Sherry Pfeaster Quotations

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.

I'd 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.

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.

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 we're setting them up for failure.

When a mom goes away for 15 minutes, and she thinks her teenager doesn't know what she's doing, that's not working.

When one has an emotional high, so does the other one. When one has an emotional low, so does the other. You can't separate the two emotions.

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 everybody's working? Kids today are without structure, and without structure, you're going to do what you want to do.

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

It takes everybody getting involved and creating an atmosphere where parents, grandparents and children come together.

They've gotten this attitude from somewhere, whether it's in the home or elsewhere.

If you make it easy for the kid to continue their behavior, you're enabling--making excuses, calling in to school if they're hung over.