مکاتبات حسین و بیل، پاسخ بیل به مهندس 98/3/25

1398/3/25

Your description of the Ramadan activities within Congress 60 warmed my heart. We have communicated about these activities over the years and I am touched by the way all the legions come together to support these activities. Your reference to their financial support of these gatherings prompts me to raise a question that was sparked this week by events here in the U.S. One of our oldest recovery advocacy organizations in the U.S. has experienced financial distress in recent years and declared bankruptcy this month.  It was a sad event for an organization that began in the 1940s and was instrumental in establishing addiction treatment in communities across the U.S. The causes of their demise are complex but the event raises the question of how organizations whose mission is support of addiction recovery can best financially sustain themselves over time. We have touched briefly on this question before as we have discussed various legions in Congress 60, but I would appreciate any further details on how this is done in Congress 60 and your overall approach to financial sustainability. We have a lot of new grassroots recovery community organizations starting up in the U.S. and I would like to share with them Congress 60’s approach to this challenge. My worry here is that these organizations will become too dependent upon short term grants from the federal or state governments and fail to achieve financial sustainability beyond those resources leading to organizational collapse at any point those grants cease.

This was a week for me focused on family. My daughter Alisha and her husband Stewart visited from Illinois and we had a delightful time catching up with all the family news and sharing time together. Alisha and Stewart both teach at universities in Illinois and seem to have found very fulfilling roles and a lifestyle in a community of friends that they enjoy. It is such a pleasure to see one’s children thrive and master the challenges that life presents them.

In the weeks to come, I will continue writing my regular recovery blogs and work on finishing the photo gallery on the history of addiction treatment and recovery in the United States for my website. The latter work is progressing pretty well but I still have a lot of editing of photo captions to complete before this new section of the website is finished and luanched. In spite of my retirement, I also try to offer guidance to some of the leaders of addiction treatment and recovery support. I continue to find these activities meaningful and will continue them as long as I am able.

Please continue to express my respect and affection for all the Congress 60 family and the citizens of your country.    

Friends and Brothers Forever,

Bill