In the News
Published: Aug 28, 2006
By RAY GRONBERG, Herald Sun
TROSA graduates on new path
Chapel Hill -- One by one, the graduates marched across the stage, acknowledged the cheers of family members and friends, picked up their diplomas and stopped to say a few words of thanks. Always, they thanked God, and spoke of difficult times.
But unlike a high school or college graduation, where "difficult" might refer to an all-nighter or a botched exam. The 21 men and women who graduated Sunday from the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers' two-year drug rehabilitation program were speaking of true darkness.
For graduate Matthew Kushner, the road back into the light started with his first talk with TROSA President Kevin McDonald, a former heroin addict who founded the program in 1994.
"It was a monumental conversation and definitely started me in the right direction because, before I came here, I wanted to die," Kushner said, adding that he'd come to view the program as "a life college of sorts."
Kushner added that, like many addicts, he'd made the people who care about him many promises he never kept. Sunday's ceremony meant a lot to him, and to them, because the TROSA program was "the first thing in my 31 years I ever completed that I said I was going to do," he said.
"I still have a lot to learn and I still make mistakes, but thank God they're not the same mistakes I made before," added fellow graduate Stephen Murphy.
TROSA's name is widely known in the community thanks to the numerous furniture-moving vans that bear the nonprofit's yellow and blue sunburst logo. The vans are but one of the businesses TROSA has taken on to finance its operations and provide the former addicts with training opportunities and work.
But there's more to the program than that. During their first 18 months in the program, participants live in TROSA housing. There is counseling, and education as well. McDonald and his staff require participants to secure a GED if they didn't graduate from high school, and offer those who have a tuition-paid opportunity to take college courses.
Graduates can elect to stay in TROSA housing, and participate in support groups. All receive jobs in the community, and the nonprofit makes sure they can get to work, either by providing them free transportation or by selling them a vehicle at a very low cost.
The nearly $8 million-a-year operation has won awards and has strong community support. State Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, delivered Sunday's commencement address and used it to lament that programs like TROSA were still relatively rare.
The state would be better off putting "money into alternative programs than to have nonviolent offenders wasting away in prison," Luebke said. "We need to focus on saying to people, 'Give our citizens a second chance.' "
Article from the Herald Sun