I did not go through AARC but I did go through KIDS, yet from the things that I read and the people I have spoken to there are great similarities.
Let’s take the "zero club", in KIDS we were treated the same way, humiliated by the very people we were to trust. I ask "how does this help give anyone a "first step"? All it did for me was shut me down; I had no one to reach out to for help. It made me want to move on from 1st phase but never helped me see how drugs destroyed my life. It is a joke if anyone can think this is a healthy way to help people. and do not tell me "they have to be broken" or "they have to earn the right to be treated well" The concept that to help people you must treat them like the lowest form of humanity is so outrageous as they already feel that way or they would not be acting out. It is bad enough to be ripped out of your life and put in rehab, why kick someone when they are down? I could go on and on about the damage that the humiliation and abuse these programs instil. Only now, 10 years after being out am I able to face what honestly happened and how it affects me everyday. There is not one practice that helped me except awareness so that when I hit my own bottom I was able to see it and get help. KIDS just made me trust people so little that when I do need help I am too scared to ask for it. No one has been so bad that they deserve to be abused daily and treated like this.
Who is advocating for these kids in ARRC? Besides people who stand by the abusers. Do these kids have an outside source not affiliated with the program to ask for help without fear of consequence? They are human beings who cannot even see the extent of the abuse they are going through as when you are beaten down enough you think you deserve it. Yes I was an out of control teenager, I had issues, I will not deny that but I did not deserve what KIDS did. I have gone on from it, I have fought hard and built myself up into a life I am very proud of, I am now healing from what happened but I am sorry... to find out this is happening all over again in my own city I cannot just "go on" with my life, how can you knowing there has got to be a better way to help these kids besides treating them like garbage.
To any Parents who might be reading this:
You chose to have a child; you chose to bring them into this world. You have an obligation to give your child a life free from abuse. You owe them a fighting chance at life. It is your responsibility to protect your child even if they are out of control. If you do not investigate, look into, ask questions, go on days when it is not "open Meeting", Ask to see your child alone. Talk to them; let them know they are safe, they can tell you anything, then you are just as responsible. If you are not allowed, something is wrong, and if you think practices like this "zero club" is normal then you had better take a look at yourself. How can you just trust blindly without knowing the truth? There are many options out there and if you keep going one day you find the one that works. The problem is it is hard. What are you willing to do for your child?