JFT is a PCB
Approved Training Facility
JFT Recovery is proud to offer the full 54-hour training program that is the required education for Certified Recovery Specialist (CRS) candidates as well the 60 credit hour requirement for the Certified Family Recovery Specialist. We also accept registration for continuing education credits for re-certification and general public education.
JFT is equally excited to offer Parent Peer Mentoring classes, Family Education, and Career Management Training courses for those reentering the workforce.
Depending on the size of your group, we will gladly travel to your organization to deliver the training.
All of JFT's education is delivered by Master's level educators with decades of experience in education, addiction, and recovery.
If You Want Help...JFT is Here!
A gentleman, rather the worse for wear, came into JFT accompanied by a friend whom I believed to be in relatively new recovery. This young lady had been trying—all day long with no luck at all, I later found out—to help this broken, desperate, shaken man get help after he had just completed two weeks in a treatment facility. He was let go from the Suboxone-distributing facility for whatever reason: does it matter? Many of us have been there. If you are begging for help, does any reason really ever matter? He was discharged with a three day supply of Suboxone (today was day three), MA-issued insurance through a carrier no one accepts, and no after or home care plan. My CRS had been getting this man’s backstory so that she could do what was needed to help him. He had completed two weeks at the facility, was properly utilizing Suboxone, and had spent the past couple of frigid nights getting kicked out of hospital ER’s for sleeping.
You see he desperately wanted not to use, it was cold, and he needed sleep. Instead of couch surfing, where he would undoubtedly use, he chose local ERs and begging for help. He was sent to a local nonprofit where this man, who would be out of Suboxone tomorrow, was told the best they could do was an appointment in a week. Panicking, he said, “Well what am I to do until then?” He was again sent to local ER to basically beg for a prescription. Why? After again being turned away, he appeared on the doorstep of a local distributing clinic begging for an appointment and was told, “Sorry, no funds, no service. We don’t take your insurance. Find the money you can have an appointment.” As door after door was slammed in this destitute man’s face…he chose life…and the next doorstep was ours.
As I walked my CRS through options with which she was not yet familiar, I took a closer look at “Sam.” Sam, I suspected, was in his 40s. He was underweight, weathered, and sallow eyed from withdrawal, worry, fear, and lack of sleep. The depth of his addiction, though unspoken, was revealed in his appearance. I saw dejectedness and defeat in Sam’s eyes; desperation and fear. It shook me to my core and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I was Sam; Sam was me. I knew what he was thinking, and I knew where he was going if he left JFT to wait another day. I could not let this happen. To give up on Sam was to give up on me, and I had come too far. I had an utter compulsion to help this man find relief from the pain of his life. His success had become my own, and I knew this was the end of the line for him. One way or another Sam was done.
Nikki and I gathered all of our “chips-are-down-we-got- nothin’-left-in-our-hat-please-help-us” resources and pulled out all the stops. We called upon our true community partners—the ones who have never once not done everything in their power to make things happen. In the matter of an hour and a half, we had Sam a safe place to lay his head, an appointment at a Suboxone clinic for tomorrow, and the funding to make it all happen until his new MA takes effect. When we were done, I looked at Sam. Pure shock and disbelief veiled his face. For the first time since I met him, I saw him sit up in the chair he had been slouching in all this time. Sam’s mannerisms became less deliberate and more open and jovial. Excitement dashed his eyes, and I saw what I can never ever get enough of—HOPE. When Sam left the center his gait was lighter, he cracked a smile, and he thanked us. A full blown, genuine thanks from the exhale of a breath he had been holding for days. Sam smiled and breathed.
I do not know if Sam will make it; however, I do know that we gave him a fighting chance. I also know that all the plaques, accolades, honors, awards, atta’ boys, or whatever throughout my career could never ever feed my ego or fill the hole in my soul like helping Sam did today. He is the measure of my success. Thank you Sam. Today you made me feel like the Queen of the World.
JFT
"You Don't Ever Have to Be Alone Again."
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Who We Are
JFT Recovery and Veterans Support Services is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization devoted to offering safe, structured, and compassionate housing, fellowship, and recovery resources to anyone in need. We also provide certified recovery specialist training, continuing education credits, and advocacy for the entire Central Pennsylvania recovery community. JFT operates a Community Center in Lemoyne, which provides substance use disorder education, resources, and referrals to those seeking treatment. And, we maintain two recovery houses—one for males in Lemoyne and the other for female veterans in Harrisburg.
Recent Posts
JFT Fed & Clothed A lot of People Over the Holidays;
Now We Need Your Help
We are in desperate need of new packs of underwear, new packs of socks, sweatpants, sweatshirts, sneakers, and boots. we do not accept children's clothing.
We also need to replenish our non-perishable food items such as peanut butter, jelly, tuna, condiments, canned soups, and vegetables.
We also need both male and female deodorant.
