Dear Sponsors,

Thanks so much for what you have done for my Mom and I.

Thank for helping my mom with a place to stay when she got out of prison, assisting me when I got out of treatment, and teaching us to be a functional family, supporting us on being and staying drug free, advocating for us to get low income housing, and for keeping us in a habit of cleaning our house!

Without your support my Mom would never have made it so far in her recovery. The drive you guys gave her made her capable of getting a job within 48 hours of being released.

Thank you for assisting me when I got out of treatment. I was very nervous I wouldn’t have the help I needed to stay out of trouble, but you proved me wrong. The outstanding love made me feel comfortable and welcome there, and I’m positive I can say the same for my mom.

Through Sponsors we became a functional family. Before my mother went to prison, I never considered our family a family. You taught us how to talk instead of scream. How to have empathy, how to forgive and how to take space.

Thank you for supporting us staying and still being drug free. Both of our lives used to evolve around drugs. Now we’ve opened to find many activities we can enjoy without being high. We have a better relationship with our whole family now. Before, those relationships were distant and awkward.

Thank you for advocating us to get into low income housing. I never would have thought low income housing could be so nice or convenient. Before I didn’t understand why we needed it, but now I can’t imagine how hard life would have been if we hadn’t come into low income housing.

Last but not least, thank you for keeping us in the habit of cleaning our house. It’s so nice to come home and not have to walk through a jungle to get the couch! Without out your help we would be living like slobs, be embarrassed when we’d have company, and not be sanitary.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have you in my life and appreciate that you gals have shown me how to live day by day and love it too.

Love always,

W.S and C.S.

In June of 2011, current and former clients of Sponsors explained to the Lane County Commissioners how Sponsor’s critical programs had positively affected their lives and families. Here’s Trish’s story of how Sponsor’s helped her learn a new way of life:

As I began thinking about this testimony what came to mind was a report a former parole officer had written about me. He wrote, “Once again Patricia Coldeen is a complete and total failure.” This was in 2001, and you know at that time it really wasn’t too far from the truth. I had been in a downward spiral of drug addiction, alcohol use and crime. Lane County Jail had been a revolving door, and I really didn’t know how to stop it.

Today I am thankful I am a very different person. People can change, with help. And it was the Sponsors Women’s program that helped me to change. I can honestly say Sponsors is a huge piece of the foundation of the recovery I have today.

I grew up here in Eugene. I wanted to graduate high school, I wanted to go to college. But those things didn’t happen. I first started smoking pot with my friends at a pretty young age. It wasn’t long before I began using harder drugs and then heroin. I used heroin for 15 years — I was one of the statistics that showed untreated drug addiction costs the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in incarceration fees, uninsured hospital visits and other related costs.

In 2005 I was sentenced to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility because of the crimes I committed in my addiction. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in a drug and alcohol treatment program that included a cognitive restructuring program. I was taught how my thinking played a critical role in my decision-making process and learned how to become accountable for my actions.

When I got out of prison, Sponsors was there for me. I needed the support, direction and structure that Sponsors provides. Learning a new way of life is one thing — learning how to do it is another. Sponsors was there to teach me how to do it.

Today I am a success. I have 3 ½ years “clean and sober.” I have been completely off parole and out of the system for over a year. I have been employed at the same job for over 2 ½ years, where I am a valued employee; I am reliable and responsible. I am a second year student in the Human Services program at Lane Community College, and I am doing my internship at Willamette Family Treatment Services. I have plans to continue to Portland State to get my Bachelors in Social Work. I am going to be a counselor, because I understand how we can veer so far from our intended purpose, but what I also know is that it is never too late to become who you were meant to be. And Sponsors helped me to realize this.

Please continue funding Sponsors so that communities can heal, families can reunite and individuals can be successful.” 

– Trish Coldeen.