Dear Friends,
Another year has whipped right by, and there is so much to share with you about the bright opportunities ahead! Our Impact Report holds countless highlights from 2021 and if you follow us on social media, you know that butter skyrocketed in price, and has now doubled since this time last year. The impact of inflation is extremely difficult on small organizations; those of us that were able to keep our doors open through the initial impact of Covid in 2020 and 2021 are now facing the struggles of rebalancing our budgets so that we may continue to prioritize providing essential services for those who need them most. But let’s not get stuck in the butter, there is good news too! As we increased the program capacity last year, we landed on a 3:1 student to instructor ratio that assures the quality training, coaching, and support services that create our exceptional outcomes. Just in case you don’t know, 100% of our interns do not recidivate and 85% remain in long-term recovery. Our success rate is 76% higher than the state’s for recidivism and 61% higher for long-term recovery. It is no wonder that we’ve captured the interest of state policymakers and the Governor’s office! Additionally, with our program growth, we reached our maximum occupancy and are now looking at new facility opportunities in the area so that we may expand our training employment for the folks whose applications continue to flood in from the prison, county jail, and recovery centers.
In December, we submitted our first grant to the state – we were asked to apply after presenting the exceptional outcomes of our program at the JRI (Justice Reinvestment Initiative) review! We are just the hope that the state is looking for, and we encouraged the JRI leadership to expand funding to include programs like Flourish in the years ahead. As you will soon see, this past year opened many doors for Flourish at the state level and we are now asking for an appropriation from the legislature this session to support our facility expansion.
Now, if that isn’t exciting enough, Flourish will turn five this April! I continue to say, we are at a unique intersection in the growth of our organization. If we had started more than five years ago, our growth would likely have looked very different because the focus was on funding treatment centers. Today, all around us is the evidence that treatment alone is not sufficient. It is the bridge that Flourish provides that is the key to transformation. True transformation means changing the systems in which we operate and addressing the root causes of substance misuse. The Flourish program, in unity with our community partners, does just that. We just happen to be at the right place, at the right time, with the best solution to the issues. The year ahead is going to be exciting! The opportunities and growth for Flourish will take our start-up to the next level. Thank you for joining us year after year for the exciting evolution of hope in our community!