B2B In the News B2B In the News
Inside NAU-TV with Theresa Bierer: Back2Basics
Wake up and smell the coffee
Arizona Daily Sun
LARRY HENDRICKS News Team Leader
Ryan, 21, was forced into recovery. For his third rehab, he was sent to the Back2Basics treatment center for young adults in Flagstaff.
“It was my last strike,” he said, smiling, the smell of roasting coffee surrounding him.
When he completed the treatment program to help him kick his addiction, he moved into a place in Flagstaff with another Back2Basics graduate.
He still had some work to do. Ryan said he was like a spoiled child and did not have a work ethic to be successful in life.
So, he applied for and was accepted into an internship program with local business Late for the Train.
“The best thing I learned, for lack of a better term, was ‘work ethic,’” he said.
SUITED UP AND SHOWING UP
Back2Basics combined forces in April with Late for the Train to offer internships to addicts and alcoholics in recovery. The purpose, said Roy DuPrez, CEO and founder of Back2Basics, is to prepare the graduates of the center for the working world by helping them gain professional work experience.
“They’re suiting up and showing up for a responsibility,” DuPrez said, adding that the program is trying to teach the interns how to be self supporting once stabilized.
Back2Basics is a for-profit recovery center that focuses on hands-on activities to get young adults back on track in life. Residents participate in outdoor adventures, focus on a 12-step recovery process, and undergo group and individual therapy for “… the long-term transformation of our residents into a self-sustaining and sober adult.”
David Dobrick, owner and founder of Late for the Train, said the interns are learning roasting, tasting, inventory, ordering, shipping, fixing espresso machines, customer service and all facets of the industry.
“Inclusion is key,” Dobrick said, adding that it’s not just about punching in on the clock and pushing a broom.
“It helps them see what the bigger picture is about,” Dobrick said. “We get them to a point where they can be hired.”
And those character traits and skill sets learned during the internship will follow the interns when they move onto the work force, DuPrez added.
DuPrez also said that some graduates work on-site in other programs in the hotel and restaurant management field. Some graduates return to Back2Basics to work in the center’s outdoor adventure program.
Dobrick said that several of the interns have ended up working for Late for the Train — either in one of the coffee houses or in the warehouse. He said he couldn’t be happier with their performance.
“It’s another opportunity to try to help with somebody’s sobriety,” Dobrick said.
BEYOND GRUNT WORK
Ryan said that, at first during his internship, he was assigned the “grunt work.” But over time, he was taught to identify the subtleties in taste to the various coffees and roasts, and has learned skills on the computer to track inventory. He also has been briefed on the amounts sent to the various cafes and how much to roast in a given week.
He added that he will soon be learning the roasting process from a friend of his, who is also a graduate of Back2Basics.
“I’m really anxious to learn,” Ryan said. “But I’m kind of nervous.”
The Fix Rehab Review: Back2Basics Outdoor Adventures
April 2012
This Arizona rehab prescribes high doses of AA meetings and backpacking for young guys who not only need to get sober, but also learn the basics (think cooking and cleaning) of living in the real world.
Like Outward Bound for addicts, Back2Basics Outdoor Adventures, in Flagstaff, Arizona, is a highly active, Into the Wild-type rehab that helps young men in their late teens and twenties kick alcohol and drugs while learning how to get along in the real world—from learning how to cook to getting job skills at a new café internship.
Back2Basics’ six-month program is made up of both in-town time, at the rehab’s 12-bed residential facility, and weekly three- to four-day backpacking, camping and rafting trips to destinations including Moab, the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Superstition Springs, Zion National Park and more, all while having AA meetings out under the Southwestern night sky. “The camaraderie with the other residents and the meetings out there were what impacted me most,” said one B2B grad. For the most part, residents are straight, white and from affluent families, with a few middle-class and Hispanic guys in the mix as well. But as for their station in life, residents are united: “Most of [them] were in a situation similar to mine,” said one young man. “Just sort of in between.”
Time spent in town isn’t wasted just twiddling your thumbs, though, waiting to get back out on the trail. When in Flagstaff, residents keep busy with a robust slate of chores, 12-step meetings, group and individual therapy, and lots of physical activity, including kung fu, hiking, biking, yoga and more. “I was in shape for sure after all that every day,” said one B2B alum. Most residents room with one other person, depending on how many people are in the house at the time. Days at Back2Basics typically begin by making your bed, showers and breafkast, followed by an AA meeting and then working out or taking a fitness class at the Flagstaff Athletic Club.
