The city of Springfield is proposing changes to how the city handles group homes with criminal offenders. They do not want transitional housing in any area other than industrial districts.
Council members want to ensure that group homes for mentally or physically handicapped people who may be criminal offenders are more than quarter of a mile from parks, schools, residential districts, other group homes, treatment facilities, shelters, jails and transitional service shelters. This is demeaning and harmful to people who already feel hopeless and depressed. People trying to maintain sobriety, which is tough enough already, are going to be sent the message they are unworthy of living in society.
This sends the wrong message. We should be working with them to foster dignity and share hope that a better life is possible. How would I know? I am one of them. I am in long-term recovery. For me, that means I have not used drugs or alcohol in over six years. I got my GED in prison and now have a master's degree. I am a counselor for Greene County's Drug Court program. I sit on several boards: the Citizen's Advisory Board to Greene County's probation and parole, the Recovery Coalition of the Ozarks, the Department of Mental Health's Consumer Conference and I am Springfield's regional peer specialist for the Missouri Recovery Network. I am also the director of a nonprofit called Better Life in Recovery that last year provided over 2,500 hours of community service in southwest Springfield, all done by people in long-term recovery.
That is what people in recovery can do. That is what felons can do. Please think about this before you support the new ordinance being drafted for places housing criminal offenders. We can be resources if you let us!
No comments:
Post a Comment