Safe Haven - A Word from Larry Griffin

Safe Haven - A Word from Larry Griffin

One of We Care and Friends' tremendous successes is our ability to place numerous people in treatment for their substance abuse each year.  However, Annapolis, Maryland and Anne Arundel County need a safe haven to provide addicts with the necessary transition from the street to a treatment facility.  It takes three days from the time a person approaches We Care and Friends with the desire to enter treatment until they are able to board transportation to the treatment facility.  In this time, photo id's must be obtained, health screenings must occur, and legal and medical issues must be resolved.  Unfortunately, many clients are lost to the streets again during this time because of a lack of a safe haven here in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.  This safe haven can also serve as a transition place from treatment center back into the community when clients return.  It is our desire to construct a safe haven for those who come for help and find themselves still left out in the cold for lack of a bed or a place to stay until their treatment process can begin.

Many times, I have taken people into my home to get them off of the streets while they prepare to enter treatment, because the way to effectively support addicts is to act as soon as they approach us and ask for help.  When there is no safe haven available, the addict ends up back on the same area, around the same people, indulging in the same behavior as before, and an opportunity for change is lost.  I know this to be true, because I was a drug addict for 28 years and eperienced the same anxieties, the feeling of wanting help but having no place to get it.

With the support of the community and the existing programs here in the City and County, I know this can be a successful endeavor. The need is here. We talk about cleaning up our town, stopping crime, and violence and taking care of the hungry and the homeless. A safe haven is an important way to effect these changes in our village.  This is something I have great compassion for.  I will never cease to help those in need.  God gave me a second chance at life, and it is one I will never take for granted.

Larry Griffin, President and Founder, We Care and Friends