After lunch, residents—who must enroll at either Northern Arizona University or Cocomino Community College—attend classes or do schoolwork and chores, including laundry and a once-a-week “deep cleaning” of the rehab’s houses. Smokers also can put in “work hours” on special projects, from painting to minor home-repair jobs, to earn cigarettes (or dip). In the summer, one of these special projects is a house garden, which residents care for by planting, watering and composting.
This theme of self-sufficiency is extended in the kitchen, as residents are charged with cooking dinner for their whole rehab crew, including crafting the menu and shopping for groceries. Surprisingly, this doesn’t result in Top Ramen seven nights a week. With guidance from Chef Kathy, residents make sure each meal hits all the food-group high points, including a protein, a starch, a vegetable and so on. Coffee is brewing all the time at Back2Basics, whereas sugar is more limited. You won’t feel like you’re on a lemon-cleanse diet, though—as one guy put it, “There isn’t anything like Gushers [fruit snacks] stashed away in the pantry, but there is always something you can find to snack on.” Another resident managed to satisfy his (and others’) sugar cravings in a clever manner: “I just baked all the time,” he said.
If anyone gets out of line, B2B staff aren’t afraid to mix it up with their charges—and residents say that’s a good thing. “They called us out,” one said. “My BS was thick but they definitely worded it so I could hear it.” Rule-breakers can be punished with anything from extra house chores to writing assignments on how their errant behavior might be habitual, with a book-report-style delivery to the group for feedback. Privileges potentially on the chopping block include watching DVD movies (there’s no cable TV) and phone calls. The former are restricted to evenings and weekends, while the latter are kept to a weekly half hour with one’s family. Cell phones are disallowed, and the Internet can only be used for homework.
Treatment-wise, the rehab puts a lot of emphasis on working a strong 12-step program, including finding a sponsor in the local AA community and practicing the steps. Residents will hit roughly six meetings a week—and that’s not counting those held on the trail. As for religion, residents are encouraged only to find a god of their own understanding, although anyone who wants to attend church can do so.
12 Step Program Finding Success
June 1, 2011
Flagstaff Business News
Back2Basics Outdoor Adventures is proud to announce their one year anniversary. In the past year, Back2Basics has treated nearly 20 people. For those who have completed the program, there has been a 100 percent success rate.
Back2Basics is a family operated, community supported, sober living environment for young adults ages 18 and up.
It begins with an intensive outdoor adventure program, followed by a structured curriculum in a peer driven, staff supported, stable home environment where residents focus on recovery from drug and/or alcohol abuse. The average length of stay is six months.
This program, located in Flagstaff, opened its doors in May of 2010. Roy DuPrez, M.Ed., is the Founder and Chief Executive Office and has been developing various community programs in Flagstaff for over a decade.
The Clinical Director is Charles Horton, Ph.D. He specializes in therapeutic groups and individual therapy with a focus on substance abuse, familial difficulties, disabilities, and life threatening illness. Keelyn Riley, LPC, MSW, provides both individual and group therapy to the majority of the clients. Along with a clinical team, there is a residential team that focuses on the day-to-day living.
In addition to residential and group therapies, residents study and participate in the traditional 12-step program.
Back2Basics residents are responsible for preparing meals and gaining culinary art skills. Participants engage in an extensive Community Service program; Adopt a Highway, collaborations with local Americorps agencies as well as the food banks.
Residents maintain their own Back2Basics Community Garden, learning about horticulture and sustainable gardening, masonry and green construction.
Healthy and sober experiential activities include daily participation in Kung Fu, Qui Gong, Tai Chi and meditation. There is also equine assisted learning. Back2Basics outdoor adventure program includes white water rafting on the Colorado River and camping/hiking opportunities throughout the Grand Canyon, Mogollon Rim, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona and San Francisco Peaks. During outdoor adventures, participants learn team building skills, group accountability and responsibility. FBN
More information is available online or by calling 877-339-4B2B (4222) or emailing info@back2basics-soberliving.com.
Classroom Briefs
Posted inAnnouncementsonSaturday, April 16, 2011 5:00 am Updated: 11:26 pm.
Substance abuse panel
Flagstaff’s four high schools will be hosting a community substance abuse awareness panel on Tuesday, April 19.
