Could This Christian Rehab’s Faith-Based Solution to Drug Crisis Change America?

New York Teen Challenge announced today that it has proposed to the federal government and President Trump a faith-based initiative asking the federal government to recognize faith-based programs and establish a faith-based administration to allocate funding for “Beds and Buildings” to help combat the Opioid Crisis. Jimmy Jack, president and founder of New York Teen Challenge, along with New York Yankee baseball  legend Mariano Rivera and New York Teen Challenge State Director Ramon Rosa Jr., presented the proposal to President Trump. They were invited on the platform to join President Trump at the White House on Thursday, October 26th to hear the president’s declaration announcing the state of emergency regarding the opioid epidemic.

Rev. Jimmy Jack, is a 1985 graduate of Brooklyn Teen Challenge. He and 50 of his family members have all battled with addiction and have gone through the Teen Challenge Program. He truly is a passionate and inspiring leader who has experienced both sides of the drug culture.

After the president’s announcement, Jimmy, Mariano and Ray met with some of the president’s senior counselors and sat with Kellyanne Conway to discuss the details of the proposal.

About the Faith-Based Proposal

The proposal demonstrates that faith-based programs will help expand capacity and add thousands of beds to the existing secular inventory of residential treatment. The cost to rehabilitate 24,000 patients at a secular program would be $8,640,000,0005. A faith-based program like Teen Challenge can rescue the same number of people at a cost of only $840 million, a savings of $7,800,000,000 or 928 percent.

With only 3,678 clinical residential treatment centers, there are not enough long-term facilities in the US to solve the drug and opioid epidemic problem. It has gotten to the point where traditional secular rehabilitation centers are now strained and overburdened with the influx of those seeking help. In 2015, only 2.5 million people received treatment, this represents only 11 percent of the 23 million addicted population. With over $34 billion spent on treatment averaging $162,000 per addict. With most insurance companies only covering 28 days of residential treatment and only use the clinical model, the average addict is excluded from receiving the necessary long-term residential care.

A faith-based program like Teen Challenge will successfully recover 16,800 patients (verses 720 patients in a secular program) at a proven 70 percent success rate. The faith-based model heals 2,233 percent more patients. The return on investment for the federal government funds is noticeably higher, while at the same time providing proven results.

About Teen Challenge

Teen Challenge is a worldwide organization, established by David and Don Wilkerson in 1958, that has a proven track record of success. Teen Challenge is a faith-based, long-term residential treatment center for young men and women caught in the vicious cycle of drug and alcohol dependency. There are 1,600 Teen Challenge programs in 125 countries, providing 35,000 beds of residential rehabilitation treatment, and 261 of those centers are located in the United States.