Quotes by Sherry Pfeaster

“Currently, there are only four recovery homes in the state of Illinois, with a waiting list of approximately 16 months.”

“Research shows that if you can provide people with a safe environment where they can learn new life skills, they have a 75 percent chance of staying clean. If we have no place to send our clients in recovery, then were setting them up for failure.”

“Id like to find an area with apartments, where residents could come together and learn skills, focus on vocational training, educational training, case management for medical needs, counseling, helping them deal with cognitive behaviors and offer transport to and from work. We need a place to jump-start them, where they could stay for a year.”

“We want them to get out, get a job and make progress. We want to help them make the change from being an addicted person to a recovering person.”

“Theyve gotten this attitude from somewhere, whether its in the home or elsewhere.”

“When a mom goes away for 15 minutes, and she thinks her teenager doesnt know what shes doing, thats not working.”

“At our community level, it is a very, very deep issue. The underlying issue is family values--parents have to work odd shifts, for example, but who becomes responsible for staying at home with a 13-year-old when everybodys working? Kids today are without structure, and without structure, youre going to do what you want to do.”

“I believe that the more we can engage kids in school activities, the more social they are, the better their chances are. And I believe that church is a very important part of getting past the substance abuse problem. Churches need to have more activities that are social for the kids. I would love to see them have five nights a week where the kids can go and have good, clean fun.”

“If you make it easy for the kid to continue their behavior, youre enabling--making excuses, calling in to school if theyre hung over.”

“When one has an emotional high, so does the other one. When one has an emotional low, so does the other. You cant separate the two emotions.”