The panel will run from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Flagstaff High theater and feature Connie Leto, director of Citizens Against Substance Abuse; Jeremiah Smith, Flagstaff High School resource/security officer; Adam McLean from Back2Basics; Officer David Needham from the Flagstaff Police Department and Cody Bayles from the Guidance Center.
The speakers will discuss the prevalence of substance abuse in Flagstaff, warning signs, effective prevention and treatment options, the effects of substance abuse and available local resources.
All parents and students are invited.
BACK2BASICS New Perspectives
Back2Basics is a family operated, community supported, sober living environment for young adults ages 18 and up. The program begins with an intensive outdoor adventure program followed by a structured curriculum in a peer driven, staff supported, stable home environment where residents can focus on their recovery from drug and/or alcohol abuse. The average length of stay is six months.
This program, located in Flagstaff, AZ opened its doors in May of 2010. Roy Duprez, M Ed is the Director of Operations and has co-founded and developed various community programs. His professional career has taken him through the classroom, the outdoors, jails, juvenile and adult drug and alcohol treatment centers. The Clinical Director is Charles Horton, PhD, who specializes in therapeutic groups and individual therapy mainly for substance abuse, family difficulties, disabilities, and life threatening illness. The staff includes a clinical team devoted to individual and group therapy and a residential team that focuses on the day-to-day living.
Residents participate in individual and group therapies, in addition to daily involvement and in- depth study of the traditional 12 step program. Back2Basics residents are responsible for preparing meals and gaining culinary art skills, community service work at the Flagstaff Community Garden learning about horticulture and sustainable gardening, masonry and “green” construction.
Healthy and sober experiential activities include daily participation in Kung Fu, Qigong, Tai Chi and Meditation; equine assisted learning and participation in Back2Basics outdoor adventure program, in which residents have the opportunity to hike and camp throughout the Grand Canyon, Mogollon Rim, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona and San Francisco Peaks, and white water rafting on the Colorado River while learning team building skills, group accountability and responsibility.
Getting sober through exercise
ByJennifer Parker| August 17th, 2010
Phoenix Sports Performance Examiner
Are you thinking of kicking the habit of the abuse of alcohol or drugs and just don’t know how to go about doing it? Or do you know someone you feel is an addict?In May,a residential treatment center, located in Flagstaff, Arizona called,Back2Basics Sober Livingopened its’ doors with a unique approach to kick the habit and remain sober.The two driving forces behind Back2Basics, Roy DuPrez and Adam McLean who have experience with 12 steprecoveryand brought their passion and knowledge to build a family operated andprivate facility for young residence.
Back2Basics cater to youths of 18 and up providing a structured environment to build “accountability and responsibility, something that is unfamiliar to an addict”, according to DuPrez.So how does Back2Basicsachieve sobriety? DuPrez stated,”Our program is designed to concentrate on hands on activities as well as an in depth studyof the 12 steps, including: Outdoor adventure, health promotions, life skills, equine-assisted learning, culinary and kitchen skills and therapeutic modalities.”
Utilizing the beautiful Flagstaff environment, DuPrez stated, “The residencedo various exercise and outdoor activity.”The residence will go on bike trails, hiking, water rafting, wilderness trips, workouts at the gym, yoga, boot campand martial arts.” The goal is to be fit within the mind, body and soul, stated DuPrez.
The Back2Basics Clinical and residential teams focus on day to day living. Martial arts instructors are on site teaching clients Qigong,Tai Chi, Kung Fu and meditation. Residential staff facilitate daily attendance of the 12 step meetings. Nutrition and menu planning programs are catered to the resident to regenerate the addicts damaged body and help restore health. A life skill curriculumhas beenimplemented to teach residence culinary arts, horticulture, masonry, green construction, and sustainable gardening.On the clinical side, DuPrez stated, “licensed therapists that are specialized and focus on the complications involved with drug and alcohol abuse provide support for the residence.”
Back2Basics residence are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by 12 staff members. The residential facility provides a stable home environment,promoting healing, health and well being and outdoor sober living in the beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona. For more information aboutBack2Basics Sober Living,click on the highlighted areas. Drug and alcohol addiction is dangerous, keep you loved one safe.
Getting Back2Basics
By LARRY HENDRICKS Assistant City Editor | Posted: Sunday, July 18, 2010
Arizona Daily Sun, azdailysun.com
In the past, when young adults in Flagstaff needed a private, residential treatment center to kick an addiction to alcohol or drugs, they would have to look to other cities.
