“If Amity Foundation is an hourglass, I’m in the middle,” he explains. “At one end is our volunteer board of directors, who I work with and for in fundraising, strategic planning, financial viability and policy making — ensuring always that all of our activities are congruent with our mission statement and that we are funding the mission.” Mullen describes the other end of the hourglass as all of the employees — about 150 at present — who, in administrative jobs and direct-service positions, implement Amity’s mission in three states (Arizona, California and New Mexico).
“It is interesting and challenging, to say the least,” Mullen states. What has been particularly challenging as of late are the changes in policies and funding. “Non-profits play such a critical role in American life,” Mullen states, “but the economic woes of the global economy and the decreases in funding in almost all of the states have made it particularly difficult to do what we do best for the folks on the bottom rung of society who are in the greatest need and have the fewest resources.”

“We have a different array of services in each state,” he continues, “Some of that reflects government priorities in that state, and it also reflects what we believe we can do best in that state. In California, we have been providing services for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for more than 20 years — both in prisons and in community-based settings.”

Amity’s services have been subject to several major research studies by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and, because of their effectiveness in reducing recidivism to substance abuse, criminal behavior and re-incarceration, they have become a national and international model for effectiveness. Mullen is just returning from a three-week sojourn in Japan where the Amity methodology has been adopted by a private prison and by community-based programs as well. He points out that research and evaluation are critically important to ensure that the services Amity delivers are effective — and that the public’s funds are being used to bring the greatest “bang for the buck.”

“In carrying out the ‘dissemination of information’ piece of our mission, I recently spoke at two universities in Mexico about treatment approaches to drug problems,” Mullen states, a problem very real to many of Mexico’s citizens on a daily basis. “They are getting it that the war on drugs can’t be won on the supply side alone — there must be a very heavy emphasis on demand reduction, and that is what we do best.”
Amity’s Circle Tree Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, is supported by 20 to 30 different contracts, including 16 with Native American tribes. “People find it hard to believe that we can serve men, women, women with their children, African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican-Americans and more, but it’s this diversity that makes what we’re doing so exciting,” Mullen states. “And we’re seeing great success, too, so this is clearly a need that was waiting to be met.”

“We know that all evidence points to longer residential treatment stays as predictive of long-term success – at least 90 days; more is better – but insurance companies and government agencies often cut this as short as 30 days or less,” Mullen states. “While we work with stays as short as 90 days, we have made it a major goal to create programs where our students (we deliberately call our clients “students”) can stay as long as they need to.”

To this end, current projects in Arizona include transitional and permanent housing – “a more sophisticated version of sober living” – as well as a new home for women and their children, Dragonfly Village. Mullen currently oversees the $2.3-million renovation of Circle Tree Ranch, Amity Foundation’s largest residential treatment program. “I’m doing everything from meeting with contractors to figuring out where to get the funding for it,” Mullen states. In New Mexico, Mullen oversees the two federal grants for women that support two outpatient programs: one for homeless women coming out of prison and one for HIV-positive or high-risk women who also have children. The same mission is applied in these programs, focusing on education, mentorship and strengths-based approaches. In addition to his administrative roles, in his “spare” time, he uses his previous professional experience as a photographer to produce photos and videos to help promote Amity and educate others about Amity’s services. Mullen joined Amity Foundation in 1982 and says that in the last almost-30 years he has “never been bored – there is plenty to do – and I’m always excited to go to work.”

Additionally, Amity Foundation is now raising money to build Dragonfly Village on four acres of Amity’s current 50-acre compound in Tucson, Arizona. Dragonfly will act as a separate campus for 40 women and 80 children; this “mother” site is already home to a residential program, Circle Tree Ranch, which provides 139 beds for adult men and women (and their children), who are going through drug and alcohol rehabilitation, as well as co-occurring disorders (such as gambling, eating disorders and mental disorders). The ability of students to have their children with them during their stay not only makes Circle Tree Ranch unique, but is a key component to the students’ success in maintaining long-term sobriety.

This family component is also what resonates most deeply with Rettmer, herself sober for 35 years. “My passion is truly working with families,” she states. “Even though I work largely in an administrative capacity, I am blessed to be able to design and implement our quarterly family workshops, as well as our weekly family groups.”

These groups use a multi-generational approach, as well as a multi-family structure, where several families meet together to, according to Rettmer, “take a straightforward look at the issues of the whole family and how they impact the family system.” The goals are usually to open the lines of communication or improve them. “We are all about family reunification,” Rettmer states, “so we come from a strengths-based position – no blame or shame, no finger-pointing. We just help families identify the roles they play or are stuck in and teach them how to make positive changes.”

