For more than a year, Do Something Inc. has been working to find the perfect spot for a “Launch House” where anyone could go to find help overcoming addiction, for themselves or a loved one.
Beginning in January, that place will open.
The Launch House, at 161 E. Gould St., is near the Brown County Public Library’s lower level parking lot, in the building where Brown County Head Start used to be.
But Do Something is going to need the community’s help to keep the doors open. The cost will be around $4,000 a month for rent, utilities, insurance, and to pay Melissa Tatman, who will have an office there and will be initially responsible for doing intakes.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]“When people walk in, the goal is to have volunteers trained to help with the intake process. Until then, Melissa will handle it,” said Michelle Joy.
“She is going to be assessing needs, which she is already doing (through the Do Something hotline), but this gives her a physical location to do it in now. She will see what they need help with, then will go from there.”
Michelle and Cory Joy lost their oldest son, Caleb, to a heroin overdose over Labor Day weekend 2017. They started organizing Do Something Inc. not long after his passing, and the Launch House idea grew out of that movement.
Doors will open in early January on a limited basis, with a grand opening planned for the spring. That event will be a fundraiser and the whole community will be welcome.
Tatman said she would like to be at the Launch House initially two days a week, from about 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., but those hours and days have not been finalized yet.
Launch House updates can be found on the not-for-profit’s Facebook page, “Do Something, BC.”
In April, Do Something was the recipient of the Brown County Community Foundation’s first Giving Dinner of the year, at Lisa Hall’s home. Hall will join the Do Something Board in January. During that dinner, $11,000 was raised for Do Something with around 30 community members attending, Michelle said. That money will be used to help pay the rent, utilities and getting Launch House ready to open.
The Monday after the Giving Dinner, Hall was on a mission to find a location for the Launch House when she discovered this building on East Gould.
“They came over the hill and she felt like the Lord said that was the place. She sent me a picture and said, ‘Hey, check this place out,’” Cory said.
After months of negotiations, Do Something entered into a purchase agreement. The building will remain for sale until the end of 2020, so if another buyer comes along and puts an offer in, Do Something would have the last right of refusal, Cory said.
“If someone made an offer we couldn’t match or couldn’t do, then the lease would go to the new owner, and they would not be able to kick us out until our lease is up if they want to end it,” he said.
The goal is for the group to purchase the home outright. Do Something has set up a building fund for donations. The building is currently listed for $157,600.
“We really would like to not have a mortgage on it so that moneys that come in don’t go towards mortgages and interest and all of that,” Cory said.
“If we can lower overhead, then we can actually have a bigger impact on our community. That’s the ultimate goal.”
What’s inside
Until they can purchase the building, Do Something will make minor repairs and upgrades to it, like adding safety lighting outside and doors and windows to Tatman’s office and the children’s room.
“We believe this is the place. We don’t have a need for a big, huge building. We want it to feel homey,” Cory said.
It will have a main meeting room with couches and a “home feel” to it, along with a magazine rack with addiction recovery resources.
The children’s room will be where kids can play as Tatman talks with their parents. Volunteers will be needed to watch over those children.
The house also has a bathroom and a fenced-in backyard where kids can play in when the weather is nice.
The Launch House will also have a computer room people can use to fill out job applications, get their driver’s license back and any other computer-related business. That room has computers and desks already donated.
The kitchen is still in need of a stove, but a refrigerator has been donated. Coffee and bottled water will be available.
Money given so far has been used to buy doors and windows and to pay a carpenter.
Do Something will work on securing business sponsors for each room in the building in return for annual donations. The money donated for each room will help supply anything that the room needs over the year, like replacing toys in the kids’ room. Businesses that decide to sponsor would have a plaque displayed in the room.
Launching off
Do Something also has created a registry of items needed for the Launch House, like toys for the kids’ room, cleaning supplies and kitchen essentials.