But now, that has changed.
In May, Back2Basics Sober Living opened its doors in Flagstaff.
According to the Back2Basics website, the center “… is a family operated, community supported sober living environment for young adults ages 18 and up. Back2Basics provides a safe, stable home, where your son or daughter can focus on recovery in a peer-driven, staff-supported, healing, outdoor sober living community in Flagstaff, Arizona.”
The goal: To create self-sustaining, sober adults.
Roy DuPrez and Adam McLean are two of the driving forces behind Back2Basics. Both men have experience in 12-step recovery and decided to bring their strengths to bear in creating a treatment program designed for young adults.
“It’s one resident helping another helped by staff,” DuPrez said. “We’re not reinventing the wheel here. We’re just hoping to make it more effective.”
6-MONTH MINIMUM STAY
Whereas most inpatient treatment programs last about a month, a stay at Back2Basics has a minimum stay of about six months to increase the chances of a person staying sober after discharge, DuPrez said.
The tuition is considered “private pay,” DuPrez said. He added that although they do not accept insurance, some of the therapeutic components are covered by insurance.
McLean said the program contains an outdoor adventure component, where clients are exposed to rafting, hiking, camping and more.
“We utilize the local environment to help them find themselves,” McLean said.
He added that Flagstaff, with all the natural wonders surrounding the city, is an ideal location for an outdoor emphasis in recovery.
Clients live in one of several locations in the city and they are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by 12 staff members, all of whom have a background in substance addiction, McLean said.
CLINICAL AND RESIDENTIAL TEAMS
The staff includes a clinical team devoted to individual and group therapy and a residential team that focuses on the day-to-day living. There are also culinary and martial arts instructors on the staff.
Clients are responsible for doing chores, preparing meals, attending groups, performing community service work and other activities. They also learn life skills, undergo exercise regimens, go to school and attend 12-step meetings in the community.
DuPrez said Flagstaff has more than 200 12-step meetings that clients can attend. Staff at Back2Basics also make referrals to outside agencies in Flagstaff to help with recovery.
The clients come in as “wrecks,” DuPrez said. But as they improve, they can set an example for others who come to Back2Basics — creating an infrastructure so the clients can go on a journey of recover together.
Back2Basics has already accepted a half-dozen clients, DuPrez said. The goal is to serve between 35 and 40 clients at a time.
“We want to help as many clients as we can,” DuPrez said.
Larry Hendricks can be reached at 556-2262 or lhendricks@azdailysun.com.
New Flagstaff Business Employing Unique Approaches to Help Recovering Addicts
Written by Brandy White on June 12, 2010
Flagstaff Business News
What do Tai Chi, meditation, rafting down the Colorado River and hiking in the red rocks of Sedona all have in common? If you guessed the ultimate vacation package, guess again.
These activities are part of the program offered at a new 12-step recovery center, Back2Basics, recently opened in Flagstaff. This new sober-living community intends to take rehabilitation services a step further by providing a unique twist on conventional methods.
We are not what would be considered the traditional treatment center,said Roy DuPrez, director of operations for Back2Basics.We are doing more concentrated hands-on activities like painting, trash pick- up, trips in the Grand Canyon, white-water rafting and serving meals at the food bank.DuPrez says that by incorporating these types of practical activities into clients recovery, it allows them to gain inner satisfaction and know they are capable of doing something besides abusing drugs or alcohol.
The center is designed to treat younger adults who are 18 and older. By keeping their clientele within the same age range, Back2Basics addresses what DuPrez calls an obvious need for young-adult specific drug and alcohol abuse programs in Flagstaff.
I see it as when you’re first getting sober, you feel like you’re terminally unique, like no one understands what it’s like to be in your shoes,said DuPrez. Well, that’s not necessarily the case once you start getting exposed to people who have similar backgrounds, similar stories, similar experiences.
Melody Hicks, substance abuse coordinator at Northern Arizona University (NAU) is another proponent of expanding Flagstaff’s limited treatment choices. Hicks says that people often mistake NAU’s substance abuse program as in-patient rehabilitation, which it is not.We [the NAU Substance Abuse program] really only see a small handful of at-risk youth,said Hicks. We then provide these students, who are looking for a more intensive recovery program, with all the options in town. So, if there is a new option that we can give to people, as far as I’m concerned that is a good thing.
