Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery Operations Manager Lauren Metzler

Transcript

Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery Operations Manager Lauren Metzler · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: And now it's time for our talk line segment where
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  Speaker 1: we are joined by our good friends from the Salk
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  Speaker 1: Valley Voices of Recovery. Today, the operations manager Lauren Metzler
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  Speaker 1: is speaking with me. How are you, Lauren?
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  Speaker 2: I'm good. How are you, Brandon?
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing very very well. And I want to give
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  Speaker 1: a big shout out to Lauren for joining me from
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  Speaker 1: so far. She's actually on vacation with her kids and
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  Speaker 1: she still managed to keep this appointment with me. I
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate you having met you.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, yes, tgif we are at the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: So today we're going to talk about something that Lauren
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  Speaker 1: and I have talked about with before, just in the
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  Speaker 1: essence of when I was writing for the newspaper. And
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  Speaker 1: so this is something that I thought was really important
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  Speaker 1: to share with you, and that is Clete's House of Hope.
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  Speaker 1: It's a new women's sober living facility over in Rock Falls.
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  Speaker 1: And this is something that's actually pretty near and dear
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  Speaker 1: to your heart. Is that right, Lauren?
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And tell folks, why is that so?
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  Speaker 2: Clytie is my mom. She passed away August fifth of
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four unexpectedly to a fretanyl overdose. She was
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  Speaker 2: only thirty five, and she's born and raised in the area.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well, I can certainly understand why this is so
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  Speaker 1: important to you, and my condolences to you on your mother,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm certain she would be very proud of her
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  Speaker 1: daughter for doing all the wonderful work that you're that
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  Speaker 1: you've been a part of, because this has been just
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  Speaker 1: such a massive boon to the area. And you actually
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  Speaker 1: have the first residence in the facility, is that right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So we took our first woman in the end
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  Speaker 2: of June, beginning of July, and currently I have sixteen
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  Speaker 2: women living in the home and doing the program. So
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  Speaker 2: that's pretty cool.
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  Speaker 1: That is amazing. And how has that process been so far?
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  Speaker 2: It's it's it's been tough, but also it's so amazing
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  Speaker 2: to see a building that was just the beginning of
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  Speaker 2: the year, there was nothing to it and just seeing
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  Speaker 2: it all transition and the women living in there and
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  Speaker 2: growing and just being so happy. It just makes my
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  Speaker 2: heart so happy.
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  Speaker 1: And for folks who may not have read my previous
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  Speaker 1: stories on this, you know, on this story, shave on
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  Speaker 1: you folks go to show on local dot com you
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  Speaker 1: can get a full story on that, but I'd like
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  Speaker 1: you to tell them a little bit about the facility
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  Speaker 1: and how that actually works for these women.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a twenty one unit facility, so there's two
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  Speaker 2: women per room. We have the first two halls done
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  Speaker 2: and we're just finalizing and finishing up the last rooms
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  Speaker 2: in the last wing. There's about seven there. But the
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  Speaker 2: program is a year based and it's a four level program.
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  Speaker 2: So when the women come in, of course, they start
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  Speaker 2: at level one and with that they have you know,
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  Speaker 2: stricter rules, guideline, stuff like that, and as they successfully
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  Speaker 2: do those things, they continue to level up in the
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  Speaker 2: system until they completed, of course and graduate.
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  Speaker 1: That is an absolutely phenomenal service. I you know, we
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  Speaker 1: really never had anything like this, uh you know in
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  Speaker 1: the area, certainly certainly not in rock Fall. So this is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, a really great thing that's that's happening. And
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  Speaker 1: if I'm remembering correctly, Lauren, the the building itself kind
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  Speaker 1: of came as like a bit of a gift.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So the building was donated to the organization and
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  Speaker 2: then from there there was a lot of work, of
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  Speaker 2: course that needed done to it. So then we took
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  Speaker 2: out a loan against it and paid to get all
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  Speaker 2: that work done. So everything in the income we have
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  Speaker 2: coming in, we're just paying towards everything that we paid
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  Speaker 2: out before and trying to catch up. But yeah, it's
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  Speaker 2: such a blessing to have that building donated to the organization.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I'm kind of curious what are some of the
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  Speaker 1: challenges that come along with, you know, with with with
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  Speaker 1: this center and the work that you folks are doing
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  Speaker 1: over there.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the biggest challenge I have found lately is
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  Speaker 2: transportation in our area. There's of course the White Say
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  Speaker 2: County public transportation, but they can only do so much
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  Speaker 2: and their hours are restricted of course. And other than that,
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  Speaker 2: like these women are having the hardest time getting a
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  Speaker 2: job because when they do, some jobs are so far
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  Speaker 2: and they can't find transportation. So I'm we're on the
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  Speaker 2: hunt right now to either figure out and start something
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  Speaker 2: or you know, if there's anybody out there that's wanting
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  Speaker 2: to start a transportation service but doesn't know where to go.