The result is that family members often learn what life is like in an addiction, and the family member with the addiction learns what is like to be a mother, father, husband or sister of someone with an addiction. This focus on empathy further serves to draw families closer together. “We also emphasize letting go,” Rettmer states. This holisitic and realistic approach has brought tremendous healing to the thousands who have gone through the program since its inception in 1983. In fact, Walter Cronkite has called it “one of the nation’s most successful treatment programs”.

Naturally, ensuring that each of these programs run smoothly and with the utmost integrity is both a tremendous honor and responsibility – and it is one that Rettmer manages to balance with both professionalism and a spirit of genuine warmth and compassion. “I am so happy to be part of the program I’m in now because I can be so hands-on. I know every student, their family and pieces of their unique story. It’s so wonderful to be able to be connected.”

To learn more about Amity Foundation and Circle Tree Ranch, visit www.amityfdn.org and www.circletreeranch.org.

This curriculum is presented in the South Lodge. It should be presented once the TC Participant has become better acquainted with the TC. Each page bordered in black is for the demonstrator to create their lesson plans from. The white pages are the corresponding pages from the student workbook.

The DVD’s recommended for use with this curriculum directly relate to the material being taught. They illustrate the family experience as it relates to childhood, and have been carefully selected to promote cultural diversity and understanding. Remember, the therapeutic community is intended to be a school for the whole person.

It is important to familiarize yourself with the fundamental teaching tools used in the TC. These tools are designed to ensure that every community member plays the role of both student and teacher. The Interchange, for example, was first developed in Synanon (the first TC) while other tools were later developed and modified by Amity Foundation. Amity is called a Teaching and Therapeutic Community because of its extensive work and contribution to developing new methods, techniques and approaches to teaching. These teaching methods have been developed to encompass Dr. De Leon’s Eight Essential Elements for a TC. A few of these tools are explained in Appendix B.

Teachers are refered to as “demonstrators,” since the role of “teacher” within the context of the Therapeutic Community is to be a good role model, to demonstrate both teaching and learning.

This curriculum is a tool to be used in order to examine where people come from, what they learned, and how it has affected their behavior. With this broader base of self-knowledge, students will invariably improve their decision making skills. It is important to introduce this curriuclum as a tool for people to begin to look at the foundations of their life.

In preparation for teaching this curriculum, advise prospective students to identify one personal photograph which is significant to them and best describes them. They should bring this photograph with them to the first class. During TASK ONE, students will be asked to introduce themselves through
the family photo they have brought.

In order to be prepared to discuss and deal with the ideas and emotions that may be generated, you must watch the video before it is presented to students. Depending on your group; i.e., size, time of day, the movie shown, and intensity of the movie, choose points to stop the movie, and engage in a group discussion. Stopping points and discussion prompts are included in the Demonstrator Guide Tasks. These videotapes are an integral part of the curriculum.

Always watch the video before you show it and be cognizant of your group–who in the group might have some experience that relates to the video? Who might be able to contribute something to the session about the video?

If you are going to utilize the interchange format after watching a video it is recommended that the polarizer watch the movie prior to the session also.

This is the first in a series of three curricula which focus on the foundational or basic assumptions of a Therapeutic Community. In essence, the TC is an intentional community formed with for the purpose of helping individuals dramatically transform the negative anti-social behaviors they exhibit towards society and themselves. This curriculum directs participants and staff in establishing norms for new participants that are pro-social. These norms serve as “basics” to establishing relationships with self and others that develop into good citizenship. The exercises in this curriculum are designed to promote the formation of healthy peer groups, which are essential for successful movement through the TC. Another objective of the curriculum is to lay the foundational norms that focus on “whole person” education rather than just a symptom-oriented (drug program) approach.

Within the context of a Therapeutic Community, there have historically been workshops, intensives, long groups, retreats, or “dissipations.” Each of these activities provide as much uninterrupted time as possible for participants to focus on a particular issue. Spending this kind of time together gives people an opportunity to really “meet” one another on a more authentic level, reduces defenses, strengthens peer groups and fosters continuity of information delivery. Workshops improve the sanctuary of your circle and allow people to process the information they are receiving more effectively. This, in turn, enhances student retention rates. It is recommended that you do at least one two-day workshop every month, incorporating relevant ceremonies, walks, and games (if possible in your setting). For best outcomes, it is recommended that you structure a two- or three-day workshop as indicated at specific tasks in the demonstrator guide.

Each participant receives a workbook, and staff receive the accompanying teaching guide which includes lesson plans, group exercises, seminars for presentation and documentary DVD’s that relate to the curriculum. After the completion of this curriculum, the participating individual will be interviewed by staff and peers regarding their performance in the East Lodge. If their performance is satisfactory he/she will graduate to the next lodge. If not, they may be asked to repeat whatever portions of the curriculum were not successfully completed.

