Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery works to build a sober community

DIXON – “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it’s connection.”

Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery Executive Director Gerald Lott references that conclusion – drawn by Johann Hari in the 2015 TED Talk “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong” – as his philosophy behind creating the recovery community organization that now serves Lee, Whiteside, DeKalb and Ogle counties.

Born and raised in Chicago, Lott and his wife had moved to his wife’s hometown of Dixon, he said of the time leading up to the creation of SVVOR. But having come from a large metropolitan area, being married with children and recovering from addiction, Lott was starting to feel isolated, he recalled during an interview with Shaw Local.

As a person in recovery, he needed support but found that there were only “one or two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the area.” Beyond that, most social activities he could participate in revolved around drinking, such as grabbing a drink at the bar. But even going to see live music involved drinking, or hanging out on the riverfront involved packing a cooler of beers and drinking, he said.

It’s not that there weren’t people out there like him, in recovery or currently struggling with addiction; it’s that they were ashamed and preferred to keep their problems to themselves, he said.

Lott began to ask the question, “How do we bring recovery out of the shadows?”

In 2019, his answer came in the form of a three-year grant from Dixon’s KSB Hospital to kick-start Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery, which began working with the Dixon Police Department, Sinnissippi Centers and KSB Hospital’s deflection program called Safe Passage. Safe Passage was providing a safe space for those struggling with addiction to ask for help. An individual could “turn themselves in” at the police station and, rather than being arrested, they are placed in a treatment center, Lott said.

Given that the closest center was more than an hour away, SVVOR was brought in to help drive people. During the car ride, an SVVOR recovery coach would inform an individual about the organization. After treatment, once the individual got sober, the goal was, and still is, to keep them in orbit with Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery – to take the person out of “that environment and give them a sufficient substitute” for something like a bar, Lott said.

Since then, SVVOR has taken over the Safe Passage program and has helped more than 600 people take back control over their lives, he said.

Today, the organization comprises nine employees and relies heavily on volunteers and donations.

SVVOR offers sober housing at its Legacy Sober Living Home in Dixon, which opened March 27, 2022. It also hosts monthly recreation and educational events, one of which is known as Sober Night Out, to show that there is fun in sobriety and aid in the rebuilding of healthy lifestyles; produces a monthly newsletter and hosts a podcast to encourage communication between support groups, institutional stakeholders and recovering people; participates in outreach efforts by working with newcomers and speaking at schools or other community events; advocates for issues affecting the recovery community; and assists people in finding treatment and other needed resources to achieve or sustain recovery.

Although SVVOR has created the sober community Lott was looking for, the organization’s “primary action is helping people find treatment,” he said.

Since taking over the Safe Passage program, there are now up to “40 doorways” for people to get help. They can go into local businesses or restaurants, and “they know to call us,” Lott said.

That individual is then paired with a recovery coach who works with them to come up with a recovery plan. This could be anything from finding placement at a treatment center, getting sober so they can get their kids back or simply wanting to drink less alcohol, Cassandra Smiley, SVVOR senior recovery coach, said in an interview with Shaw Local News Network.

“We try to get them established in the world, and then we stick with them,” Smiley said.

In May, SVVOR helped 37 people find treatment. Its average is typically 23 people a month.

On July 1, SVVOR is set to bring on two more recovery coaches/deflection experts. One will focus solely on Ogle County and the other on DeKalb County.

This is being done as the Ogle and DeKalb counties’ mental health boards recognized the influence the organization has had on the counties it serves and decided to give the organization a $150,000 grant, combined, to get that started.

Another expansion the organization is working on is bringing on a mobile unit to reach further into the rural communities. The plan is to buy a van that is customized to be an office space, hire staff to run it, and park in a different community each day to see which areas need the most help. For example, on Mondays the mobile unit would be in Polo, on Tuesdays it’d be in Sandwich and so on. Then, once they see the areas that need the most help, SVVOR would place a permanent office there, Lott said.

SVVOR sent out an application to U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth asking for a grant to fund the project. Duckworth responded and agreed to give $220,000, but it’s not guaranteed. The money only will be awarded after the federal government makes its budget and agrees that it’s a good use of dollars, Lott said.

“People need to show their support,” he said.

One way they can do that is by writing to Duckworth, Lott said.

For information, visit the Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery online at www.svvor.org.