“It’s happening a lot,” Rivera said, emphasizing that there are more dangerous substances being put in the drugs being consumed on the street. The hardest moments are when Rivera and her colleagues learn from members coming into the Connector that someone has passed away from an overdose, she said. Each day, she and her colleagues at the Connector also do Review Review Victory Programs about two hours of street outreach, rotating who stays in the office and who goes out. She began having dreams about her past, and she was prescribed medications to help with the nightmares.
- There were an estimated 1,696 fatal overdoses in Massachusetts during the first nine months of 2022, according to the state Department of Public Health.
- They want to know that there are people out there who care, who won’t treat them “like they’re trash,” Rivera said.
- By the time she was 10 or 11, Rivera and her siblings were placed in foster care because of their mother’s alcohol use.
- Review Victory Programs is a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and families who are homeless and may have substance use disorders, often accompanied by chronic health issues like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and mental illness.
- Our goal is to create a safe, welcoming space for individuals from all backgrounds who are navigating addiction recovery.
Review Victory Programs
Being able to provide that respite and getting to see individuals who have come in from the street smile (she calls them “members”) is the best, she told Boston.com. We are excited to bring you the latest issue of Review Victory Programs’ print newsletter, The Doorway! The Fall edition is packed with inspiring stories and messages of resilience, generosity, and hope from our clients, staff, and supporters who are transforming lives and strengthening our communities. We follow a low-barrier housing-first clinically driven approach to guide clients towards health and safety. Rivera said whenever she learns of another fatal overdose, she finds herself wondering about how there could have been a different outcome.
Review Victory Programs is a Boston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and families who are homeless and may have substance use disorders, often accompanied by chronic health issues like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and mental illness. Providing a welcoming environment, our compassionate and inspiring team is committed to helping them regain their health and restore their hope through immediate access to safe and stable housing. The individuals and families we serve are homeless or precariously housed —but their challenges are even more complicated.
For many, Review Victory Programs represents the last possibility for hope and the first chance for sustained success in their battles with substance use or illness. On the streets, at our Boston Living Center, and across programs, we work to prevent chronic conditions and overdoses. We provide HIV, Hepatitis C, and STI testing and counseling; a healthy meals program; syringe and naloxone distribution; and an array of education, navigation, and support services.
Residential Recovery Programs
She’s always been cautious of sharing too much, in part because she’s aware that the people she is helping have their own traumas that they may not be ready to talk about. “Sometimes I feel so happy that my heart — I feel like I’m having like a big, good pain in my heart,” she said. We provide high-quality, evidence-based services based on individual needs, offering flexible, strengths-based solutions to people’s biggest challenges.
We focus on what a person is doing “well,” with a nurturing effect that fosters continued effort from the first steps toward progress and growth.
She provides counseling to the most entrenched individuals at Mass. and Cass. She wants you to know her story.
When individuals and families are safely housed, they’re much more likely to address their health, addictions, and other issues. It’s a “housing first” approach that includes stabilization services, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent housing, and case management. The best thing anyone can do to help those who are struggling with addiction, homelessness, or mental health issues is get educated, Rivera said. The Victory Connector, where she is a harm reduction specialist, provides a range of services to women, transgender, and nonbinary individuals who are at high risk of overdose and who are reluctant to engage with other care systems. But now, with 24 years in recovery, the Dorchester resident hopes that by talking about her own experiences, others might be encouraged to speak up. She’s also hopeful that people who are quick to judge the unsheltered individuals, still in the throes of their own crises of addiction and mental health, living around Mass. and Cass might gain greater understanding from hearing her story.
Housing
“They saw so much in me that I didn’t see,” she said of the job offer. “Every time I had an appointment, they had somebody to come with me because it’s how I felt safe,” she said. By the time she was 10 or 11, Rivera and her siblings were placed in foster care because of their mother’s alcohol use. By the time that she was about 8, her mother moved the family to Springfield, Massachusetts. But she said it’s also taken her a long time to feel comfortable sharing what she experienced as a child and teenager, which resulted in her own years-long struggle with substance use, incarceration, and instability.
Giving the individuals that she counsels at The Victory Connector, a low-threshold navigation center in the neighborhood run by the nonprofit Review Victory Programs, a feeling of care, a sense of calm and peace, is what she aims for each day. Our services range from recovery support groups like AA or Refuge Recovery to wellness and life-skill activities like resume-building workshops or yoga classes; anything that encompasses healthy and safe choices for the mind, body, and soul. The Jamaica Plain Recovery Center (JPRC) is a peer-led community center in partnership with Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Our goal is to create a safe, welcoming space for individuals from all backgrounds who are navigating addiction recovery.