What to Expect from the Program at The Grounds

Like life, everything at The Grounds is progressive, with challenges, expectations and responsibilities increasing as members make healthy choices for themselves.

The Grounds Program Overview

The Grounds Is an Achievement-based program with five levels that all members progress through. Each level has specific tasks and goals that allow members to increase responsibility, earn additional privileges and freedoms including unsupervised time and activities, earn weekly allowance, and establish trust and accountability. Goals are designed to move members towards increasing independence, personal responsibility, financial freedom and self-discovery. Each challenge allows members to experience and integrate daily living skills necessary for independence. Staff guide and challenge members to: predict and consider consequences (positive and negative), identify resources, ask for help, improve interpersonal skills, practice problem solving, effectively communicate, demonstrate time management and healthy decision making.

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The Program at The Grounds

Orientation (Approximately 7-10 Days)

Members arrive at The Grounds Main House on Orientation Level.

Orientation Goals Include:

Settle into the new environment
Learn day to day living schedule and expectations
Participate in all community program activities including groups and 12 Step meetings
Identify and have 1^st meeting with the appropriate sponsor
Comply with basic house rules such as daily chores, personal space, and curfew
Attend first therapy session with an assigned clinician
Complete initial evaluation with Psychiatrist if on medication
Complete orientation tasks such as house tour and program overview
Meet with Program Director to establish 90-day goals
Negative urinalysis screening weekly or as requested for each phase
Participate in weekly recreation activities and outings
Self-administer medication as prescribed
Maintain sobriety

Level One & Two

Main House

Upon completion of Orientation, members progress through 3 levels for the duration of their first 90 days.

Goals Include:

Procure and sustain employment (minimum 24 hours per/week)
Open a bank account and develop a budget
Active participation in clinical offerings including individual therapy, groups, medication management with Psychiatrist (if appropriate) and equine therapy
Positive participation in all programmatic activities including weekly life skills curriculum, Rock to Recovery, Culinary classes, daily meditations and recreation activities
Participate in weekly recreation activities and outings
Weekly progress meetings with Case Manager
Complete weekly schedules
Negative urinalysis screening weekly or as requested
Self-administer medication as prescribed
Weekly meetings with sponsor
Attend daily 12-Step meetings
Weekly family phone calls
Successful family visit
Maintain sobriety
Demonstrate increased autonomy, integrity, responsibility and accountability

Transition/Casita Level

Transition/Casita Level goals and requirements are decided individually between the member and the treatment team to accommodate each members developing independence plan. Completion of Casita Level entitles members to move to the Step Down house. Goals may include:

Equine therapy is optional
Group therapy is optional
Transition Ceremony

Step Down House

Upon completion of Transition/Casita Level, members move to the Step Down House for approximately 90 days. The Step Down House is a few blocks from the Main House. In this final level, the main task is for members to put all of their skills and practice into action by self-directing and managing their day to day activities, sustaining employment, maintaining sobriety, handling their business, paying a larger percentage of their living expenses, saving a portion of their pay to fund their transition to independent living, and pursuing academic goals. Members will set short and long term academic goals to help create concrete plans to work towards and pave a road to success. Basically, demonstrating that they are capable of navigating all of the moving parts associated with independent living.

Goals Include:

Self-manage medication as prescribed
Sustain employment, increasing to full-time status
Develop a budget for independent living
Contribute to personal expenses including food
Individual therapy weekly
Attend weekly house meetings
Monthly medication management with Psychiatrist (if appropriate)
Weekly progress meetings with Case Manager
Complete weekly schedules
Weekly meetings with sponsor
Attend 12-Step meetings (minimum 3 times per week)
Maintain sobriety
Negative urinalysis screening weekly or as requested
Demonstrate increased autonomy, integrity, responsibility and accountability
Attend weekly joint house dinner
Develop a transition plan for independent living that includes family participation or support guidelines, living arrangements, monthly budget, relapse prevention plan
Eligible for personal vehicle
Pursue Academic Goals that include applying, attending and achieving a college education, a skill trade, or any other higher education. Setting short or long term academic goals will help give a sense of direction and purpose

Weekly Schedule

Each week, members are required to post and have approved their weekly schedule. Schedules include work shifts, therapy appointments, sponsor meetings, family calls and other activities or responsibilities unique to that member. The weekly schedule helps teach time management, accountability, prioritization of responsibilities, organization and the discipline that comes from structure, planning and consistency. Weekly schedules allow staff to guide and support members as they begin to increase responsibilities and develop their transition plans as well as hold them accountable to program expectations.

