DAYTON, Ohio — Within the walls of OneFifteen in Dayton, peer support specialists work to help those addicted to substances begin their road to recovery.
One of those peer support specialists is Brad Keck, who walked in those shoes himself for 25 years.
“I felt really helpless, as far as I didn’t know what to do,” Keck said. “I didn’t receive much guidance. I didn’t know where to look for help. I didn’t know where to look for guidance and it felt really helpless. I felt like I was alone. I couldn’t live with drugs anymore and I couldn’t live without them, and that was a very scary place to be.”
But Keck was able to overcome those struggles with substance abuse, which inspired him to help others.
“I help other people and that’s important to me and I have a passion about that. But helping other people helps me to stay clean another day and I’m just not willing to go back to that life today.”
To encourage more results like Keck’s, Ohio is rolling out a new program called ResultsOhio.
“ResultsOhio is a program that’s meant to harness Ohio’s brightest minds in the private, nonprofit world to solve Ohio’s biggest problems in the public sector,” Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague said. “So the idea, and frankly we should have thought of this 20 years ago, is to let private organizations try new ideas and then we’re going to pay for only the things that work. And work better than what we’re currently doing.”
Sprague said the program is a big win for Ohio’s taxpayers.
“It’s all data-driven, there’s no funny business,” he said. “And at the end of the day, we’re actually saving taxpayer dollars because we’re only funding the projects that work.
The five programs taking part in ResultOhio are OneFifteen, Cincinnati Works, Every Child Succeeds, Columbus Works and the OhioHigherEd.
Each has approved feasibility reports that project how they will make an impact.
OneFifteen CEO and President Marti Taylor said their goal is to help 1,500 people over the next three years in Dayton.
“Our program specifically is called Progress,” Taylor said. “Progress the acronym stands for providing rigorous outcomes, generating reliable effects, and strengthening systems. What our intention is, is to work with the substance use disorder population that is involved with the justice system, and really have some impacts there.
Specific detail on OneFifteen’s feasibility report can be found on Ohio.gov.
Ultimately, this new program will allow experts like Keck to continue to help those struggling with addiction to reach their goal of recovery.
“I think it’s important that these people aren’t throwaways. They are potentially productive members of society if we’re able to get them to find and maintain recovery.”