The registry can be found on the Wal-Mart website under the “Registry for Good” by searching for “Do Something.” Many items have been purchased already, which the organization is grateful for, Michelle said. The list will continue to be updated as needs are identified.
Getting monthly donation commitments from the community will be essential to ensuring the Launch House can exist, Michelle said.
“We have to have sustainability or we can’t keep the doors open. We have to be able to pay Melissa for her time. We have to be able to pay rent and utilities. We need to be able to purchase the space. We have to keep our insurance paid. We really need people,” she said.
“We need to stay on the radar. It can’t just be, ‘Buy something from the registry once.’ We have to stay on the radar if we’re going to stay open.”
The not-for-profit board also needs volunteers who want to write grants for them. “There is so much money out there, we don’t know how to access it at this time,” Michelle said.
New board member Kelli Snider will be trained in grant writing, but more help will be needed. Snider also wants to help with life coaching and teaching life skills at the Launch House.
Hall has a passion for fundraising and will help with that, Michelle added.
After the Launch House is funded, Do Something would use any extra money raised to help those in need.
“The abundance allows us to not just operate, but to actually function in the format we want to be, which is helping someone get into a treatment center, helping someone get somewhere,” Cory said.
“There are times when people need money and then people start going, ‘I’m not giving you cash because I’m enabling you.’ So let us help be that deciding factor who says, ‘This person needs financial help right now. We need to help them with whatever that it is, whatever that looks like.’”
Michelle and Cory both said it will feel great to have the Launch House doors finally open.
“It still feels like we’re not launched. It feels great to know that we have the building. Now it’s like, ‘Let’s get it so people can be coming in the door.’ But other than that, it’s been great. Each day is a forward step and it’s good,” Cory said.
“It’ll feel good to be open and launching.”
Local churches have been supportive, Michelle said. The Nashville United Methodist Church and the Nashville Christian Church have both donated to the cause. The Methodist church also sent a team to clean the Launch House, Michelle said.
Encounter Life Ministries has committed to donating monthly to Do Something.
Tatman said the Launch House is in the “right space” because it is not in the middle of Nashville, but it is still in town. Its location at the dead end of Gould Street allows for people to come seek help without having to worry about many people seeing them. A stigma around addiction still exists in our community, Tatman said.
“I think people feel safer coming in, not feeling everybody is on display,” Michelle said.
“We want the shame to be gone and we want the stigma to be gone. I’ve not struggled with addiction, but I know from watching Caleb struggle that you can say the shame has been lifted, but they’re still in that. They still feel shameful.”
Just that day, Tatman had spoken to a mother whose son is struggling with a heroin addiction.
“(She) said, ‘I don’t know whether to tell my family because I don’t want them to give him any money and stuff like that, but also I don’t want them judging my kid.’ That’s why we’re hidden, because there is still that fear, even for those that are not the addict or those that are the loved ones of the addict,” she said.
“They still need to protect their kids somewhat, or themselves, because there is still that judgment out there.”
Continuing the fight
Tatman answers the Do Something phone number 24/7.
The phone does not ring off the hook, but people are calling, she said. She estimates she has helped connect 13 people to treatment this year, which doesn’t count the number of people who call just looking for advice.
Tatman also attends various trainings and tours recovery facilities so she knows what programs are offered and which could be a good fit for someone who calls her.
She remembered a man whom she was going to get into the Indiana Center for Recovery, but that facility only accepted private insurance, which he did not have. “I called and I was like, ‘Do you have any scholarships?’ She’s like, ‘We’ve got a scholarship. We’re giving one away tomorrow evening at 6 o’clock downtown. Be here. I’ll make sure I hold it for him.’
“We showed up, and (now) he’s out (of treatment). He’s doing fantastic,” she said.
Along with answering the Do Something phone and helping those in need, Tatman finds herself in Bloomington and Columbus doing street ministry with those suffering from addiction. “After I get comfortable with them, I start asking them questions, because I tell them what I do,” she said.
