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Bridges of Iowa, Graduation Celebration  

 Thursday, June 20th, 6:00 PM  

1211 Vine Street, Bldg. 2000  

West Des Moines, IA   

About Bridges of Iowa

Bible study group                                 

  

  

  

Bridges of Iowa is a licensed level 3.1 long term substance abuse treatment program housed at the West Wing of the Polk County Jail. Bridges of Iowa has forged a partnership with Polk County Board of Supervisors and the Polk County Sherriff and has received the opportunity to house our substance abuse treatment program in an unused wing at the jail facility.  This additional space affords BOI with the opportunity to double the number of men served.  Further, this space, and grants from the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and Prairie Meadows, has given Bridges the opportunity to open a women’s treatment program that mirrors the successful men’s program with the addition of gender specific treatment modalities to deal with the particular issues that women face in substance abuse treatment. Curricula developed by Dr. Stephanie Covington, an international expert in the treatment of substance abusing women, will be integrated into BOI programming for women. 

The Bridges of Iowa program is unique in four ways: 

  • BOI gives our clients the financial literacy skills to determine needs and wants, establish a budget that includes not only the payment of current expenses, but also the debts incurred as the result of criminal activity and to establish a savings account.
  • BOI believes that employment is a key factor in recovery and assists the clients to identify the skills needed to find and maintain gainful employment.  Clients participate in employment readiness classes beginning the first week in the program, learning resume building, interviewing skills and customer service.
  • BOI encourages service as a means of giving back to the community that supports them and turning clients from takers into givers.
  • BOI emphasizes and encourages the power of spirituality in the recovery process.  Personal change comes as a result of surrender. 

 

The inter-relationship of these three elements gives BOI clients skills needed to be successful upon graduation. Our clients graduate after 12-18 months in the program with a job, a savings account, a faith community and a sobriety mentor.  Families are re-connected and patterns of self-destructive behavior are stopped. A recently instituted program to measure client success rates indicates that 77% of the clients who graduated in 2011 remain substance free.  Earlier surveys of clients with graduation dates from 2007 to 2011 indicate that 97% of the survey respondents were abstinent from all mood altering substances, 95% are employed, and more than 90% attend church and are active in recovery activities at the time of the survey. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA9IMUkcgWY  

  

   

Family  

Addiction affects us all.

Every family in Iowa is affected by alcohol or drug abuse. Family members or friends suffer from it, and we pay the costs through higher taxes for incarceration, treatment programs, and the criminal activity that often comes with it.