Wendy Beck 19:18
want people to feel like it's a home. And they do. We know we offer anybody a tour if they want to come and see, obviously, you know, we have to be with them and all that kind of stuff. And their private, undisclosed locations for the privacy of our women that live there because they're a vulnerable population and have been through a lot and they deserve the respect of being able to have the time to heal. Having said that, I want to throw this out there. I know I'm just hawking a lot right now.
Rich Bennett 19:49
You're fine.
Wendy Beck 19:50
But people get territorial to not in my neighborhood. But I want to say something, you're probably not going to find better neighbors.
Rich Bennett 20:02
Exactly.
Wendy Beck 20:03
You're no one's using drugs. The house is maintained. They have curfews, the house is clean, and they become a family. We've noticed that the length of stay is getting longer and longer and longer. And so we decided to change our program from coming in and, you know, feeling like when you're ready to go to we really want you to be there for a year. Because in that year, you can accomplish a lot.
Rich Bennett 20:33
Right.
Wendy Beck 20:34
And so anyway, we've been so excited about a recent county grant that we got and we feel really blessed. This is the first time because we have literally been at the mercy of the donations in the community. Like all of this run, but things are
Rich Bennett 20:53
which we still need,
Wendy Beck 20:54
we do. And the thing is, the grant is not really just throwing money at us. The grant is to help us expand our services. So we will have a peer, which is a recovery
Rich Bennett 21:10
Specialist.
Wendy Beck 21:10
specialist.
Rich Bennett 21:10
Yes.
Wendy Beck 21:10
I'm sorry. Correctly at the moment. A certified peer recovery specialist that will work one on one with our ladies. Because now we have 25 women, three houses and 25 women.
Rich Bennett 21:24
Wow.
Wendy Beck 21:24
So, you know, we want to make sure that they're getting what they need while they're there. We're trying to incorporate the eight dimensions of wellness. So, you know, they can have workshops monthly about resume writing or mental health or it's it's unlimited. What we can provide to them with the assistance of the county and the donations and the fund raising. And it might seem like we have it all together and we do, but we can't do it without the support. And that's why we thank you for allowing us to do this potted on, which we kind of made up. So
Rich Bennett 22:01
well, thanks. And
Wendy Beck 22:02
it's worth where, you know, we're the catalyst for this potted on. We hope other organizations do the same.
Rich Bennett 22:08
This was your idea. How did you come up with the idea of a potted on?
Wendy Beck 22:13
know. I think when I was young, the first fundraiser thing that I ever heard of and I did was the the walkathon, the March of Times walkathon.
Rich Bennett 22:23
I don't
Wendy Beck 22:24
So, to me it was
Rich Bennett 22:25
the
Wendy Beck 22:25
just
Rich Bennett 22:25
loosening for
Wendy Beck 22:25
Well, the telephone too, but I actually participated. I could call in when I
Rich Bennett 22:29
right.
Wendy Beck 22:30
was a little girl for the telephone, but we did the walkathons and we raised money. So, I thought, hey, we do the podcast, let's do a potted on. And it just kind of stuck. And so you and I have been working really hard to get these recovery stories in. And I think that if you listen, they all have a common theme.
Rich Bennett 22:48
Yeah, yeah, these
Wendy Beck 22:50
they recover with the right support.
Rich Bennett 22:53
The other thing is too. And those of you listening, when you hear their stories, you're going to be blown away because anybody that says that if you're addicted, it's impossible to become anything. These women are
Wendy Beck 23:14
pillars in the community.
Rich Bennett 23:15
Yes.
Wendy Beck 23:15
Yes, absolutely.
Rich Bennett 23:17
I mean, executive directors, business owners, it's just amazing.
Wendy Beck 23:22
Healthcare professionals. Yeah.
Rich Bennett 23:25
So and we said before, You can't put a face on addiction. Everybody's different. Look at how many celebrities and business owners, top CEOs, you know, are in recovery, but you may not even know it.
Wendy Beck 23:39
Right, right.
And it was self-sufficient to getting to a place where they're starting over and they're living in a house full of women who were all starting over with them.
I mean, that's takes a lot to make the decision to do that for yourself. Not everyone's there voluntarily. I'm going to tell you, you know, like we've hadn't heard some of our guests. They were court ordered or, you know, was their last resort. They had nowhere else to go. But when they take the suggestions that they're given in recovery, and our program is amazing, and our program director, she, she doesn't let any grass grow under their feet. Things change.
Rich Bennett 24:37
Yeah.
Wendy Beck 24:38
Well, I'm not going to say every single person that walks through that door walks out, you know, transformed. But the ones who put in the work see the results.