Basic Assumptions of the Therapeutic Community Documentary Movies

• Basic Assumptions of a Therapeutic Community Produced by Zev Putterman (winner of 13 Emmy awards), this film was developed specifically for this curriculum. Mr. Putterman was one of the first heroin addicts to graduate from a TC in the United States (l962). A TC Practitioner presents the theory of each assumption and then participants in the community are interviewed and relate how the assumptions apply to their lives.
• Elie Wiesel: In the Shadow of the Flames This 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Winner tells how he made the decision, after ten years of silence, to begin to write about and tell his story of incarceration in concentration camps to help others. He speaks eloquently regarding the plague of apathy and indifference he feels that society is afflicted with. This documentary is used to demonstrate that all experience has value, is worth examination, and addresses the importance of disclosure to others.
• Hasten Slowly, The Life of Sir Laurens Van Der Post Author and biographer to Carl Gustav Jung, Sir Van Der Post is interviewed at the end of his life and recounts the experience of forming a school within a Japanese Prison Camp with over 1,000 prisoners of war. He shares his philosophy regarding the importance of living a meaningful life, survivors of the camp are interviewed, and describe how they moved from “just surviving” to forming a social contract of teaching and learning as much as they could regardless of their circumstances. This documentary exemplifies the assumptions relating to the importance of role development, personal authority and inclusion.
• Life’s First Feelings This NOVA documentary illustrates the immediate effect on infants due to their emotional climate. This DVD is utilized to demonstrate the development of the “emotional life” in childhood.
• Memories of the Camps This documentary film was made by the American, Russian and British Allies at the end of the Second World War and depicts what was found in the concentration camps and in neighboring towns around the camps. This relates to the importance of developing personal authority and raises the questions of “doing one’s duty” rather than following one’s conscience. This film generalizes to issues for those with previous gang affiliation as well as those from families trapped in cycles of all manner of abuse.
• Mother Teresa This documentary is a biography of this remarkable woman and focuses on the community of sisters that she established in India whose mission was to “give dignity” to the dying. It is utilized to exemplify standards of personal dedication and discipline and illustrate the importance of inclusion and overcoming prejudgment.
• Nelson Mandela This documentary is the most complete of Nelson Mandela, detailing his life from his tribal experience through his education and twenty-seven years of incarceration. Importantly, it details his struggle to find non-violent solutions to the problems of South Africa upon his release from prison. This film is utilized to demonstrate “role development” i.e. Mandela did not have a “job” for many years but maintained his role and his commitments to fighting against either white or black domination of his country.
• Weapons of the Spirit This film was lauded by the American Psychological Association as one of the best documentaries depicting psychological health. Documentary filmmaker Pierre Sauvage, interviews elderly people in the town of Le Chambon, France. During the Second World War this town sheltered 5000 Jewish children from concentration camps. This is the town in which Albert Camus wrote his famous book, The Plague. Sauvage, himself was “saved” and lived in this town as an infant, a fact which he did not discover until it was disclosed to him as an adult by his parents, who waited until his majority to disclose to him that they were holocaust survivors. The interviews relate why the townspeople decided to do something larger than themselves for the “greater good.” This film specifically relates to the importance of including rather than excluding, and the importance of overcoming prejudice

The CDCR sent State Restriction of Appointments (SROA) letters on Sept. 23 to employees affected by a $250 million budget reduction in adult offender rehabilitation and other programs for inmates and parolees that were announced last week.

This is the first step in the layoff process due to reductions in response to the department’s plan to achieve a $1.2 billion budget reduction.

The rehabilitation program reductions will impact education, vocational, substance abuse, and other programs for inmates and parolees. This reduction represents over a third of the adult programs budget, and leaves approximately $350 million in the adult programs budget.

Overall, program-related reductions are anticipated to eliminate more than 1,000 positions, but because of existing vacancies, the number of actual layoffs is expected to be somewhere between 600 and 900, depending upon final labor negotiations. More SROA letters must be sent than the actual number of anticipated layoffs due to the complexities of the civil service layoff process.

Last week, termination letters were sent to eight contractors who provide substance abuse services inside the state’s prisons. These terminations affect 24 individual contracts.

CDCR is developing a streamlined rehabilitation model that is designed to reach as many offenders as possible with less funding. The department is working on strategies to shorten the length of in-prison substance abuse treatment, utilize long-term offenders as counselors and literacy tutors, develop alternative methods of delivering education, and increase community volunteer activities. The department is committed to attempt to minimize layoffs to the extent possible by reducing vacancies first.

Over the next few months, CDCR will be working with affected labor organizations to implement these changes. Final decisions regarding new program models will be pending those negotiations.

To see last week’s announcement and for more information on program reductions, please visit: http://intranet/focus_on.asp . For more information on the Layoff and SROA process please click here http://intranet/main/Layoff09.asp