Culinary Classes

Healthy eating habits can help reverse the damage left behind from years of substance use, poor food choices, and inconsistent eating patterns. Through our weekly cooking class, our hope is to instill habits that carry over into a lifetime of improved health and wellness.

The Grounds Executive Chef offers a weekly class for all Main House members. Classes are designed to build confidence, teach basic culinary skills, cultivate healthy nutrition and gain a heightened level of independence. Through an interactive process where members plan and prepare a nutritious meal (complete with multiple courses), kitchen safety, appropriate food handling, general nutrition and menu planning are practiced. Members work individually and in small groups to prepare each recipe and end each class by sitting down to enjoy the meal.

Additionally, our Chef preps daily dinner meals that members complete themselves following his written directions. This process allows members to practice skills from class each day with minimal risk of failure. Recipes and menus are designed to be approachable and realistic so that when residents graduate, they have ample experience with a variety of recipes.

Beyond the obvious benefits of knowing how to cook nutritious, healthy meals, our culinary classes also allow members to practice the more subtle skills of patience, creativity, teamwork and self-confidence that translate into all aspects of life.

Physical Fitness

The Grounds understands the importance of self-care, physical health, and wellness. Recovery is achieved when one embraces and nurtures all aspects of the self. We encourage all of our members to participate in the varied recreational activities we provide so that they can experience the peace of mind, stress release, and self-esteem that comes from physical activity and good physical health. Fitness sessions with our certified personal trainer teach members the basic components of physical health and fitness and allow them to create personal fitness goals that they can work towards during their time at The Grounds. Weekly yoga classes, teach the proven skills and techniques of mindfulness and quieting the mind to all of our members. Our hope is that members will carry new habits of self-care, stress release, and wellness into their everyday lives long after their time at The Grounds.

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Arts and Activities at The Grounds

Rock to Recovery

The Grounds is proud to partner with Rock to Recovery (rocktorecovery.org) to bring the power of music therapy to our members. Founded in 2012 by Wes Geer, professional musician, touring guitarist for the alt-metal band Korn and music teacher, Wes found the universal healing power of music through his own recovery process while in treatment. He created Rock To Recovery to share with others. Rock to Recovery works with over 60 organizations supporting men, women, at-risk youth and Wounded Warriors. Weekly sessions at The Grounds allow all members to play instruments, write songs and record.

With guidance from Rock to Recovery staff who are all in recovery themselves, members start by creating lyrics directly from their own experiences and then develop the music to carry them. Learning to play an instrument, sharing feelings, expressing emotion and collaborating with a team allows for important life lessons and increased self-esteem. Even those with no music experience come to enjoy the comradery, release, and self-esteem that comes when the group works together to create something. The experiences are creative, exciting and healing. We’ve found that our members look forward to the weekly “jam sessions” and we’ve uncovered many hidden musical talents.

Breathworks Group

Through sound, movement, and controlled breathing, the Breathworks group offers a personal, powerful and often transformational experience. Breathworks provides access to parts of the psyche that are not as accessible in our daily lives to nurture personal growth. Breathwork brings us back to our authentic self. The ego has no place as the healing takes place. The human ego is complex. While it has the ability to accelerate our progress on all capacities, it can just as easily be our detriment.

The goal of Breathworks is to help eradicate the ego, find truth and reconnect with the authentic self. Throughout the experience, people can access untapped potential gain mental clarity and debilitate the ego through connections with the higher self. Practicing Breathworks creates a temporary state of mind that allows the inner “You” to be free from the dominating effects of the ego. The temporary detachment from the ego stimulates a sense of emotional openness and the idea that anything is possible. This is the first step to making new and powerful changes in life.