Tucked away in the old Keller schoolhouse building in Newark, the Licking County Alcoholism Prevention Program (LAPP) is a quiet lifeline, offering hope and recovery to those with substance use disorder.
In 2024, LAPP was awarded a grant of $173,000 through the OneOhio Recovery Foundation for the purpose of creating a 12-month long project: the Community Addiction Outreach and Response Team (CO-ART).
The goal of CO-ART is to expand access to care in underserved communities, removing barriers and educating people on the resources available to them. Traveling across Licking County, the team will focus on harm reduction to reduce overdose deaths through early intervention, linkage and referrals to appropriate services.
Historically, the stigmas associated with substance use meant that organizations like LAPP – which prioritize privacy – remained “off the beaten path,” as John Jordan, executive director of LAPP, puts it. But in Ohio, the lack of public transit to these services remains a barrier.
With CO-ART, Jordan intends to implement a strategy similar to his previous job as a co-responder in Franklin County: a mobile response team qualified for both mental health and substance use interventions. Rather than focusing on emergency response, however, CO-ART will meet community needs as they arise; step by step, person by person.
“We want to make the biggest impact in the community, regardless of what their barriers are,” Jordan said.
To do this, the CO-ART plans to address basic needs first. Addiction, like any disease, Jordan said, comes with a host of symptoms.
“When you’re sick with the disease, one or two symptoms are financial issues, homelessness, food insecurities, unemployment, poor support system, loss of family, loss of life,” Jordan said. “We have to address all these symptoms to address that disease.”
With the recent purchase of a vehicle, Jordan expects that the program will kick off in late February or early March. Stocked with essential supplies — hygiene kits, hats, gloves, Naloxone, fentanyl test strips and more — the vehicle will bring critical resources directly to those in need. As a secondary distributor for Project Dawn, LAPP not only provides Naloxone but also educates clients on its use, currently issuing around 100 kits per month, Jordan said.
“It’s kind of an extension of bringing the office out in the community,” Jordan said. “We need to be out there. If we’re not out there, who’s gonna do it?”
This two-person office will focus on reaching townships with limited access to resources. Jordan said their priority areas include Etna, Utica, Hebron, Buckeye Lake and Hanover.
“I wish I had 20 of these teams because we can do a lot of work, a lot of good trouble,” Jordan said.
The CO-ART’s resources aren’t endless, but due to their partnerships with other local organizations like The Woodlands and The Main Place, and their contract with the Mental Health and Recovery Board which allows them to provide financial assistance to people with barriers to treatment, LAPP will be able to specialize and refer clients based on their individual needs. The CO-ART will also work with first responders.
“We’re building relationships with all of the police departments and first responders, fire and EMS departments, to let them know that we’re out here and we can work together,” Jordan said.
Despite their work with the justice system, Jordan wants people to know that they are in a safe, non-institutionalized environment, and that treatment is not a punishment.
Recently, staff at LAPP have made an effort to brighten up the old school building. Colorful paint, collages and posters, quilted art and plants fill the space. When you walk into the building, snacks to the left are provided for clients through an agreement with the Food Pantry Network. Each counselor has an individual office, decorated with a unique flair.
Debby Esterline, women’s program manager at LAPP, works in “Stein Hall,” the women’s wing named after Marjorie Stein, the woman who began the gender-specific women’s outpatient program. As women’s program manager, Esterline is one of the bright faces clients regularly see for counseling.
“We’ve learned gender-specific is really important. Men have different treatment needs than women,” Esterline said.
In Esterline’s office, one can follow the twisting vines of a golden pothos plant to the ceiling, where a mural painted by her daughter adds a burst of color and a sense of hope to the space.
It’s a butterfly in metamorphosis. In one of its wings, a hand reaches from the darkness into a deeper darkness, towards a broken heart and closed eye. In the other, the hand reaches to the stars, a hopeful rainbow-colored eye watching over. Both hands are shackled – addiction is never final, Esterline said– but one side has a key: the start of the metamorphosis, the beginning of recovery.
With the goal of recovery in mind, the new CO-ART program aims to act as a stepping stone, treating substance use disorder one person at a time.
“It has to work because one person getting a service in a community who would never have gotten a service, that benefits,” Jordan said. “The need is so high and making one contact is a win.”
Mia Fischel writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.