News Releases

Bold Initiative to Help Solve Iowa's Problem with Drug Addiction

DES MOINES, IA--(April 5, 2000)--Business leaders, government and judicial officials and representatives of the clergy will gather in Des Moines April 5 to learn the details of Bridges of Iowa, a private, not-for-profit program aimed at helping persons with alcohol and drug addiction break the cycle of dependency.

Bridges also hopes to reduce Iowa's prison population of non-violent felons, which could result in a substantial savings in the cost of operating Iowa's correctional system. In Iowa, 75 to 80 percent of all correctional clients entering the Department of Correction facilities have a history of substance abuse, according to the report of Iowa's Drug Control Strategy 2000.

The clients may come to Bridges of Iowa because of a prison diversion judicial sentence, whereby the judge may determine that preventive treatment has a good chance to circumvent the downward spiral toward crime and prison. Or clients may come to Bridges at the point when they are re-entering society after a prison sentence.

The plan is to locate the rehabilitation/aftercare facility in central Iowa. A search is now under way and several sites are being considered. Bridges of Iowa is patterned after the successful Bridges of America program in Florida. It is being funded with a $2.1 million private grant through the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation by Donald F. and Charlene K. Lamberti. Lamberti is the co-founder and current chair of Casey's General Stores, Inc., operator of nearly 1,250 convenience stores in a nine-state Midwest region.

The faith-based Bridges of Iowa hopes to duplicate the success of the Florida program. With well over a decade of statistical tracking completed, more than 80 percent of Bridges graduates in Florida have not returned to prison, according to the State of Florida Report. "Every family in Iowa, mine included, has been affected by alcohol or drug abuse," said Lamberti. "Bridges of Iowa hopes to provide the leadership, the programs and the healing to help persons with these addictions resume normal, productive lives."

Peter P. Vallone, Executive Director of Bridges of Iowa, said: "Bridges programs will be directed to restoring each client to the highest possible level of physical, emotional, social and spiritual health." Prior to coming to Iowa, Vallone was with Bridges of America in Orlando, Fla. He holds a doctorate in chemical dependency and has more than 25 years of experience working in the addictions field.