As many people know, Philadelphia has a large population of residents struggling with opioid addiction and the negatives that come with it. For the past year, I’ve been writing “Sunshine Stories” for Prevention Point Philadelphia, an organization that works to reduce harm to this endangered group of people until they decide on their own that they want to change their lives. It’s an organization that does incredible work in an area that’s often overlooked and underfunded.
I wanted to share two of those Sunshine stories here. The first is about Theo. In the photo above, you’ll see him with his mom, who has always believed that she’d get her son home and healthy again. Theo said something that others in his situation have said that reveals so much about our society: When you’re homeless and struggling with substance abuse disorder, “You surrender your humanity. Other people, society as a whole, doesn’t recognize you as a person.”
But the PPP team always treated him well, he says. “I know when I was homeless I was a difficult person to experience, a difficult person to know and work with. Prevention Point supported me despite of myself. Because of that attitude, I’m here today. My life had value then. My life has value now.”
The second Sunshine Story is about Cherry. She was 16 months sober when we spoke. She’d suffered with addiction for years and had gotten used to people treating her like she was “less than.” A friend of hers told her about PPP, but she didn’t understand the appeal.
Then she went to use PPP’s services, and she felt like someone cared. She said, “They called me by my name and said, ‘Hey. How’s it going?’ That’s a big deal. They were happy to see (me) and it was like, ‘OK, I’m a person.’ … I didn’t think that anybody would want to help us without some kind of string attached or some kind of conditions.”