She said she’s learned that heroin is not as popular anymore as fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. She said methamphetamine also is making a comeback.
Michelle said Tatman is able to notice red flags immediately when talking with parents seeking advice, like a child who never has money and has not paid any bills in months.
Michelle also speaks with parents seeking help. “I know what that feels like. You feel helpless and you feel desperate. You want to save them, but you don’t even know how to save them. You can see how desperate they are.”
“There is no hope, no job, no insurance, no money. They get into such a desperate thing. It’s just this awful cycle, because they keep using because they feel awful about themselves. They can’t get out. They’re on a hamster wheel. Then, the parent is just watching, because you can’t pull them off of that. Most won’t let you.”
Brown County has luckily not had a fatal overdose this year, but overdoses are still happening, Tatman said.
“They’re just not fatal because the difference is that we’ve got Naloxone (an opiate overdose reversal drug) in the hands of family members. There’s more awareness,” she said.
Michelle said the community needs to be involved in battling addiction even if no one has passed away from an overdose recently, which is why it’s important that Do Something stays on everyone’s minds.
“We’re grateful we haven’t lost anybody lately, but we don’t want to have to lose somebody else to get people to stay involved,” she said.
“We need to keep it on the forefront of people’s minds so that we don’t lose anybody.”
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The Do Something Inc. Launch House will open in January, and it will need the community’s help in the form of donations and volunteers to keep the doors open.
Checks can be sent to P.O. Box 2022, Nashville, IN 47448. All checks should be made out to “Do Something.”
Anyone interested in volunteering can call the Do Something number at 812-308-3188.
The Launch House will have a soft opening in January. That month will be spent organizing volunteers.
Volunteers are needed to clean the Launch House and to watch over children in the kids’ room while their parents or guardians speak with Melissa Tatman, who will be doing intakes and assessments there.
Other volunteers are needed this winter to clean snow off the sidewalks and clear the driveway at the building at the end of Gould Street in Nashville.
Flexible volunteers are also necessary, Cory Joy said. “I think there are people who are like, ‘I don’t know what to do, but if you give me something specific, I can do that.’ … It’s kind of on call. Even sitting with a kid, coming in and being with the kids, Melissa might be like, ‘Hey, I have someone coming in an hour. Could you come in and be available just to love on the kids while I’m meeting with their parents?’ A lot of this is very on call. That’s probably the toughest thing.”
Do Something is also looking for volunteers to drive those in need to important appointments or court dates. “If someone calls and says, ‘I have to be at a court date tomorrow; if I don’t, I break parole,’ then they’re facing going backwards when they really need to go forward,” Joy said.
Others in recovery may be on medication-assisted treatment and have appointments they have to make regularly to keep their prescriptions. Tatman said if someone loses their medication it means an “almost a positive relapse.”
Both Tatman and Joy said volunteers should not be worried about driving people who are suffering from addiction. “One of the highest compliments I’ve been paid this year is the guy who I went to pick up from the trap house and was taken to treatment. He said, ‘We know that you care and thank you.’ They know out there. That makes me feel safe, because I’m respected,” Tatman said.
“Even if they haven’t gotten to that place where they are reaching out, they know where to call when it’s time. That is huge.”
Joy encourages the community to not assume others have volunteering or donations covered. “Don’t let that thought process of ‘someone else probably did it’ (get in the way). Just go ahead and do it,” he said. “The more extra we have, the more impact we can do, the more we can put money towards the purchase (of the Launch House) and renovating.”
Do Something has an active Facebook page that is updated regularly. It can be found by searching for “Do Something, BC.” More information about the Launch House will be posted there.
Do Something also has a registry of items currently needed at the Launch House, like toys for the kids’ room and kitchen necessities. That registry can be found by going to Wal-Mart’s “Registry for Good” and searching for “Do Something.” A link to the registry is also on the not-for-profit’s Facebook page.
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