Back2Basics requires its residents to stay a minimum of six months. Adam McLean, director of marketing and admissions, explained the reasoning behind this time frame, Back2Basics aims to be proactive, in that statistics go way up (for a successful recovery) once you’re past the 90-day mark. If the individual can stay in a supportive treatment environment for at least six to 18 months, he/she has a much better opportunity for long-term sobriety.
The initial part of the Back2Basics program consists of a period where the recovering addicts will partake in a variety of outdoor excursions, including hiking and camping trips in the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Flagstaff.The outdoor component is set up to remove all worldly distractions and really get to the heart of their situation,” explained McLean.
The participants spend the remainder of their time at Back2Basics in a residential sober- living environment where they are given a structured daily schedule. The schedule blends traditional therapy practices such as individual counseling and attendance of 12- Step meetings with some more innovative elements like Chinese healing arts and nutritious, whole food meal planning. Residents participate in daily exercise using facilities at the Flagstaff Athletic Club and incorporate community service projects by partnering with the Civic Service Institute at NAU.
Clients are encouraged to complete high school or their GED and to continue on with higher education opportunities through NAU and Coconino Community College. Along with furthering their academic careers, Back2Basics provides its clients with vocational training in the areas of carpentry, masonry, gardening, landscaping, green construction and sustainable living environments.
According to McLean, the vocational training comes into play once the addict gets out of treatment. Traditionally, a center will focus solely on a person getting clean, but once released, the recovering addict is left to return to his or her old lifestyle with nothing to stand in the way of those destructive triggers.Back2Basics anticipates that by incorporating useful skills into residents lives, so that once they are out of the program and on their own, they will turn to the new-found skills and avoid destructive habits. Most importantly, they will be able to lead a happy, productive and sober life.
Coming Clean Not easy for Former Junkie
By: CYNDY COLE Sun Staff Reporter | Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 5:25 am
Arizona Daily Sun
Flagstaff native Adam McLean, 24, left school about a decade ago, when he started mixing cold medicine with other drugs.
From there, he tried prescription anxiety medications prescribed by a doctor, including Xanax.
Using the Internet, he probed for what symptoms to list for his doctors to get different medications.
“My doctors were my drug dealers,” he said.
They ultimately prescribed him Vicodin, a powerful painkiller, which became his “new best friend,” after he drove his car into a house at age 16 while intoxicated.
The calming, sedative qualities of that painkiller could also be found in heroin, which later became a favorite drug.
PAID IN HEROIN
Sober for four years and now helping others recover, McLean was using meth and heroin about daily when he ended up in the hospital with a serious skin-eating infection.
As physicians told him they planned to amputate his arm, which did not happen, he said he thought only about when he could next get high.
An attempt at intervention in the hospital failed
At 19, McLean got a job transporting illegal immigrants in Phoenix to pay for his heroin habit, and was paid in heroin.
When he was fired for becoming an addict, he began stealing drugs from pharmacies.
He was walking out of a local Safeway with a lab coat and a backpack full of drugs when he was busted and charged with 20 felonies.
That was the beginning of a turnaround, McLean said, when his only options became death, prison or rehab.
McLean was put in the county’s drug court, where he continued to use on and off, but tried to stop.
He went through four treatment centers, and various psychologists and psychiatrists.
For him, a moment of clarity came Nov. 28, 2006, when he failed another court-required urine test for drugs.
Rather than trying to come up with another explanation, he told his probation officer, “Yeah, I’ve been doing heroin. I want to stop. I just can’t.”
She sent him to jail.
Next, Coconino County Superior Court Judge Mark Moran looked at McLean and said, “We’re sending you to treatment, and everything’s going to be OK,” McLean remembered.
He felt a deep sense of relief.
BACK TO SOBER LIVNG
McLean later started life over, began attending 12-step meetings, worked at a drug treatment center, and took up fitness as his new habit.
Now McLean and Roy DuPrez run a rehabilitation program for former addicts, Back2Basics Sober Living, that combines outdoors trips with exercise, healthy eating, and group living, for people intending to stay a minimum of 6 months.
Their first client, a 24-year-old Flagstaff native, declines to give his name, but he speaks a little about his three weeks off heroin so far, which he has spent hiking and biking.
The three laugh a little about the withdrawals they’ve experienced, and how terrible they were.
The client would like to work for a fire department someday, do search and rescue, and help other former addicts.
“I was just a deadbeat junkie,” he said, “and these guys showed me the light.”
Contact Back2Basics Sober Living at (877) 339-4222.
Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.