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  Speaker 2: I know, there are so many grants for it. I'm
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  Speaker 2: ready to team up or help with with somebody to
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  Speaker 2: get that in our area.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there you have it, folks, if somebody out there
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  Speaker 1: is listening, if you can step in and help or
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  Speaker 1: know somebody that can, please get a hold of Lauren.
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  Speaker 1: These women are you know, they're they're working to reclaim
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  Speaker 1: their lives. They're they're putting in the work and and
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  Speaker 1: and doing the program and they just you know, they
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  Speaker 1: need this help and so let's kind of help, you know,
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  Speaker 1: take away some of these roadblocks for these folks and
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  Speaker 1: help them out. And speaking of you know, helping out,
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  Speaker 1: I understand there's some some items that you guys could
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  Speaker 1: also use.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean always, financial support is huge, whether
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  Speaker 2: or not you know, you want to make a contribution
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  Speaker 2: to the program in the home or We've had some
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  Speaker 2: people give X amount of dollars and we use it
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  Speaker 2: towards a scholarship. For the background check for the women.
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  Speaker 2: It's a fifty dollars background check and a lot of
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  Speaker 2: them coming in do not have that, so we will
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  Speaker 2: pull it from the scholarship to cover that for them
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  Speaker 2: or cover you know, their first month's house dues. So
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  Speaker 2: if anybody is wanting to sponsor women specifically, we would
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  Speaker 2: take in that as well. And then also they come in,
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  Speaker 2: we start we give them a welcome basket. And in
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  Speaker 2: this basket, you know there's essential toilet trees, detergent, fabric softener, toothbrush,
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  Speaker 2: stuff like that. So we are always taking donations to
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  Speaker 2: create those baskets, or if anybody wants to donate some
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  Speaker 2: of the baskets, I can get them the list of
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  Speaker 2: items that we use and use for that.
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  Speaker 1: That's absolutely amazing. And if somebody out there is you know,
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  Speaker 1: they're listening to this and they think, you know, I've
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  Speaker 1: you know, maybe I can help with transportation, or I
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  Speaker 1: can help with some of these items. How can they
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  Speaker 1: connect with you learn to do that or maybe even
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  Speaker 1: for some partnership opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they can always reach me, you know, at
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  Speaker 2: my work phone it's eight one five six three one
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  Speaker 2: three six three eight. They can always call the Souf
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  Speaker 2: Valley Organization phone number, or message us on Facebook. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you can find me on Facebook. You can find Talk
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  Speaker 2: Valley Voices of Recovery on Facebook and just shoot us
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  Speaker 2: a message and then I'll figure something out to touch
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  Speaker 2: base and connect with them.
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  Speaker 1: That is wonderful. And is there do you still have
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  Speaker 1: room in the facility at the moment for more women
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  Speaker 1: or are you guys full at the moment, we.
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  Speaker 2: Do have more room and like I said, we're finishing
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  Speaker 2: up that last wing which will give us that much
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  Speaker 2: more room. But we're we're getting there to where we
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  Speaker 2: may be starting a waiting list soon. So that's pretty
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  Speaker 2: cool too, Like that's awesome. But yeah, we do currently
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  Speaker 2: have beds available.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect Perfect anything else you want to share, Loren, Have
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  Speaker 1: we covered it all this morning?
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  Speaker 2: Uh? Pretty much covered it. I just want to thank
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  Speaker 2: you always for getting the word out and spreading information
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  Speaker 2: of Clebe's house and hope, and thank you to the
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  Speaker 2: community because so many people have donated, you know, clothes
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  Speaker 2: or stuff like that for these women, and I just
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  Speaker 2: appreciate all the positive support. It means the world to me.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate all the wonderful work that you and
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  Speaker 1: everyone over there is doing. And I know the women
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  Speaker 1: in your facility certainly appreciate what you guys are doing this.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it isn't easy and somebody has to be
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  Speaker 1: there to do these kind of things, and thankfully we
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  Speaker 1: have you guys there. So thank you so much, Lauren.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and thank you Brandon. I appreciate you