Rich Bennett 24:48
Yeah. And again, you could see them walking down the street right next to you and you wouldn't even
Wendy Beck 24:55
know. No, and they're delightful. They're delightful people, and they have so much gratitude, and they have worked so hard for what they got.
Rich Bennett 25:05
Well, actually, before I finish up, is there anything you want to add?
Wendy Beck 25:10
Gosh, I don't know. I just went on a tangent. I don't know.
Rich Bennett 25:14
All right. So those of you listening, when you hear these stories, first of all, like I said, you can be blown away. But also, we would love to hear your So if you go to the website conversations with richbendit.com, a couple things I want you to do. Number one, at the top, you'll see where you can, you'll see donate to the rings against addiction potted time. Make sure you donate there. You'll also see where you can leave a voicemail. Leave a voicemail of what you thought about it, or email me or leave a comment in the Facebook group. But when he came to me with this idea, I thought she was not, be honest with them.
Wendy Beck 25:57
Really?
Rich Bennett 25:57
know. Yeah, I'm like a potted thought. You mean,
Wendy Beck 26:00
I don't
Rich Bennett 26:00
like I thought you made, like, going live
Wendy Beck 26:02
Well,
Rich Bennett 26:03
for a
Wendy Beck 26:03
that
Rich Bennett 26:03
teller.
Wendy Beck 26:03
would have been cool, but hard.
Rich Bennett 26:07
I do believe that this, this is a good thing. I mean, this is something that we've been the number one podcast for addiction in
Wendy Beck 26:19
30 years.
Rich Bennett 26:20
So we know we have people listening to it. I want everybody to donate even if it's $5, $20, 000, whatever, every little bit helps. When he's doing here is an and her team is simply amazing and they are helping women everywhere. And I say everywhere, because we've had people contact us from other states and other countries, because they've heard stories about the people that have been on that Whitney and I have talked to and it has changed their lives. So again, make sure you make a donation. Wendy, I want to thank you so much, because if I wanted to have met you, I forget how many years ago now.
Wendy Beck 27:04
I don't even know.
Rich Bennett 27:05
Yeah, we wouldn't have been doing this. But in all honesty, I'm proud of everything that you're doing. I don't even know if I've ever told you that.
Wendy Beck 27:13
No, thank you.
Rich Bennett 27:14
It
Wendy Beck 27:15
honor. Well, it's not me. It's not me. The ladies put in the work, you know,
Rich Bennett 27:19
was your
Wendy Beck 27:19
my team, you know, the program director and the house managers that have come in and out of that role since we started. They're the ones that I'm proud of because, you know, I'm just, I'm just here, you know, cheering them on, because I know the devastating effects of loss. And that's something that drives me every day, because I don't want other people to have to go through that. And unfortunately, it's going to happen. And we have a lot of families that are grieving and I want to just give them hope as well that their loss is not going unnoticed and we are trying to change things.
Rich & Wendy 28:00
Wendy, I understand that rage against addiction is doing something very important, a monthly donor program. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Absolutely. We are hoping to get our supporters to join us in providing a monthly donation. It can be $5 or it can be more. Whatever you can afford really allows us to help plan and increase our fundraising efforts. Well, why should people become a monthly donor? What are they doing to help? They're monthly contributions let us plan for long-term projects and respond quickly when urgent needs arise. And I'll give you an example. We had the need for a new mattress. And we've also had urgent needs for refrigerators and washing machines and all of that kind of stuff that comes So they tend to need to be replaced, and our women deserve to have the things that they need. So with the monthly donor program, technically anybody can do it for any amount. And because rage against addiction always needs something. I've known you for years now, and theirs times you've told me you guys need a furniture, you need clothes. And also, you're not getting the grants that you use to or the contributions that you use to. So this monthly donor program will definitely help a lot. So somebody becomes a monthly donor. What is there anything that they're getting in return? besides Besides, of course, helping those that need it. I know you guys have an excellent newsletter. Would they automatically subscribe to that? Drive you to our newsletter, so you'll know what's going on. You can kind of track our progress. Here, success stories, know the data, and how many women we serve each year, and just be a part of something bigger. So with this, I guess they're also going to be because of the newsletter. They're going to be one of the first ones to find out about events coming up. Like the memory walk and run. The basket can go and any other future events that you're doing, the podcast that you do. So they're going to be tied in right away. Yes. All right, so how can they become a monthly donor? You can go to our website, and that is rajeagainstidiction. org. And go to our donate button. And on there, you will have the option to become a monthly donor and you can put in any amount that you want. Your commitment, big or small, empowers our mission, and changes lives every single day. Visit us at rajeagainstidiction. org to become a reoccurring donor and join us in making a lasting impact. Thank you for your compassion, generosity, and belief in a brighter future. Together, we can make a difference. Join us today.
